Wheels have served humankind for thousands of years. But they’re overrated, says Robert Full. How many creatures in nature get around by rolling like a wheel? Full counts one, if that: a shrimplike creature called a stomatopod that occasionally curls itself into a hoop and rolls around the beaches of Panama. For the rest of us landlocked animals—except, it seems, for the NASA eggheads who persist in sending wheeled rovers to Mars—it’s legs or bust.
“Everyone thinks the wheel is the most efficient form of locomotion,” Full exclaims. “Wrong!”
