This is scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins. This will just take a minute.

How many times does this happen to you? You start to fall, but then catch yourself and continue on your way.

Well, new research shows that falling and catching yourself actually happens every time you take a step.

And that we precisely place our feet as we walk to avoid taking a tumble during this ambulatory balancing act.

The studies in the journal biology letters.

When humans walk, we put one foot in front of the other,

but the way each foot lands can vary from step to step.

This variation in foot placement can appear pretty random,

but researchers decided to take a closer look.

They fitted 10 volunteers with motion capture markers

and then watched as the subjects walked on a

treadmill. The investigators discovered that they could predict exactly where

each foot would fall based on the movement of the person's pelvis during the

previous step. The body falls forward and sideways as we walk, and the feet come down in a way that restores our balance.

The findings could be useful for developing ways to help people with movement disorders regain their stability.

The info could also make walking robots more sure-footed, so they don't, you know, fall down on the

job.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkins.