When aircrash investigators of the future retrieve a flight recorder from the wreckage of a plane they may have the golden-fronted woodpecker, Melanerpes aurifons, to thank for the survival of the flight data. The reason? A shock absorber inspired by the bird's ability to withstand severe deceleration.
A woodpecker's head experiences decelerations of 1200g as it drums on a tree at up to 22 times per second. Humans are often left concussed if they experience 80 to 100g, so how the woodpecker avoids brain damage was unclear.
So Sang-Hee Yoon and Sungmin Park of the University of California, Berkeley, studied video and CT scans of the bird's head and neck and found that it has four structures that absorb mechanical shock.
These are its hard-but-elastic beak; a sinewy, springy tongue-supporting structure that extends behind the skull called the hyoid; an area of spongy bone in its skull; and the way the skull and cerebrospinal fluid interact to suppress vibration.
"This study is a fascinating example of how nature develops highly advanced structures in combination to solve what at first seems to be an impossible challenge," says Kim Blackburn, an engineer at Cranfield University in the UK, which specialises in automotive impact studies.
"This study is a fascinating example of how nature develops highly advanced structures in combination to solve what at first seems to be an impossible challenge," says Kim Blackburn, an engineer at Cranfield University in the UK, which specialises in automotive impact studies.
-More Here (The whole thing is fascinating, a must read)
No comments:
Post a Comment