SCIENCE. LAB. SCHEME : BEVERAGE SERVICE

Have a drink while flying? Bats do it all the time. SOME humans think of themselves as good multitaskers, but bats may do it better. 

Many bat species can fly while simultaneously drinking water - but unlike people who try similar multitasking, such as driving while texting, the bats never crash. Now, new research reveals the physics behind this feat of coordination.

'' The technical details of how bats do this are very complex, but what we're ultimately trying to understand is how animals multitask,'' said Sunghwan Jung, a biophysicist at Cornell in Ithaca in N.Y. and an author of the study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Of the world's approximately 1,400 bat species, ''skim drinking on the wing '' is the most prevalent strategy for taking a sip of water, said Rolf Muller, a mechanical engineer at Virginia Tech and an author of the study.

This behavior likely evolved to keep bats off the ground away from predators. Although finding water is a necessity, sources of water can be dangerous places for animals, Dr. Jung said.

Some bats drink directly by lapping water with their tongues as they fly over a water source. Others, such as flying foxes, drink indirectly by wetting their fur and then licking it - a strategy known as '' belly-dipping.''

In a laboratory enclosure large enough for the bats to fly around in, the researchers deprived the animals of water for six hours and then introduced a drinking source.

They positioned cameras near the water and used stereoscopic imaging to track specific points on the bats' bodies as they swooped down to drink.

The World Students Society thanks Rachel Nuwer.