4. Biomimicry: Turning to nature for technological solutions
Nature is full of technologies, if you think of technologies as just tools for living. Take the frog tongue: to catch a glimpse of a frog’s tongue in action, you have to be pretty sharp, or determined – both of which might describe Alexis Noel, a doctoral student at Georgia Tech University.
“The frog tongue is incredibly fast. It can reach accelerations up to 12 times the acceleration of gravity,” said Noel. “To put that into perspective, astronauts going up into space experience two to three times the acceleration of gravity.
“So, you can imagine these extreme accelerations that are happening to the insect as it’s being yanked back into the mouth. And yet, this adhesive on the tongue is still able to maintain the grip.”
“So, we started asking these questions, like, how is this frog tongue so fast and so sticky, and how does it catch these insects in the blink of an eye? Being a mechanical engineer and dabbling in fluid mechanics, I thought, ‘Oh, this is a really interesting adhesive question.'”
Noel hopes that understanding the mechanics of frog saliva could lead to the development of futuristic adhesives. And if that seems far-fetched, then welcome to the world of biomimicry, where scientists look to nature for innovations.
But the most ubiquitous biologically-inspired innovation of all might be in your closet. In 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral went for a hike in the Alps and noticed the way burrs adhered to his clothing. Today, the hook-and-loop fastening system most of us call velcro is used in thousands of products.
Source: www.cbsnews.com