Flies-odor detectors

Dragonflies-airplanes

Frogs-rapid scanning systems

Mantis-sickle

Eggs-buildings

Insects-hydraulic devices

Snakes-infrared rays

Fish-submarines

Spiders-artificial fibers.

butterfly-temperature control system

turtle on chinemys reevesii's back-tank with rotating turret

The capsule in squid and torpedo decoy can secrete black liquid, and when it is in danger, it will release this black liquid to trick attackers into falling for it. Submarine designers imitated this function of squid and readers designed torpedo bait. Torpedo lure vinegar is like a pocket submarine, which can sail according to the original course of the submarine with the same speed, and can also simulate noise, spiral beat, sound signal and Doppler tone change. It is this vivid performance that makes it difficult to tell whether the enemy submarine or the torpedo under attack is true or false, and finally makes the submarine escape.

Spider and armored biologists have found that the strength of spider silk is five times that of steel wire with the same volume. Inspired by this, a technology company in Cambridge, England tried to make high-strength fibers like spider silk. Composite materials made of this fiber can be used as structural materials such as bulletproof vests, bulletproof vehicles, tanks and armored vehicles.

giraffes and giraffes with "anti-load suit" are the tallest animals in the world at present. The distance between their brains and hearts is about 3 meters, and blood is sent to their brains by blood pressure as high as 16~26 mm Hg. According to the general analysis, when giraffes bow their heads to drink water, the position of the brain is lower than that of the heart, and a large amount of blood will flood into the brain, which will increase the blood pressure even more, so giraffes will die of diseases such as cerebral congestion or blood vessel rupture when drinking water. However, the thick skin wrapped around the giraffe tightly binds the blood vessels, which limits the blood pressure. Aircraft designers and aviation biologists have designed a novel "anti-load suit" according to the principle of giraffe skin, thus solving the pain caused by brain ischemia when the pilot of the ultra-high-speed fighter suddenly accelerates to climb. There is a device in this "anti-load suit", which can compress air when the plane accelerates, and it can also produce corresponding pressure on blood vessels, which is better than the thick skin of giraffe.

"Whale Back Effect" of whales and submarines Contemporary nuclear submarines can dive under the ice sea for a long time, but if they launch missiles under the ice, they must break the ice and float, which is a mechanical problem. Diving experts are inspired by the fact that whales have to break the ice and breathe every 1 minutes. In terms of the podium enclosure and superstructure protruding from the top of the submarine, they have strengthened the material strength and the shape to imitate the whale's back, which really achieved the "whale's back effect" when breaking the ice.

Butterflies and satellites with temperature control system travel in space. When they are strongly radiated by sunlight, the satellite temperature will reach 2 degrees Celsius. In the shadow area, the temperature of the satellite will drop to about MINUS 2 degrees Celsius, which is easy to bake or freeze the precision instruments on the satellite, which once made the space scientists break their brains. Later, people were inspired by butterflies. It turns out that a layer of tiny scales grows on the surface of the butterfly's body, and these scales have the function of regulating body temperature. Whenever the temperature rises and the sun shines directly, the scales automatically open to reduce the radiation angle of the sun, thus reducing the absorption of solar heat energy; When the outside temperature drops, the scales automatically close and cling to the body surface, allowing the sun to shine directly on the scales, thus controlling the body temperature within the normal range. After research, scientists have designed a temperature control system like butterfly scales for artificial earth satellites.

flies and spaceships

annoying flies seem to have nothing to do with the grand space cause, but bionics has closely linked them.

flies are notorious "stinkers", and they can be found everywhere that smells foul. Flies have a particularly sensitive sense of smell, and they can smell smells thousands of meters away. But the fly does not have a "nose". What does it rely on to act as a sense of smell? It turns out that the "nose" of flies-olfactory receptors are distributed on a pair of antennae on the head.

Each nose has only one nostril communicating with the outside world, which contains hundreds of olfactory nerve cells. If odor enters the nostrils, these nerves immediately convert the odor stimulus into nerve electrical impulses and send them to the brain. The brain can distinguish substances with different smells according to the different nerve electrical impulses generated by substances with different smells. Therefore, the fly's antenna is like a sensitive gas analyzer.

inspired by this, bionics successfully imitated a very strange small gas analyzer according to the structure and function of the fly olfactory organ. The probe of this instrument is not a metal, but a live fly. A very fine microelectrode is inserted into the olfactory nerve of a fly, and the guided neuroelectric signal is amplified by an electronic circuit and sent to an analyzer; The analyzer can give an alarm as soon as it finds the signal of the odorous substance. This instrument has been installed in the cockpit of the spacecraft to detect the composition of the gas in the cabin.

This small gas analyzer can also measure harmful gases in submarines and mines. This principle can also be used to improve the input device of computer and the structural principle of gas chromatography analyzer.

