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Week 9 [09.12-15.12.19] Hidden miracles of the natural world

Hidden miracles of the natural world 

To study the unseeable 

World that surround us is much bigger than we see with our bare eyes. Nature doesn't stop to surprise us with its miracles both huge ones and microscopic size ones. It seems to be infinite. Whenever our technical capabilities are developing, we discover further more complicated answers for our endlessly asked questions.

 Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiZqn6fV-4Y&fbclid=IwAR2_BKI7zfy3XcqKLLl8k6fTDQXpWQ5E0p-yt80uTBsMgcwugzmSqoUM8Cw

 1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?

Comments

1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Yes, as i think that future technology should depend on our nature.
2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
Growing near the access to water ? :P I don't have an idea.
3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
Yes I find it fascinating.
1. Yes, and it already does. Talking about future technologies, the scientists have been working for some time to make genetic engineering of humans possible. Not digging too deep, they try to use some protein which some certain bacteria uses to modify its DNA.
2. Our vehicles’ shapes inspired by some of the fastest animals, technologies copying bioluminescence of animals, their eyesight, their natural evolutional modifications that define them and so on.
3. There’s a lot of to discuss and it’s interesting to discuss, that’s for sure.
Kacper Gąsior said…
1. Yes, I think so. Many fields of science take advantage of nature's inspirations. One of the examples are algorithms in IT. Take as an example swarm intellingence - this concept is developed in the Artificial Intelligence field. Some people think of developing open source software as swarm intelligence - many people across the world connect their abilities to create things like Linux OS.

2. There are many of them around - from bullet trains inspired by animal's streamline shapes through a building in Harare inspired by termite's mound to such sophisticated ideas like wind-turbines similar to whale's bumps.

3. I love them - both in scientific context and as science fiction books' ideas (which may turn out to be possible in near future).
s18716 said…
1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Absolutely it is! 100 percent! In fact, it turns out that a person is inspired by the creations of nature and tries to recreate artificial prototypes, and much of this today we call new technologies. For example, your previous post about bioluminescence, this is a clear example of this kind, and there are many, many more to come.

2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
As I said above in the answer to the previous question, there are a lot of such technologies. Let's look at some of them, for example, the modern design of new metro and high-speed trains is improved every year and its aerodynamics resembles the aerodynamics of many birds. Further, drilling rigs for mining were interconnected in earthworms. Neural networks are built on the principle of the structure of neurons in the human brain, and so on, you can continue indefinitely.

3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
Yes, certainly one of the most interesting features of science. Man is a part of nature, so these are natural processes of interaction.
Yubin said…
1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Definitely yes, so far most scientists create new technologies by observing nature, this is beyond doubt. Biology, physics, chemistry and so on all create their laws through observation. And either huge size or microscopic size doesn't matter, size is just one of the simple attributes of natural objects, so observing microscopic natural objects can help us develop future technology too.

2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
I remember when I had biology class before, once I was learning bionics, and I knew that the scientists improved the safety of the helicopter based on the principle of the dragonfly, as we see in your video, the guy talked about dragonfly too though he was not talking about the case of helicopter.

3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
Yes, I enjoy anything as long as it is related to science, thank you for sharing this video that let me learn more!
1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?

Of course, many of the solutions we are currently using are taken from nature. There are also many others that we do not understand and become an unrivalled ideal for us. I think we can get a lot more from nature.

2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.

The first thing I can think of is an artificial neural network. It is inspired by those in nature. Calculations based on such networks are now used in many areas of life, from entertainment to transport and even medicine. Compared to the neurons found in nature, our models are very imperfect and we have the opportunity to develop them further.

3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?

Yeah, I really like this kind of presentation. They show how much we have achieved as humanity and how much we can still achieve.
1. Definitely it can help. I agree with speaker in the video that we have still much to learn from nature. Basically mother nature is the best architect in the world. It's creation are so unique and sophisticated that it will still take a long time for us to develop devices that will be as complicated as natural organisms.
2. The first one that comes to my mind is invention of plane inspired by birds. That one is probably the most popular but overall I think that we are being inspired by our surroundings all the time.
3. The topic of the video was very interesting. I liked the way speaker presented it by following the flow of the video with his speech. It was short but certainly entertaining.
I think that observing nature for sure can give humanity some perspective and ideas that can be used in our future technology. The easy example are bacteria and viruses. Long time ago humanity had no idea that these things ever existed. And now due to our knowledge we can treat humans with drugs and antibiotics that cure virus or bacterial diseases. I enjoy science and nature. There are so many things around us that we are completely unaware of. So many physical reactions that happens around us and we don’t even notice them because we are used to them and they are really marvelous if we look closer. I thing that observing, exploring and understanding nature is key to get knowledge about whole universe.
s15487 said…
1.Yes, I definitely agree with that. Nature evolves for millions of years and during this time found the best solution for solving different kinds of problems. People try to invent new things in a similar way as nature does - by constant improvements, but the problem is that nature needed long to achieve this. It seems more reasonable to try to adapt the nature ideas and solutions.
2. The drive mechanism in thunks and diggers is probably inspired by caterpillars. I also heard about tape inspired by geckos’ feet, which should be really strong, but can be detached without leaving any dirt.
3. Yes, I adore all sorts of scientific research. I like watching videos, documentaries and read articles on such kind of topics. Thank you for sharing this TED talk, it was really interesting for watching.
1. Yes, I definitely think that observing nature can help us develop future technology.

