1. A very peculiar small gas analyzer has been copied from a nasty fly. It has been installed in the cockpit of the spacecraft to detect the composition of the gas in the cabin.
2. From fireflies to artificial luminescence;
3. Electric fish and volt batteries;
4. The jellyfish's downwind ears are modeled on the structure and function of the jellyfish's ears. The jellyfish ear storm predictor is designed to predict storms 15 hours in advance, which is of great significance to the safety of navigation and fisheries.
5. Based on the visual principle of frog eyes, people have successfully developed an electronic frog eye. This electronic frog eye can accurately identify objects of specific shapes just like real frog eyes. After installing electronic frog eyes into the radar system, the radar's anti-interference ability is greatly improved. This radar system can quickly and accurately identify aircraft, ships, missiles, etc. of specific shapes. In particular, it can distinguish between real and fake missiles to prevent fakes from being confused with real ones.
Electronic frog eyes are also widely used in airports and traffic arteries. At the airport, it can monitor the takeoff and landing of aircraft, and if it detects that the aircraft is about to collide, it can issue an alarm in time. In traffic arteries, it can direct the movement of vehicles and prevent vehicle collisions.
6. Based on the principle of bat ultrasonic locator, people also imitated the "pathfinder" for blind people. This kind of pathfinder is equipped with an ultrasonic transmitter, which can be used by blind people to find electric poles, steps, people on bridges, etc. Nowadays, "ultrasound glasses" with similar functions have been made.
7. By simulating the incomplete photosynthesizer of cyanobacteria, a biomimetic photolysis water device will be designed to obtain a large amount of hydrogen.
8. Based on research on the human skeletal muscle system and bioelectrical control, a human enhancement device - a walking machine - has been imitated.
9. The hooks of modern cranes originated from the paws of many animals.
10. The roof corrugations imitate animal scales.
11. The oars imitate the fins of a fish.
12. The saw is learned from the mantis arm, or sawgrass.
13. The Xanthium plant inspired Velcro.
14. Lobsters with a keen sense of smell provide ideas for people to build odor detectors.
15. Gecko toes offer encouraging prospects for making sticky tape that can be used over and over again.
16. Bay uses its proteins to create a colloid that is so strong that such a colloid could be used in everything from surgical sutures to boat repairs.
Good Luck
Biologists have produced advanced silk threads through research on spider silk, which are tear-resistant and high-strength cables for parachutes and temporary suspension bridges. Boats and submarines come from imitations of fish and dolphins.
Sidewinder missiles and other modern weapons developed by scientists imitate the snake's "hot eye" function and the natural infrared sensing ability of a camera-like device arranged on its tongue.
The rocket takes off using the recoil principle of jellyfish and cuttlefish.
Scientific researchers have developed a lot of military camouflage equipment for the troops by studying the color-changing ability of chameleons.
Scientists studied the eyes of frogs and invented electronic frog eyes.
Termites not only use adhesive to build their mounds, but they can also spray adhesive at their enemies through small tubes on their heads. So people made a working weapon based on the same principle - a piece of dry glue cannonball.
The U.S. Air Force has developed a miniature thermal sensor through the "heat eye" function of the Viper.
Chinese textile technicians used the principles of bionics and the fur structure of land animals to design a KEG thermal insulation fabric that has windproof and moisture-conducting functions.
Based on the principle that a sidewinder's cheek pit can feel a temperature change of 0.001°C, humans invented the sidewinder missile that tracks and pursues. Humans also designed a toad ram using the principle of leaping frog. Humans imitate the highly sensitive sense of smell of police dogs to create "electronic police dogs" for detection.
