I just listened to 'Micro', Michael Crichton's last book (completed by another author after his death)
<a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00687OAI2&qid=1338927290&sr=1-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00687OAI2&qid...</a><p>That book taught me a ton about the different physics that apply "in the micro world" that insects inhabit. The physics of falling and of water tension at that scale are so different than we are used to.
In this vein, there's a wonderful article by Edward Purcell called "Life at Low Reynolds Number":<p><a href="http://brodylab.eng.uci.edu/~jpbrody/reynolds/lowpurcell.html" rel="nofollow">http://brodylab.eng.uci.edu/~jpbrody/reynolds/lowpurcell.htm...</a><p>(Purcell won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. He also discovered the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen and authored an iconic textbook on electricity & magnetism.)
Not to derail too much, but insects are much misunderstood and wrongly vilified, which is why I wrote Take the Humane Stance with Ants: <a href="http://allsprawldown.com/animal-ethics/taking-an-ethical-stance-with-carpenter-ants/" rel="nofollow">http://allsprawldown.com/animal-ethics/taking-an-ethical-sta...</a><p>Please share this with someone who is quick with the can of Raid.