Helen FieldsScience Writer

Apparently now I’m not just any old science writer, I’m a biomechanics writer. First it was how snakes move, then why birds have trouble when they get big, and today, the third story that cements the trend: how dogs avoid popping wheelies.

I think the lab that did the dog work has the coolest lab excursions – they go to the greyhound track. Usually they’re there during the day, when you can get video of one dog at a time in good light, and without having to worry about the stands being full of excitable gamblers. They set up the cameras pretty far away so they can get the dogs doing the whole straightaway in one shot.

“It is quite a different experience when it’s dark and you stand right up by the track,” says zoologist Jim Usherwood, one of the authors.  “On race night with a beer in your hand, you can get 10 feet away from a greyhound going full pelt and say, ‘That animal really is flying.’”

I asked him what their top speed was, and he said about 19 meters per second (ah, physicists). Google tells me that is over 42 miles an hour. Yeah, that’s fast.