Scientists made the world's first gas masks based on the unique ability of the wild boar's nose to detect poison
Answer: huhan951753 | Level 2 | 2007-4-10 16:56
What is the secret of electric fish discharge? After anatomical research on electric fish, it was finally discovered that there is a strange power-generating organ in the body of electric fish. These generators are made of many translucent disc-shaped cells called electroplates or electrodisks. Because there are different types of electric fish, the shape, location, and number of electric panels of the generator are different. The electric eel's generator is prismatic and is located in the muscles on both sides of the tail spine; the electric ray's generator is shaped like a flat kidney, arranged on both sides of the body's midline, and has 2 million electric plates; the electric catfish's generator Originating from some kind of gland, located between the skin and muscles, there are about 5 million electrical plates. The voltage generated by a single electric plate is very weak, but because there are many electric plates, the voltage generated is very large.
Answer: High 123 High | Level 1 | 2007-4-10 20:02
Flies are spreaders of bacteria, and everyone hates them. However, the fly's wings (also called balance rods) are "natural navigators", and people imitated them to make "vibrating gyroscopes". This kind of instrument has been used in rockets and high-speed aircraft to realize automatic driving. The fly's eye is a kind of "compound eye", consisting of more than 3000 small eyes. People imitate it to make "fly eye lenses". A "fly's eye lens" is made up of hundreds or thousands of small lenses arranged neatly together. Using it as a lens can be used to make a "fly's eye camera", which can take thousands of the same photos at one time. This kind of camera has been used in printing plate making and large-scale reproduction of tiny circuits in electronic computers, greatly improving work efficiency and quality. The "fly's eye lens" is a new type of optical component that has many uses.
Human bionics has a long history
Since ancient times, nature has been the source of various human technological ideas, engineering principles and major inventions. A wide variety of living things have gone through a long process of evolution, enabling them to adapt to changes in the environment and thus survive and develop. Labor creates human beings. With their upright body, hands that can work, and language for communicating emotions and thoughts, human beings have promoted the high development of the nervous system, especially the brain, in long-term production practices. Therefore, human beings' unparalleled abilities and intelligence far exceed all groups in the biological world. Human beings use their ingenuity and dexterous hands to make tools through labor, thereby gaining greater freedom in nature. Human wisdom not only stops at observing and understanding the biological world, but also uses humans' unique thinking and design abilities to imitate living things and increase their abilities through creative labor. Fish have the ability to come and go freely in the water, so people imitate the shape of fish to build boats, using wooden paddles to imitate fins. It is said that as early as the period of Dayu, the working people of ancient my country observed fish swimming and turning in the water with the swing of their tails, and they set up wooden oars on the stern of the boat. Through repeated observation, imitation and practice, he gradually changed to oars and rudders, increased the power of the ship, and mastered the means of turning the ship. In this way, people can make ships sail freely even in rough rivers.
Birds can fly freely in the air with their wings spread. According to "Han Feizi", Lu Ban made a bird out of bamboo and wood, and "it flew and stayed there for three days." However, people hope to imitate the wings of birds so that they can fly in the air. As early as more than four hundred years ago, Italian Leonardo da Vinci and his assistants carefully dissected birds, studied their body structures and carefully observed their flight. Designed and built an ornithopter, the world's first man-made flying machine.
The above inventions and attempts to imitate biological structures and functions can be considered the pioneers of human bionics and the bud of bionics.
For a long time, living things have lived in nature surrounded by sound. They use sound to find food, escape from enemies, court and reproduce. Therefore, sound is an important information for living things to survive. The Italian Spallanzani discovered long ago that bats can fly freely in complete darkness, avoiding obstacles and preying on insects in flight. However, after blocking the ears of bats, they will be unable to move in the dark. .
Faced with these facts, Palanzani came up with a conclusion that is difficult for people to accept: bats can "see" with their ears. After the First World War, in 1920 Hardy believed that the frequency of the sound signals emitted by bats was beyond the hearing range of the human ear. He also proposed that the bat's target positioning method is the same as the ultrasonic echo positioning method invented by Langevin during World War I. Unfortunately, Hardy's tip went unnoticed, and engineers found it hard to believe that bats had "echolocation" technology. It wasn't until the use of electronic measuring instruments in 1983 that it was completely confirmed that bats locate themselves by emitting ultrasonic waves. But this no longer helped with the early inventions of radar and sonar.
