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BIOMIMICRY
14
Smart Inventions Inspired by Nature
Companies
seeking breakthrough products tend to ignore the greatest invention machine
in the universe: life’s more than three-billion-year history of evolution
by natural selection. By watching birds, dogs, sharks and other creatures
of the wild, researchers and engineers have invented several new products
that are inspired from these animals and their physical attributes.
SHINKANSEN BULLET
TRAIN
Eiji Nakatsu, an engineer at the
Japanese rail company JR-West, took inspiration from the kingfisher, that
creates barely a ripple when it darts into water in search of a meal. The
train’s redesigned nose — a 50-foot-long steel kingfisher beak — reduced
power use and enabled faster speeds.
EXPERIMENTAL FISH CAR
Mercedes-Benz instead found
inspiration for a car body (less its wheels) in the boxfish, a tropical
species shaped sort of like a two-door compact. The fish’s body turned out
to be aerodynamically superb, and the resulting concept car has one of the
most efficient shapes for a car of its size.
A VERY FISHY WIND FARM
Wind turbines take up a lot of
land, their blades sweeping circles more than a football field in diameter.
John Dabiri of Caltech built a wind farm where the location of turbines
relative to each other take advantage of the air flow among them. Their
placement was determined by studying the wake vortices produced by schools
of swimming fish.
FIN TO THE WIND
A Humpback whale has a row of
warty ridges, called tubercles, on the front edge of its fins. Frank Fish,
a biology professor in Pennsylvania, discovered that by adding rows of
similar bumps to turbine blades he could reduce drag and noise, increase
speed to changing wind direction and boost the power harnessed by 20%.
FIREFLY LIGHTBULBS
When insects of the genus
Photuris light fires in their bellies, the radiance is amplified by their
anatomy — sharp, jagged scales, according to research by scientists from
Belgium, France and Canada. The scientists then built and laid a similar
structure on a light-emitting diode (LED), which increased its brightness
by 55%.
‘CANDY-COATED
VACCINES’
A process called anhydrobiosis
protects a tardigrade’s DNA, RNA and proteins. Laboratories have developed
“a glassy film made of sugars,” or “candy-coated vaccines.” It keeps the
virus effective for six months at temperatures up to 45 degrees celsius —
helpful for vaccinating vulnerable populations in tropical countries.
GECKO FEET ADHESIVES
The source of the gecko’s grip
is the microscopic hairs on the bottom of their toes. Scientists estimate
that the bristled hair from a single gecko could carry about 113 kg.
Researchers have developed Geckskin, an adhesive so strong that an
index-card-size strip can hold up to 700 pounds. A form of gecko tape could
replace sutures and staples in hospitals.
HIVE MIND MANAGES GRID
Individual bees can sense what
job the colony needs done and sets at it instinctively. A problem with
complex human infrastructure, such as the electrical grid, is that its
components don’t monitor the whole grid. Regen Energy creates a network and
provides controllers for grids that communicate wirelessly with each other
to maximise efficiency.
WATERCUBE
The swimming centre at the
Beijing Olympics in 2008 was dubbed the Watercube. Its design is based on
the structure of soap bubbles — both in form and function. Each bubble in
the walls is made of rugged plastic. It traps hot air from the sun that is
circulated to heat the pools. The plastic is resistant to damage from
sunlight, weather and even dust.
SPIDER WEB GLASS
Certain spiders protect their
delicately crafted insect nets with a special silk rope that reflects
ultraviolet rays. Birds can see the ultraviolet rays and recognise the webs
as obstacles they should avoid. German engineers at Arnold Glas glazed
their Ornilux-brand glass with a web-like pattern of ultraviolet-reflecting
coating to save birds from high-speed accidents.
VELCRO
After a hunting trip in the Alps
in 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral’s dog was covered in burdock
burrs. Mestral put one under his microscope and discovered a simple design
of hooks that nimbly attached to fur and socks. After years of
experimentation, he invented Velcro — and earned US Patent 2,717,437 in
October 1952.
NATURE’S WATER FILTER
The 2003 Nobel Prize was awarded
in part to Peter Agre for his discovery of a membrane protein that allows
water to pass through cell walls. Danish company Aquaporin has developed a
new approach to seawater desalination that eschews the polymerlayering of
traditional industrial films for the energy efficiency of biological
membranes.
VEHICLES DON SHARKSKIN
Sharks stay clear of algae
thanks to their skin, which is covered with microscopic patterns called
dentricles. These patterns help reduce drag and keep micro-organisms from
hitching free rides. NASA scientists copied the patterns to create
drag-reducing patterns they call riblets. It helps planes, boats and
windmills reduce drag and conserve energy.
HARVESTING DESERT FOG
The Namibian Beetle raises its
back into the air as fog rolls into its desert habitat. Bumps on its shell
catch water droplets, which then run down chutes toward its mouth. A “Dew
Bank Bottle,” designed by Pak Kitae in Seoul, imitates the beetle’s
watercollection system. Morning dew condenses on it and conveys it to a
bottle, which has a drinking spout.
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