One of my favorite parts of biology
is observing how good organisms are at existing.
Our planet has a huge range of environments,
and organisms have evolved to not just live, but thrive
in almost all of them.
From thermophilic bacteria that live in hot springs,
to insects that camouflage into their environments,
to leaves that tilt and move with the sun
throughout the day to observe the most sunlight,
evolution has led to some amazing things.
Every blade of grass, every ant, every fish in the sea,
is the product of selection and adaptation and change.
And then you look at a platypus, and you're like,
go home evolution.
You're drunk.
But, for the most part, nature is awe-inspiring and often very
smart.
And we humans look to it to solve some of our own problems.
This is called biomimicry-- when we
begin to model our own creations after nature.
A great example of biomimicry is solar panels
shaped after leaves.
When we first designed solar panels,
we designed giant bulky squares.
But that might not be the most efficient answer.
Researchers at Princeton last year,
in trying to make solar panels more efficient,
looked at how nature collects light with leaves.
They designed solar panels that mimic
the folds and wrinkles found in leaves
and found them to be 47% more efficient.
But we don't always get it quite right.
And a great example of this are swimsuits
that were designed to mimic shark skin.
Now, shark skin is covered in what
are called dermal denticles.
They're actually modified teeth that act like scales
and cover the shark's skin, making them more hydrodynamic.
Companies design swim suits mimicking
these dermal denticles, and they actually
cause so much of a fuss that they
were banned from the Olympics.
But further studies showed that the swimsuits actually didn't
reduce the swimmers' drag.
We'd done a good job copying the texture of the shark,
but we had left out the shark's flexibility.
And it turns out that this flexibility
is key to harnessing the hydrodynamic power
of the dermal denticles.
Because the humans couldn't move quite like the sharks,
they couldn't reduce the drag in the same way.
So there, we didn't get shark skin quite right.
But another company has found that shark skin's pattern
actually deters bacteria from holding on.
And they have begun to model this pattern into surfaces
in the hopes of making bacteria-free surfaces that
could be used in hospitals.
And a super common example of biomimicry--
Velcro.
In 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral went for a walk
in the woods.
And the story is a little different
depending on which bit of science lore you listen to.
But he came back from his walk, either with or without his dog,
and they were covered in these sticky little burs.
And as he was pulling them out of his clothing and his dog's
fur, he decided to take a slightly closer look at them.
And he noticed that on the ends of all
the needles of these little burs, there were little hooks.
And this idea of these hooks on the needles
led him to invent Velcro.
Biomimicry has been used everywhere.
From city planning to architecture
to medical devices.
We've looked at woodpecker heads to find better
shock-absorption systems.
We've looked at butterfly wings to find better chemical
sensors.
And we've even looked at shellfish fibers
to find better underwater adhesives.
And now, I turn it over to you.
I'm giving you guys homework this week,
and it comes in two parts.
Step one is to come up with a problem, or a question.
And this can be anything.
Maybe you want to design a better shoe.
Or maybe you want to design a better circuit board.
Or maybe you want to design a better spoon.
And part two is to look to nature
to find a way to solve this problem,
or to answer the question.
So, if you're trying to design a better shoe,
maybe you want to start by looking at animal paws.
Or, if you're looking into circuit boards,
maybe you want to start looking towards veins, either in leaves
or in people.
Or, if you're trying to design a better spoon,
maybe you could look towards animal tongues.
If you've ever watched a dog drank water,
they have to get the water in there,
and they do it with an interesting lapping motion.
And so that could be an interesting way
to move water places.
So, come up with a problem, come up with the solution,
and leave it in the comments below.
You guys have been having some really interesting science
discussions down there in the past couple of videos,
and, so, I want that to happen more.
And maybe if you guys come up with some cool stuff,
maybe it'll show up in a future video.
So, I want to know you guys come up with.
So leave it below.
And, as always, go forth and do science.
Now, you didn't really think I was
going to give you homework without doing it myself,
did you?
No.
So, my question is how can we create light sources in areas
that don't have electricity?
And, so, one interesting creative way
that I thought you might be able to do it
is using bioluminescence.
And, so, a lot of animals are bioluminescent because they
use luciferin and luciferase compounds
in it's a chemical reaction, and I don't
know a ton about that stuff.
But I think it would be really cool to investigate
how one might be able to make a light source out
of bioluminescent compounds that you could take camping,
or that you could use in an area that doesn't have electricity.
Just a thought.