Another example is the study of insect behavior that came too late. 400 years after Leonardo da Vinci studied bird flight and built the first aircraft, after long-term and repeated practice, people finally invented the airplane in 1903, allowing mankind to realize their dream of flying into the sky. Due to continuous improvement, 30 years later, human aircraft surpassed birds in terms of speed, altitude and flying distance, demonstrating human wisdom and talent. But when continuing to develop aircraft that fly faster and higher, designers encountered another problem, which was the flutter phenomenon in aerodynamics. When an airplane flies, harmful vibrations occur in its wings. The faster it flies, the stronger the flutter of the wings becomes, even causing the wings to break, causing the airplane to crash, and many test pilots lost their lives. Aircraft designers spent a lot of effort to eliminate harmful flutter phenomena, and it took a long time to find a solution to this problem. A weighting device placed just far from the leading edge of the wing eliminates harmful vibrations. However, insects have been flying in the air as early as 300 million years ago, and they are no exception to the harm of flutter. After a long period of evolution, insects have successfully obtained methods to prevent flutter. When biologists were studying dragonfly wings, they discovered that there was a dark, thickened horny area above the leading edge of each wing - a wing eye or wing nevus. If the wing eyes were removed, flight would become erratic. Experiments have proven that it is the horny tissue of the wing eye that eliminates the harm of flutter in the wings of dragonfly flying. This is very similar to the designer's superb invention. If designers first learn the function of wing eyes from insects and obtain design ideas that are beneficial to solving flutter, they can avoid long-term exploration and personnel sacrifices. Facing the eyes of dragonfly wings, aircraft designers feel as if they have met at a late date!
The above three examples are thought-provoking and have inspired people a lot. Long before humans appeared on the earth, various creatures have been living in nature for hundreds of millions of years. During their long-term evolution in their struggle for survival, they have acquired the ability to adapt to nature. Biological research can show that the extremely precise and complete mechanisms formed by organisms during their evolution enable them to adapt to changes in the internal and external environment. The biological world has many fruitful abilities. Such as biosynthesis in the body, energy conversion, information reception and transmission, recognition of the outside world, navigation, directional calculation and synthesis, etc., showing many advantages that are incomparable to machines. The smallness, sensitivity, speed, efficiency, reliability and anti-interference of living things are truly amazing.
The bridge connecting biology and technology
Since James Watt (1736-1819) invented the steam engine in 1782, people have gained powerful motivation in the struggle for production. In terms of industrial technology, it basically solved the problems of energy conversion, control and utilization, thus triggering the first industrial revolution. Various machines sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The development of industrial technology greatly expanded and enhanced the ability of human beings. The physical fitness frees people from heavy physical labor. With the development of technology, people experienced the electrical age after the steam engine and moved towards the automation age.
The advent of electronic computers in the 1940s added valuable wealth to the treasure house of human science and technology. It can handle tens of thousands of various information on people's hands with reliable and efficient capabilities. , liberating people from the vast ocean of numbers and information. The use of computers and automatic devices can make people relaxed and labor-saving in the face of complicated production processes. They can accurately adjust and control production procedures to make product specifications precise. However, the automatic control device works according to fixed procedures established by people, which makes its control ability very limited. Automatic devices lack the ability to analyze and respond flexibly to the outside world. If any unexpected situation occurs, the automatic device will stop working, or even an accident may occur. This is a serious shortcoming of the automatic device itself. To overcome this shortcoming, it is nothing more than to enable "communication" between the various components of the machine and between the machine and the environment, that is, to enable the automatic control device to have the ability to adapt to changes in the internal and external environment. To solve this problem, engineering technology must solve how to accept and convert. Issues of utilizing and controlling information. Therefore, the utilization and control of information have become a major contradiction in the development of industrial technology. How to resolve this contradiction? The biological world has provided useful enlightenment to mankind.
