(PhysOrg.com) -- New video analysis and mathematical modeling by
engineers at Virginia Tech reveals how certain types of snakes
can "fly" by flinging themselves off their perches, flattening
their bodies, and sailing from tree to tree -- work presented
today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid
Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, Calif. Five related species of
tree-dwelling snakes found in Southeast and South Asia may just
be the worst nightmares of ophidiophobes (people who have
abnormal fears of snakes). Not only are they snakes, but they
can "fly" -- flinging themselves off their perches, flattening
their bodies, and gliding from tree to tree or to the ground. To
Virginia Tech biologist Jake Socha, these curious reptiles are
something of a biomechanical wonder. In order to understand how
they do what they do, Socha and his colleagues recently studied
Chrysopelea paradisi snakes as they launched themselves off a
branch at the top of a 15-meter-tall tower. Four cameras
recorded the curious snakes a