Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Weather inquiry - Help find an article about bionics. I excerpted it, about 600 words.

Help find an article about bionics. I excerpted it, about 600 words.

Bionics is a word formed by adding the Greek word bion, which means life, and ics, which means engineering technology. It has only been used since about 1960. The functions of living things are far superior to any artificially manufactured machinery. Biomimicry is a discipline that aims to realize and effectively apply biological functions in engineering. For example, regarding information reception (sensory function), information transmission (nerve function), automatic control system, etc., the structure and function of this organism have given great inspiration in mechanical design. Examples of bionics that can be cited include applying the body shape or skin structure of dolphins (which prevents turbulence on the body surface when swimming) to submarine design principles. Biomimicry is also considered to be a subject closely related to cybernetics, while cybernetics is a subject that mainly compares, studies and explains biological phenomena with mechanical principles.

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.

What kind of strange abilities do all kinds of creatures in nature have? What inspirations have their various abilities given to humans? By imitating these abilities, what kind of machines can humans create? An emerging science to be introduced here is bionics.

Biomimicry refers to the science of constructing technical devices by imitating living things. It is a new fringe science that only emerged in the middle of this century. Biomimicry studies the structure, function and working principles of living organisms, and transplants these principles into engineering technology to invent instruments, devices and machines with superior performance and create new technologies. From the birth and development of bionics to the present, its research results have been very impressive. The advent of bionics has opened up a unique technological development path, which is a path to obtain blueprints from the biological world. It has greatly broadened people's horizons and demonstrated extremely strong vitality.

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.

Thought-provoking comparison

Although human bionic behavior has been in prototype for a long time, before the 1940s, people did not consciously regard biology as the source of design ideas and inventions. . Scientists' research on biology only stops at describing the exquisite structure and perfect functions of living organisms. Engineering and technical personnel rely more on their outstanding wisdom and hard work to make artificial inventions. They rarely consciously learn from the biological world. However, the following facts can illustrate: some of the technical problems that people encounter have appeared in the biological world millions of years ago and have been solved in the process of evolution. However, humans have not learned from the biological world. Get the enlightenment you deserve.

During the First World War, out of military necessity, submarines were built to enable ships to sail covertly underwater.

When engineers and technicians designed the original submarine, they first loaded the submarine with stones or lead blocks to make it sink. If they needed to rise to the surface, they would throw away the stones or lead blocks and let the boat return to the surface. Come to the water. Later, after improvements, the method of alternately filling and draining pontoons with water was used on submarines to change the weight of the submarine. Later, it was changed to a ballast water tank. A release valve was installed on the upper part of the water tank and a water filling valve was installed below. When the water tank was filled with seawater, the weight of the hull increased, allowing it to submerge into the water. When an emergency dive is needed, there is also a speed diving chamber. After the boat body is submerged in the water, the seawater in the speed diving chamber is discharged. If one part of the ballast tank is filled with water and the other part is empty, the submarine can be semi-submerged. When the submarine wants to float, compressed air is passed into the water tank to discharge the seawater. After the weight of the seawater in the boat is reduced, the submarine can float. Such a superior mechanical device enables the submarine to sink and float freely. But later it was discovered that the sinking and floating system of fish is much simpler than people's invention. The sinking and floating system of fish is just an inflated swim bladder. The swim bladder is not controlled by muscles, but relies on secreting oxygen into the swim bladder or reabsorbing part of the oxygen in the swim bladder to adjust the gas content in the swim bladder, allowing the fish to sink and float freely. However, it was too late to inspire and help submarine designers with such an ingenious sinking and floating system of fish.

Sound is an indispensable element in people's lives. Through language, people exchange thoughts and feelings, and beautiful music enables people to enjoy art. Engineers and technicians also apply acoustic systems in industrial production and military technology, becoming one of the most important pieces of information. Since the advent of submarines, what has followed is how ships on the surface can find the location of the submarine to prevent sneak attacks; and after the submarine sinks into the water, it must also accurately determine the position and distance of the enemy ship to facilitate the attack. Therefore, during the First World War, various means were used in the struggle between the opposing parties on the ocean, on the surface and in the water. Naval engineers also use acoustic systems as an important means of reconnaissance. The first thing used is a hydrophone, also called a noise direction finder, which detects enemy ships by listening to the noise they emit while they are sailing. As long as there are enemy ships sailing in the surrounding waters, the machines and propellers will make noise, which can be heard through hydrophones and the enemy can be detected in time. However, the hydrophones at that time were very imperfect and could generally only pick up the noise of the own ship. To listen to enemy ships, the ship had to slow down or even stop completely to distinguish the noise of the submarine, which was not conducive to combat operations. Soon, French scientist Langevin (1872-1946) successfully used the properties of ultrasonic reflection to detect underwater ships. An ultrasonic generator is used to emit ultrasonic waves into the water. If it encounters a target, it will be reflected back and received by the receiver. Based on the time interval and orientation of the received echoes, the orientation and distance of the target can be measured. This is the so-called sonar system. The invention of the artificial sonar system and its outstanding achievements in detecting enemy submarines once amazed people. Don't you know that long before humans appeared on the earth, bats and dolphins had already been able to use the "echolocation" sonar system with ease?