In order for humans to gain inspiration from biological systems, they first need to study whether biological and technological devices have the same characteristics. The theory of conditioning, which emerged in the 1940s, contrasted living things with machines in a general sense. By 1944, some scientists had determined that machines and organisms were consistent on a series of issues such as communication, automatic control, and statistical mechanics. Based on this understanding, in 1947, a new discipline - cybernetics - emerged.
Cybernetics comes from Greek, and its original meaning is "the helmsman." According to the definition given by Norbef Wiener (1894-1964), one of the founders of cybernetics, cybernetics is the science of "control and communication in animals and machines". Although this definition is too simple and is just a subtitle of Wiener's classic work on cybernetics, it directly links people's understanding of living things and machines.
The basic point of view of cybernetics is that there is a certain integration between animals (especially humans) and machines (including various automation devices for communication, control, and calculation), that is, when they have There are certain unique laws in the control system. According to cybernetic research, the control processes of various control systems include the transmission, transformation and processing of information. The normal operation of the control system depends on the normal operation of the information. The so-called control system refers to the organic combination of the controlled object and various control elements, components, and circuits into a whole with certain control functions. From an information point of view, a control system is a network or system of information channels. Machines have many similarities with the control systems in living organisms, so people have become very interested in biological automatic systems, and use physical, mathematical and even technical models to conduct further research on biological systems. Therefore, control theory has become the theoretical basis for linking biology and engineering technology. Become a bridge between biological systems and technological systems.
There are indeed clear similarities between living organisms and machines, and these similarities can be manifested at different levels of study of living organisms. From simple single cells to complex organ systems (such as the nervous system), there are various physiological processes that are regulated and automatically controlled. We can think of organisms as machines with special abilities. The difference from other machines is that organisms have the ability to adapt to the external environment and reproduce themselves. An organism can also be compared to an automated factory. Its various functions follow the laws of mechanics; its various structures work in coordination; they can respond quantitatively to certain signals and stimuli, and can act like Like automatic control, the organization regulates itself in a self-controlled manner with the help of specialized feedback contacts. For example, the constant body temperature, normal blood pressure, normal blood sugar concentration, etc. in our body are all the result of regulation by the complex self-control system in the body.
The emergence and development of cybernetics has built a bridge between biological systems and technical systems, causing many engineers to consciously seek new design ideas and principles from biological systems. As a result, there has been a trend that engineers take the initiative to learn biological science knowledge in order to achieve results in the field of engineering technology in which they collaborate with biologists.
The birth of bionics
With the needs of production and the development of science and technology, since the 1950s, people have realized that biological systems are one of the main ways to develop new technologies. Consciously regard the biological world as the source of various technical ideas, design principles and creative inventions. People use chemistry, physics, mathematics and technical models to conduct in-depth research on biological systems, which has promoted the great development of biology and made rapid progress in the study of functional mechanisms in organisms. At this point, simulating creatures ceases to be a fascinating fantasy and becomes an achievable fact. Biologists and engineers actively collaborated and began to use the knowledge gained from the biological world to improve old or create new engineering and technical equipment. Biology began to enter the ranks of technological innovation and technological revolution in all walks of life, and first achieved success in military sectors such as automatic control, aviation, and navigation. Therefore, the disciplines of biology and engineering technology were combined and interpenetrated to give birth to a new science - bionics.
As an independent discipline, bionics was officially born in September 1960. The first bionics conference was held by the U.S. Air Force at Dayton Air Force Base in Ohio. The central topic discussed at the meeting was "Can concepts obtained from analyzing biological systems be used in the design of artificial information processing systems?" Steele named the emerging science "Bionics", which in Greek means the study of life. The science of system function. In 1963, my country translated "Bionics" as "bionics". Steele defines bionics as “the science of imitating biological principles to build technical systems, or making artificial technical systems have or resemble biological characteristics.” In short, bionics is the science of imitating living things. To be precise, bionics is the study of the structure, characteristics, functions, energy conversion, information control and other excellent characteristics of biological systems, and applying them to technical systems, improving existing technical engineering equipment, and creating new ones. Comprehensive science of technical systems such as technological processes, building configurations, and automation devices. From a biological perspective, bionics is a branch of "applied biology"; from an engineering technology perspective, bionics provides new principles and new technologies for the design and construction of new technical equipment based on the study of biological systems. methods and new approaches. The glorious mission of bionics is to provide human beings with the most reliable, flexible, efficient and economical technical systems that are close to biological systems and benefit mankind.
