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They may not be able to turn water into wine, but these water striders sure can walk on water. The secret to their supernatural ability is two-fold: Water molecules are highly attracted to one another, but not so much to other things: Think of the way water beads off a waxed car for example.


When the water molecules bind together, something called surface tension causes an elastic film to form on the surface of the water. This would be useless to your average insect, unless of course it had ultra-light water-repellent legs. Or legs covered in water repellent, air-trapping hairs to be more precise. That's exactly what water striders have, and now you don't even need your very own backyard pond to see these amazing and mysterious critters in action.

Water Striders from Byron on Vimeo.