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, and the wings may even break, causing the airplane to crash. Many test pilots have lost their lives as a result. 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 weighted device is placed just on the far end of the leading edge of the wing, thus eliminating harmful vibrations. However, insects have been flying in the air 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 had been living in nature for hundreds of millions of years. During their long-term evolution in their struggle for survival, they acquired the ability to adapt to nature. Biological research can show that the extremely precise and complete mechanisms formed by organisms during the evolution process 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 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, which contain two substances, 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.

Now, people can obtain cold light similar to biological light by mixing certain chemical substances, which can be used as safety lighting.

Electric fish and volt batteries

There are many creatures in nature that can produce electricity, and there are more than 500 species of fish alone. People refer to these fish that can discharge electricity as "electric fish".

Various electric fish have different discharge capabilities. The ones with the strongest discharge ability are electric rays, electric catfish and electric eels.

A medium-sized electric ray can produce about 70 volts, while the African electric ray can produce up to 220 volts; the African electric catfish can produce 350 volts; the electric eel can produce 500 volts, and there is a South American electric eel. It can produce voltages up to 880 volts, making it the electric shock champion. It is said that it can kill large animals like horses.

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, with a total of 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.

The extraordinary ability of electric fish has aroused great interest among people. In the early 19th century, Italian physicist Volta designed the world's earliest voltaic battery using the electric fish's power-generating organ as a model. Because this battery is designed based on the natural generator of electric fish, it is called an "artificial electric organ." Research on electric fish has also given people this revelation: If the power-generating organ of electric fish can be successfully imitated, then the power problems of ships and submarines can be well solved.

Jellyfish's Wind-Earing

"Swallows fly low to clear the rain, and cicadas chirp in the middle of the rain and the sky clears up." There is a certain relationship between the behavior of living things and changes in the weather. Coastal fishermen all know that when fish and jellyfish living on the coast swim to the sea in groups, it indicates that a storm is coming.

Jellyfish, also called jellyfish, is an ancient coelenterate that floated in the ocean as early as 500 million years ago. This lower animal has the instinct to predict storms. Whenever a storm approaches, it swims to the sea for refuge.

It turns out that in the blue ocean, infrasound waves (frequency 8-13 times per second) generated by the friction between air and waves are always a prelude to the coming storm. This kind of infrasound cannot be heard by human ears, but small jellyfish are very sensitive. Bionicists discovered that there is a thin handle in the vibrating cavity of the jellyfish's ear. There is a small ball on the handle. There is a small hearing stone inside the ball. When the infrasound wave before the storm hits the hearing stone in the jellyfish's ear, At this time, the listening stone stimulates nerve receptors on the wall of the ball, so the jellyfish hears the rumble of the approaching storm.

Bionics scientists modeled the structure and function of jellyfish ears to design a jellyfish ear storm predictor, which accurately simulates the jellyfish's organ that senses infrasound waves. This instrument is installed on the front deck of the ship. When it receives the infrasound waves of the storm, it can cause the horn that rotates 360° to stop rotating on its own. The direction it points is the direction of the storm; the reading on the indicator is Can tell you the intensity of the storm. This kind of predictor can predict storms 15 hours in advance, which is of great significance to the safety of navigation and fisheries.

-- Structural components

For components, when the cross-sectional area is the same, it is an effective cross-sectional shape to place the material as far away from the neutral axis as possible. Interestingly, this conclusion is also reflected in the tissues of many animals and plants in nature. For example: "Blast Zhijin Grass", the stems of many plants that can withstand strong winds are vascular structures, and their cross-sections are hollow. The bones that support people's weight-bearing and movement have dense bones distributed around the cross-section, while soft marrow fills the inner cavity. Hollow floor slabs, box-shaped girders, I-shaped cross-section sheet beams, folded plate structures, and spatial thin-walled structures that are often used in building structures are all derived from this conclusion.

-- Zebra

Zebras live on the African continent. Their appearance is no different from ordinary horses. The stripes on their bodies are protective colors evolved to adapt to the living environment. Of all the zebras, the Lesbian zebra is the largest and most beautiful. Its shoulder height is 140-160 cm, its ears are round and large, and its stripes are dense and numerous. Zebras often stay close to wildebeests, elands, gazelles and ostriches on the grasslands to defend themselves against natural enemies. The application of zebra stripes to the military is a very successful example of bionics. .

Supplement - latest development:

The integration of bionics and genetics is the concept of systems bio-engineering, which is the development of bionics in genetic engineering.

Artificial gene recombination and transgenic technology are imitations of natural recombination and gene transfer. The artificial synthesis of natural drug molecules and biopolymers is bionics at the molecular level. Artificial neurons, neural networks, and cellular automata are bionics at the cellular system level. Following Single-gene genetics and single-gene transfer have developed into system genetics (system genetics) for multi-gene system regulation research, synthetic biology (synthetic biology) for multi-gene transgenes, as well as nano-biotechnology (nano-biotechnology) and biocomputing (biocomputing). - With the development of system bioengineering in computation and DNA computer technology, bionics has fully developed into an era of development of artificial biological systems from molecules, cells to organs.

Answer: Zhuxue96. - Assistant Level 2 3-17 20:53

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