Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaindra
I think this is another one of those "according to science, the bumblebee is not supposed to be able to fly...and yet it does."
|
Except that 'science'
has never said anything of the sort:
Quote:
|
According to 20th century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee should be incapable of flight, as it does not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beats per second) to achieve flight with the degree of wing loading necessary. Not being aware of scientists "proving" it cannot fly, the bumblebee succeeds under "the power of its own ignorance". The origin of this myth has been difficult to pin down with any certainty. John McMasters recounted an anecdote about an unnamed Swiss aerodynamicist at a dinner party who performed some rough calculations and concluded, presumably in jest, that according to the equations, bumblebees cannot fly. In later years McMasters has backed away from this origin, suggesting that there could be multiple sources, and that the earliest he has found was a reference in the 1934 French book Le vol des insectes; they had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight was impossible, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality".
|
Further to that, science would never actually say anything of that nature -- that's not how scientists do their job. The most that one might say in that regard is that 'we don't yet understand the mechanism used by bumblebees to achieve flight.'
This is actually quite relevant to the discussion at hand. It's important to keep in mind that the researchers did not claim that women aren't able to orgasm from stimulation of the anterior vaginal wall. All this study is doing is trying to determine the basis of a demonstrated effect.
I don't understand why everyone is so up in arms about this.