Scientists have figured out how a Venus flytrap (a plant) can shut quickly enough to trap insects.

I could've sworn I saw this explanation on TV a couple of years ago.

It's interesting that there are still simple explanations of long-standing puzzles waiting to be discovered.

I guess it was about 30 years ago that they finally discovered how bats were so good at catching flying insects. Not that their sonar let them aim directly at them and catch them in their mouths - high-speed films in a lab showed they sweep them up in their wings or the lower part of their body and deliver them to their mouths. (And this was because a researcher came up with a simple and reliable way to repeatedly launch insect larvae to the same location in the air.)

About 15 years ago the explanation of why larger particles migrate to the top of mixtures with different-sized particles was realized - it's just more likely that 2 large particles will make space for a smaller particle between them, as opposed to multiple small particles making space for a larger particle.

Then there's the relatively recent discovery that elephants can communicate over long distances using very low frequency sound.

How many other simple explanations are out there waiting to be discovered without needing million-dollar equipment?

I don't really agree with their idea of "snapping" shut. I have had several of these fascinating plants over the years. They close about 40 to 50 percent when a fly, or small piece of hamburger is dropped in. The "fingers" on the outside edge of the trap overlap then and form a cage that some flies do get out of. They then slowly close and disolve the food. I do have to add that I've never seen the hamburger even attempt to escape.

For anyone who has never seen one of these plants close up, the article gives the impression it shuts like a mouse trap. T'ain't so Mcgee!!

Steve-

True, but thre is that transition from "open" to "mostly shut" that happens in a very short amount of time...

The article mentioned that scientists are still trying to figure out how the triggers work, but in all of their explanation, I didn't see anything that talked about how the plant builds up the tensile strength and opens up in the first place...

Jim-

Yes, quite amazing. Though, honestly, a 400 FPS camera isn't exactly cheap. I think that high-speed photography has had as big of a role in helping us understand the world (see your bat explanation as well) as any other sort of sensing equipment.

In fact, the Discovery channel (or one of it's child channels like TLC or History) thought it was such a big aid that they devoted an entire 1 hour program to time. There was a lot of focus on advances and discoveries made through both high-speed photography as well as time-lapse photography.