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Published online 24 January 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news030120-9
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Bug breathing exposed
Powerful X-rays reveal the ins and outs of insect breath.
Researchers have spotted a new breathing mechanism in crickets, beetles and ants, using X-rays a million times more powerful than the average hospital variety1.
Insect respiration, the study confirms, is less the passive diffusion of air, as had long been assumed, and more an active movement, like human breathing.
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