From fireflies to artificial cold light

Since the invention of electric light, life has become much more convenient and rich. But electric lamps can only convert a small part of electric energy into visible light, and most of the rest are wasted in the form of heat energy, and the heat rays of electric lamps are harmful to people's eyes. So, is there a light source that only emits light without heating? Humans have turned their attention to nature again.

In nature, many organisms can emit light, such as bacteria, fungi, worms, mollusks, crustaceans, insects and fish, and the light emitted by these animals does not generate heat, so it is also called "cold light".

among many luminous animals, fireflies are one of them. There are about 1 5 species of fireflies, and the colors of their cold light are yellow-green, orange, and the brightness of their light is also different. Fireflies emit cold light, which not only has high luminous efficiency, but also is generally soft and suitable for human eyes, and the intensity of light is relatively high. Therefore, bioluminescence is an ideal light for human beings.

Scientists have found that the luminous device of fireflies is located in the abdomen. This light emitter consists of three parts: a light emitting layer, a transparent layer and a reflecting layer. The luminescent layer has thousands of luminescent cells, all of which contain fluorescein and luciferase. Under the action of luciferase, fluorescein, with the participation of intracellular water, combines with oxidation to emit fluorescence. The luminescence of fireflies is essentially a process of converting chemical energy into light energy.

as early as 194s, people created fluorescent lamps based on the research of fireflies, which greatly changed the lighting sources of human beings. In recent years, scientists first isolated pure fluorescein from fireflies, then isolated luciferase, and then synthesized fluorescein artificially by chemical methods. A biological light source composed of fluorescein, luciferase, ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and water can be used as a flash lamp in a mine full of explosive gas. Because this kind of light has no power supply and will not produce magnetic field, it can be used to clear magnetic mines under the illumination of biological light source.

Now, people can get cold light similar to biological light by mixing some chemicals, which can be used as safe lighting.

Electric Fish and Volt Battery

Many creatures in nature can generate electricity, and there are more than 5 species of fish alone. People refer to these fish that can discharge electricity as "electric fish".

all kinds of electric fish have different discharging abilities. The electric ray, electric catfish and electric eel have the strongest discharge ability. Medium-sized torpedoes can generate about 7 volts, while African torpedoes can generate as much as 22 volts; African electric catfish can generate 35 volts; Electric eels can generate 5 volts. There is a South American electric eel that can generate as high as 88 volts, which is called the champion of electric shock. It is said that it can kill big animals like horses.

what is the mystery of electric fish discharge? Through the anatomical study of electric fish, it is finally found that there is a strange power generation organ in the electric fish. These generators are made up of many translucent disk-shaped cells called electric plates or disks. Because of the different types of electric fish, the shape, position and number of electric plates of the generator are different. The generator of electric eel is prismatic and located in the muscles on both sides of the tail spine; The generator of torpedo is shaped like a flat kidney, which is arranged on both sides of the midline of the body, and there are 2 million electric plates. The generator of electric catfish originated from some kind of gland, located between skin and muscle, with about 5 million electric plates. The voltage generated by a single plate is very weak, but because there are many plates, the voltage generated is very large.

The extraordinary skill of electric fish has aroused great interest. At the beginning of 19th century, Italian physicist Volt designed the world's earliest voltaic cell based on the electric fish power generation organ. Because this kind of battery is designed according to the natural generator of electric fish, it is called "artificial electrical officer" The study of electric fish also gives people such enlightenment: if the power generation organ of electric fish can be successfully imitated, then the power problems of ships and submarines can be well solved.

jellyfish's ears

"Swallows fly low to rain, cicadas sing and it clears up in the rain." The behavior of living things has something to do with the change of weather. Fishermen along the coast know that the fish and jellyfish living along the coast swim to the sea in batches, which indicates that the storm is coming.

Jellyfish, also called jellyfish, is an ancient coelenterate, which floated in the ocean as early as 5 million years ago. This kind of inferior animal has the instinct to predict storms, and every time before storm warning, it swims to the sea to take refuge.

It turns out that infrasound (frequency is 8-13 times per second) generated by the friction between air and waves in the blue ocean is always the prelude of storm warning. This infrasound can't be heard by human ears, but the little jellyfish is very sensitive. Biomimetics found that there is a thin handle in the cavity of the jellyfish's ear, and there is a small ball on the handle, and there is a small auditory stone in the ball. When the infrasound before the storm hits the auditory stone in the jellyfish's ear, the auditory stone stimulates the nerve receptors on the ball wall, so the jellyfish hears the rumble of the coming storm.

The bionic scientist designed the jellyfish ear storm predictor according to the structure and function of the jellyfish ear, which accurately simulated the organ of the jellyfish that felt infrasound. When this instrument is installed on the front deck of a ship, when it receives the infrasound wave of the storm, it can make the horn rotating 36 stop rotating automatically, and the direction it refers to is the direction of the storm; The reading on the indicator can tell the strength of the storm. This forecaster can forecast storms 15 hours in advance, which is important for the safety of navigation and fishery.