Bulletproof Feathers: How Science Uses Nature’s Secrets to Design Cutting-Edge Technology
edited by Robert Allen. University of Chicago Press, 2010
Researchers are increasingly turning to nature for design inspiration. This book surveys examples from the field of biomimetics—from self-cleaning surfaces based on the lotus leaf to fishery echo sounders that aim to simulate dolphin sonar.
Excerpt
The Flooded Earth: Our Future in a World without Ice Caps
by Peter D. Ward. Basic Books, 2010
Earth scientist Peter D. Ward of the University of Washington imagines how Earth and its inhabitants will change in the next 1,000 years as the ice caps melt and the seas rise. Here he describes northern California in the year 2135.
“The [Great Valley of California] had once been one of the richest agricultural areas on the planet. It had been divided roughly in half by the Sacramento River Delta and the low marshes west of Sacramento. Its northern half had been farmed for fruit, olives, nuts, cotton, and especially rice, while the southern valley was once the largest vegetable-producing area on the planet. Now the Great Valley was bisected by the long extension of San Francisco Bay, which stretched all the way to Sacramento. Salt water from that enormous extension of the sea had gradually worked its way into the many aquifers that had once been necessary for irrigation, and every year the sea encroached both north and south into the major rivers of the Valley. Now, despite the intense engineering efforts Californians had put forth, most of those aquifers contained salt. But even that would not have been so bad had the climate continued to allow snow to fall prodigiously on the Sierras. Because the precipitation now came entirely as rain, there was no snowpack to melt and provide spring runoff just in time for sowing and watering new crops, or give budding trees a good drink in the first spell of hot weather.
“That heat used to arrive in April, but now there was no winter here at all. In one respect it was a blessing—no longer did the characteristic and deadly early-morning fogs cause numerous fatal accidents on Interstate 5, the major north-south freeway through California, as drivers rear-ended others in the pea soup. There was no fog at all now, because the tropical temperatures of the Valley never rose to the dew point. But the lack of fog was of little importance to drivers, because there were none on the freeway except for truckers. Personal automobiles had been outlawed some decades before, in a vain effort to save some of the word’s oil. Yet goods still needed to be moved from place to place, and people needed to travel as well, thus swelling the freeways with buses and trucks.”
NONFICTION
Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality
by Jonathan Weiner. Ecco, 2010
Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century
by Michael Hiltzik. Free Press, 2010
Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging,
and Mating
by Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig. Yale University Press, 2010
Drawing the Map of Life: Inside the Human Genome Project
by Victor K. McElheny. Basic Books, 2010
The Last Tortoise: A Tale of Extinction in Our Lifetime
by Craig B. Stanford. Harvard University Press, 2010
What’s Luck Got to Do with It?: The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler’s Illusion
by Joseph Mazur. Princeton University Press, 2010
A Little Book of Language
by David Crystal. Yale University Press, 2010
See what we're tweeting about
3 Comments
Add CommentFor an observer there countless wonders in nature, I got a cut in my finger by grass. When I see what lizards and frogs I believe thy have a big Mac in their little heads.; I often saw a butterfly flying in the vicinity of a lizard and at once there was no more butterfly;I had seen nothing but because the lizard swallowed I knew what happened; By impulses from his eyes or ears the lizard had calculated the distance and taken the butterfly by his long tongue ;At night they they take small insects flying at high speed at great distance.Which kind of computer they have in their minuscule brains?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe digestion and respiration of a cow have procedures in common with small insects;One must think the engineering office found it more economic to use twice the same procedure. When one sees the whole biologic world,plants insects and all kinds of animals, from rabbits to lions, it is clear they come all from the same factory, they were all designed at the same engineering office.All living organisms are similar and different
Darwin found at the Galapagos the proof there is no God.I for myself have no need to go far away to find God. When I sit down in my kitchen and observe the engineering of my hands I know enough,I am well built
About the changing climate I observed in my country cold Winters,much colder than the last decennia , and warm Summers , warmer than now. There are indications during the Middle Ages there we vineyards here. In many countries coal indicates one time there were tropical forests only a few milennia ago half of Europe and of North America were covered by ice
My conclusion is the world is periodic in all.We have day and night, Summer en Winter,a short cycle of the sun an we my suppose is also a long cycle of the sun May be one day there will be no snow on the Himalaya and another day London and New York will be covered by ice .But the earth will always rotate in24 hours.
morp,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDarwin was not setting out to prove or disprove God, and his amazing discovery did neither. Darwin merely explained how species arose. God does not factor in to this. Science and faith are not the same. It is also possible for one to acknowledge God and still be informed in man's discoveries. You don't have to turn your back on knowledge and science just to prove your faith.
Climates do and have changed naturally, but very few people of credibility deny man's hand in the changes taking place today.
The earth will not always rotate in 24 hours, and hasn't always rotated in 24 hours. The earth's rotation is very slowly slowing.
@David N'Gog, "Science and faith are not the same. It is also possible for one to acknowledge God and still be informed in man's discoveries." That is true from the point of view of the general public. They can pick and choose what information to believe and what to reject in order to make decisions in their lives. There is no requirement for consistency. But if it is one's goal is to understand the universe, then consistency is required. You can't follow both, religion and science. To be clear, one cannot accept faith based explanations if one chooses to follow science which is evidence based. Certainly one can choose to accept only the more philosophical aspects of religion such as morality and the meaning of life, and disregard the cosmological model but in many cases the moral code is derived from the cosmological model so it is not easy to separate them, e.g. be good because god will punish you if you don't and will reward you if you do, doesn't work if you don't accept god. Ultimately, if one is looking for a moral code one doesn't need religion. There are secular moral codes that don't require blind faith.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience and faith are not the same and they are not compatible. Certainly one can live a life of delusion if one chooses and believe any number of contradictory propositions. But for those that truly understand and appreciate how science is able to unlock the secrets of the universe, there is no way they can accept that faith, the belief in things without evidence, can provide any insights into the true nature of things. If one accepts that the truth of the universe is reveal to them by god, then one does not need science. The attempt to reconcile religion and science is an attempt to preserve a comfortable cultural artefact in the face of a changing world. It is a desperate act.