Research methods and content of bionics
Bionics is an emerging edge science that is a combination of biology, mathematics and engineering technology. The first bionics conference identified an interesting and vivid symbol for bionics: a huge integral symbol, which "integrated" the scalpel and the soldering iron together. The meaning of this symbol not only shows the composition of bionics, but also summarizes the research approach of bionics.
The task of bionics is to study the excellent capabilities of biological systems and the principles that produce them, model them, and then apply these principles to design and manufacture new technical equipment.
The main research method of bionics is to propose models and conduct simulations. The research process generally has the following three stages:
The first is the research on biological prototypes. According to the specific topics raised in actual production, the biological data obtained from the research are simplified, the content that is beneficial to the technical requirements is absorbed, and the factors irrelevant to the production technical requirements are eliminated to obtain a biological model; the second stage is to carry out the data provided by the biological model. Mathematical analysis, abstracting its internal connections, and using mathematical language to "translate" the biological model into a mathematical model with a certain meaning; finally, the mathematical model creates a physical model that can be used for experiments in engineering technology. Of course, in the process of biological simulation, it is not just simple bionics, but more importantly, there is innovation in bionics.
For example, long-span thin-shell buildings imitating seashells and columns imitating femur structures not only eliminate areas where stress is particularly concentrated, but also use the least amount of building materials to bear the maximum load. In the military, the groove structure of dolphin skin is imitated, and artificial dolphin skin is applied to the shell of the ship, which can reduce navigation currents and increase sailing speed;
◇Molecular bionics is the study and simulation of enzymes in living organisms. Catalysis, selectivity and permeability of biological membranes, analysis and synthesis of biological macromolecules or their analogs, etc. For example, after clarifying the chemical structure of the sex attractant hormone of the forest pest gypsy moth, a similar organic compound was synthesized, which can trap and kill male insects in a field insect trap with one ten-millionth of a microgram;
◇Energy bionics is the study and imitation of energy conversion processes in living organisms such as bioluminescence of bioelectric organs and direct conversion of chemical energy into mechanical energy by muscles;
◇Information and control bionics is the study and simulation of sensations The information processing process in living organisms in terms of organs, neurons and neural networks, as well as the intelligent activities of high-level centers. For example, an "autocorrelation velocimeter" based on the optokinetic response of a weevil can measure the landing speed of an aircraft. Based on the working principle of the retinal side suppression network of the horseshoe crab compound eye, some devices have been successfully developed that can enhance image contours, improve contrast, and thus contribute to blurred target detection. More than 100 types of neuron models have been established, and new computers have been constructed on this basis.
Imitate the human learning process and create a machine called a "perceptron", which can learn by changing the weight of the connections between components through training, thereby achieving pattern recognition. In addition, it also studies and simulates control mechanisms in biological systems such as homeostasis, motion control, animal orientation and navigation, as well as bionics aspects of human-machine systems.
In some literature, parts of molecular bionics and energy bionics are called chemical bionics, while parts of information and control bionics are called neurobionics.
The scope of bionics is very wide, and information and control bionics is a major field. On the one hand, it is due to the need for automation to develop towards intelligent control, and on the other hand, it is because biological science has developed to such a stage that studying the brain has become the biggest challenge to neuroscience. The bionics aspect of artificial intelligence and intelligent robot research—research on biological pattern recognition, research and simulation of brain learning, memory, and thinking processes, control reliability and coordination issues in living organisms, etc.—is the main focus of bionics research.
Control is closely related to information bionics and biological cybernetics. Both study control and information processes in biological systems, and both use models of biological systems. However, the purpose of the former is mainly to construct practical artificial hardware systems; while biological cybernetics seeks explanations for biological behavior based on the general principles of cybernetics and the theories of technical science.
