ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2011) New research from the University of Cambridge sheds light on how fleas jump, reaching speeds as fast as 1.9 meters per second.
In 1967, a scientist by the name of Henry Bennet-Clark discovered that fleas store the energy needed to catapult themselves into the air in a pad made of the unique 'elastic' protein resilin.
However, in the intervening years, debate raged about exactly how fleas harness this explosive energy. Scientists came up with competing hypotheses, but it wasn't until recently that the technology necessary to record and analyse the data became available.