The Science That Imitates Nature's Mechanisms (1)

By Author: FIRELEAVES
Total Articles: 49
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A European industrialist not long ago became very suspicious about American purposes
and intentions in certain areas of scientific research. He learned by chance that the United States was signing contracts with scientists in England, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and other Breitling Replica countries, calling for research into such matters as the function of the fog's eye and the learning ability of the octopus.

It seemed to the industrialist that such studies could not possibly have any practical value. He seriously believed that the United States was employing the foreign scientists to do meaning-less work and occupy their time, while American scientists were busy in the really important areas of science. He was unaware of the fact that the United States was spending much more money at home than abroad for similar studies.

Nature does things better than people

Actually, the research he questioned involves a field of science so new that most people have never heard of it. Named bionics in ...
... 1960, this science Is the study of living creatures, a study in search of principle applicable to engineering. Nature has operated a vast laboratory for two billion years, and bionics probes the secrets of the marvelous "special-purpose" mechanisms that have developed.

Take the frog's eye for example. A frog eats only live insects, and its eye instantly spots a moving fly within reach of its tongue. You can surround a frog with dead (therefore motionless) flies, and it will never know they are there.

If we can completely understand the mechanic of the frog's eye, we can develop a "map-reading eye" for missiles and a "pattern-recognition eye" for our basic air defense system called SAGE (semiautomatic ground environment). SAGE is badly overworked. Its international network of radar "EYES" supplies a tremendous mass of unimportant details about meteorites, clouds, flights of ducks, geese, and friendly planes, and it sometimes gets confused. Until we can build a mechanical frog's eye into SAGE, it will remain somewhat inefficient.

Military and civilian uses

The frog's eye holds promise in civilian life, too. For example, at most major airports the air traffic problem--with 20 million flights per year to handle--has reached a critical stage. With 40 million fights in prospect for 1975, we must develop better devices for monitoring and controlling air traffic.

Special-purpose mechanisms as exciting as the frog's eye can be found throughout nature. The bat is under study because the bat's sonar is much Omega Replica Watches more efficient than man-made sonar. By bouncing supersonic squeaks off objects around him, the bat flies about with remarkable skills. A bat can fly through a dark room strung with dozens of piano wires and never touch a single wire.

The mosquito is under study because we need to solve the problem of static that lessens the efficiency of our communications systems. A mosquito, simply by vibrating its wings, can set up a hum that will cut through any interfering noise man or nature can create loud whistles or thunder, for instance and give a message to another mosquito 150 feet away.