The most extensive use of analogy, simulation and model methods is the outstanding feature of bionics research methods. The aim is not to directly replicate every detail, but to understand how biological systems work, with the central purpose of achieving specific functions. It is generally believed that there are the following three related aspects in bionics research: biological prototypes, mathematical models and hardware models. The former is the foundation, the latter is the purpose, and the mathematical model is the indispensable bridge between the two.
Due to the complexity of biological systems, figuring out the mechanism of a certain biological system requires a long research cycle, and solving practical problems requires close collaboration between multiple disciplines over a long period of time, which limits the development speed of bionics. main reason.
The phenomenon of bionics
Flies and spaceships
The annoying flies seem to have nothing to do with the grand aerospace industry, but bionics Learning has closely linked them.
Flies are notorious as "stinky hunters", and they can be found in any smelly and dirty place. Flies have a particularly sensitive sense of smell and can detect odors thousands of meters away. But a fly does not have a "nose", so how does it rely on its sense of smell? It turns out that the fly's "nose" - olfactory receptors are distributed on a pair of antennae on the head.
Each "nose" has only one "nostril" connected to the outside world, which contains hundreds of olfactory nerve cells.
If an odor enters the "nostrils", these nerves immediately convert the odor stimulation into nerve electrical impulses and send them to the brain. The brain can distinguish different odor substances based on the differences in the nerve electrical impulses generated by different odor substances. Therefore, the fly's antennae act like a sensitive gas analyzer.
Bionics scientists were inspired by this and successfully copied a very peculiar small gas analyzer based on the structure and function of the fly's olfactory organ. The "probe" of this instrument is not a metal but a live fly. It is to insert very thin microelectrodes into the olfactory nerves of flies, and amplify the electrical nerve signals guided by electronic circuits and send them to the analyzer; once the analyzer detects the signal of odorous substances, it can sound an alarm. This instrument has been installed in the cockpit of the spacecraft to detect the composition of the gas inside the cabin.
This small gas analyzer can also measure harmful gases in submarines and mines. Using this principle, it can also be used to improve the input device of the computer and the structural principles of the gas chromatography analyzer.
From fireflies to artificial cold light
Since humans invented the electric light, life has become much more convenient and rich. However, electric lamps can only convert a small part of the electrical energy into visible light, and most of the rest is wasted in the form of heat energy, and the heat rays of electric lamps are harmful to human eyes. So, is there a light source that only emits light but does not generate heat? Human beings have turned their attention to nature again.
In nature, there are many organisms that can emit light, such as bacteria, fungi, worms, mollusks, crustaceans, insects and fish, etc., and the light emitted by these animals does not produce heat, so it is Known as "cold light".
Among the many luminous animals, fireflies are one of them. There are about 1,500 species of fireflies. The colors of the cold light they emit range from yellow-green to orange, and the brightness of the light also varies. The cold light emitted by fireflies not only has high luminous efficiency, but also the cold light emitted is generally very soft, which is very suitable for human eyes, and the light intensity is relatively high. Therefore, biolight is an ideal light for humans.
Scientists have discovered that fireflies’ light emitters are located on their abdomens. This light emitter consists of three parts: a luminescent layer, a transparent layer and a reflective layer. The luminescent layer contains thousands of luminescent cells, all of which contain luciferin and luciferase. Under the action of luciferase, luciferin combines with oxygen to emit fluorescence with the participation of intracellular water. The glow of fireflies is essentially the process of converting chemical energy into light energy.
As early as the 1940s, people created fluorescent lamps based on research on fireflies, which brought about great changes in human lighting sources. In recent years, scientists first isolated pure luciferin from the light emitters of fireflies, then isolated luciferase, and then used chemical methods to artificially synthesize luciferin. A biological light source mixed with luciferin, luciferase, ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and water can be used as a flashlight in mines filled with explosive gas. Since this kind of light has no power source and does not generate a magnetic field, it can be used to clear magnetic mines under the illumination of biological light sources.