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  • Hey, Vsauce, Michael here, and today we are going to ask a question

  • why don't any animals have wheels?

  • I mean, animals use a plethora of complicated locomotive techniques

  • slithering, fins, legs, wings

  • but yet, no animal has wheels.

  • What's really paradoxical about this question

  • is that us humans seem pretty technologically advanced.

  • We've mastered the wheel, but we have yet to design something

  • that fully takes advantage of the limb,

  • which is why this contraption seems so eerie.

  • It may be the closest we have come to mimicking

  • what nature is already quite natural with.

  • Of course, nature, the source of these miraculous limbs

  • that we have yet to adequately reproduce,

  • doesn't use wheels.

  • The wheel gives a mechanical advantage to the user,

  • allowing them to move heavy things more easily,

  • but if the wheel is so simple and seems like such a no-brainer,

  • why don't any animals have them?

  • Well, to be sure, let's take a look at the wheel spider.

  • When escaping from a predator, this spider will turn its body

  • into what is essentially a tire rolling downhill.

  • And who can forget tumbleweeds?

  • These things roll around in the wind, spreading seeds everywhere.

  • An even crappier example is the dung beetle,

  • who takes pieces of poop and turns them into rollable balls

  • that can be easily moved.

  • But those are examples of rolling, not wheels

  • as we are looking for them today.

  • Wheels on axlessomething that's a part of a whole,

  • but yet exists independently of it

  • and can spin indefinitely in one direction

  • without having to wind itself back again.

  • Bacterial flagella actually operate in this manner,

  • but we don't see it in any larger life form,

  • which brings us to the first problem of finding wheels on animals.

  • How can a living wheel be completely separate from the animal

  • and still receive nutrients and expel waste?

  • Or, if that wheel was made out of a dead material

  • the animal produced, like fingernails or hair,

  • how would it build into the shape of a wheel

  • while maintaining separation from the host?

  • For that matter, how does developing a wheel

  • on your body help you along the way?

  • I mean, look at a giraffehaving a neck

  • that's just a little bit longer still means

  • that you'll be able to reach food that's a bit higher,

  • you'll have more food, will live longer,

  • and will have more babies, making longer necks more common.

  • But if your mutation is a wheel that's only a little bit round,

  • it doesn't provide the same benefit.

  • It doesn't equal you making more babies.

  • And as much as I hate to admit it,

  • the wheel may be a bit overrated.

  • Think of it this wayin order for a wheel

  • to be useful for movement, it sort of requires

  • a prior inventionroads.

  • Without a smooth surface to roll on,

  • like a road or rails, the wheel falls short,

  • and wings and fins and limbs do a better job

  • for the terrain found on Earth.

  • Even when humans knew about the wheel,

  • they had little use for it across rough terrain

  • or muddy, debris-ridden streets,

  • which is why wealthy people in the past

  • simply got carried around in litter

  • no, not rubbish— a litter,

  • a vehicle that uses no wheels and is carried by people or animals.

  • Fancy, rich people would get carried around

  • in chair sedans, but another type of litter

  • was simply a sling made out of fabric

  • that would help you carry, say, wounded soldiers

  • across the terrain of a battlefield.

  • The modern-day stretcher is an example of a litter.

  • Okay, so in order for the wheels on your body to be useful,

  • you have to build roads.

  • So what gives, animals? Why didn't you ever build roads?

  • I mean, you guys are capable of some pretty awesome things

  • complicated burrows, nests, dams

  • why didn't you ever build roads?

  • Well, this question is fundamental to Richard Dawkins' analysis

  • of the wheeled animal problem.

  • He says that the problem with roads

  • is that they're not selfish enough.

  • A nest, a burrow, a damthese are things that you can defend;

  • that you can build and then only use for your own benefit.

  • Because hey, you were smart enough and industrious enough to build it,

  • but roads can be used by anything that stumbles upon it.

  • I mean, you lost energy and resources to build that road,

  • while a moocher can just come up and use it anyway

  • and have time left to make a bunch of babies and prosper.

  • So the road is a really cool example of how humans got benefits

  • from breaking the mold and doing things

  • not just for themselves, but for everyone.

  • In fact, of all the animals, only humans

  • have ever invented taxesmoney that we force others to pay

  • to build services that they might not even use.

  • So the next time you see a wheel, say, "Thanks, wheel.

  • "You're a great symbol of the fact that humans can cooperate

  • and be unselfish."

  • And as always, thanks for watching.

  • I wheel-y mean that.

  • [♪ music ♪]

  • [Vsauce]

  • [@Tweetsauce] [Facebook.com/VsauceGaming]

  • [♪ music ♪]

Hey, Vsauce, Michael here, and today we are going to ask a question

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