2. I know few examples in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature. For example, super silent cars with hummingbird aerodynamics covered with shark skin varnish. This field of science is called biomimetics.

3. Honestly, not really.
1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Of course, observing nature can help us develop future technology. Everything comes from nature and we are an integral part of it. I believe that everything that arises in the computer is based on nature. All algorithms are modeled on nature observations.

2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
The neural network used in artificial intelligence is inspired by the neural network in animals.

3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
I really like agonizing about this type of research - comparing the technological world with nature. I think that these topics are closely related and technology cannot exist in nature.
1. Of course it can help us. Nature during its evolution found best solutions for some problems, taking inspiration from it could help us develop. What makes difference is the time needed for new discoveries. Nature needed thousands of years to develop and evolve, we do it much faster.

2. Creators of Shinkansen Bullet Train drew inspiration from the Kingfisher. The Shinkansen bullet train is equipped with a long beak-shaped nose which significantly reduces the amount of noise the train makes, but also uses 15 per cent less electricity, and travels 10 per cent faster than before. There are many more examples like wind turbine and it's fins inspired by humpback whales.

3. I like this type of videos, they are interesting and fun to watch. They remind us how small we are in the universe and how much more there is to learn and discover.
1. Yes, definitely. People already make many breakthroughs by observing nature.

2. The plane is the first thing that cames to mind for now, however, in the near future I hope robotics will be closer to our everyday lifes. There are tons of nature inspired technologies in those futuristic designs. Most of the devices are now in experimental faze, although in the future they will be probably videly use. I've heard about a robotic arm that is inspired by an octopus, able to expand, grab and hold heavy objects. It could be used in surgeries as the arm is soft and flexible.

3. Yes, thanks for that. It inspired a trip in google search and finding out more neat stuff.
Yurii Gevtsi said…
1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Of course, a lot has already been invented on the basis of natural phenomena, but much remains to be discovered. For example, the abilities of some animals such as regeneration or color change for camouflage or the ability to tolerate complete freezing may serve as a major breakthrough in the future.

2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
In fact, there are a lot of such examples, a lot has been invented on the basis of animal biomechanics or natural physical processes. The first thing that comes to mind is airplanes, submarines, sonar radar. Generally humanity has borrowed a lot from nature.

3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
Of course, I like it, as well as many others. I love documentaries about nature, and often watch different editions of the Discovery or National Geographic.
Mateusz Szych said…
1. Yes of course. Nature hides a lot from us. In nature, we should look for tools to fight global warming, smog etc.

2. The only thing that comes to my mind is art. Many decorations take shapes taken from nature, I personally love shelves in the shape of honeycombs.

3. Yes, I really like such divagations.
1. Certainly. Scientists are already developing and creating technologies by observing nature. Why would people invent something new if we can use a ready-made technology created by nature? I think this is the easiest and most effective way.

2. There are many such examples. One of them is a modern subway. We learned how to build a subway most effectively by watching insects and rodents dig tunnels. Another example is the invention of the first airplane by observing the flight of birds.

3. Of course, this is very interesting for me. Such studies provide an opportunity to learn more about nature and new technologies. As for me, this is one of the most interesting topics. I enjoyed this video. It is very interesting to see what our eyes don't notice.
Jakub Kisiała said…
1. I completely agree with this. As a mechanical engineer, I have often taken ideas from nature. He is extremely advanced and well thought out.
2. Planes. This was the result of observation of birds.
3. Rather not because I do not know this topic to speak about it.
Iryna Lehusha said…
1) Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Of course. Almost everything in our life inspired by nature and below I will lead the examples.

2) Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature?
So, I know a lot of examples, and I will write the most popular.
First one, birds and flight, this is the most famous example of biomimicry.  People made studies on birds, and now we have an opportunity to fly like birds.
Whale wind turbines - the next example. Also, bird-safe glass, shark skin coat and so on You can examine more examples, just Google "Biomimetic design".

3) Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
Yes, I like scientific movies and videos. I can learn something new. Find out something that I did not think before. This is a good opportunity to spend time with fun and usefulness. Because the most popular scientific shows made for recreational purposes and purposes to teach people.
1. It is a difficult question, it depends on the features in which field, I think that in some areas it can help us but in others it may cause that it will limit our way of thinking and block development.
2. The simplest example is probably planes that are inspired by birds.
3. Yes, there are many subjects in science that seemingly do not combine and yet have something in common.
I was also interested in genetic engineering a little. Also interfering with the genotype of certain species.But I personally think that people should in the first place learn and know better surrounding them environment before changing it and modifying for own purposes and benefits. Understanding is key to use even just ideas in best harmless way.
The researches about speed made based on natural shape of various animals (many times invertebrates) are quite interesting. I was watching programs about it, and found it very fascinating.
I was almost always interested in mainly watching programs on such topics. Finding something new is always favorable.
Vitalii Ohol said…
Observing nature already helped us a lot. Cars aerodynamics improves because of knowledge taken from observation of animal motions. Some principles of bird's head stabilization are used in gyros for cameras and inside drones. Swarm intelligence used to control robots and in some algorithms, including algorithms connected with the Internet. Natural selection and evolution principles turned into the genetic algorithms used in artificial intelligence. Even neural networks itself resemble the structure of neurons in the brain. Echolocation also borrowed from representatives of the animal world. Even in buildings and designs of various items, we try to use structures and shapes that commonly present in nature. That's the most interesting and unconventional branch in science, which definitely attracts attention and delights.
I would assume that it could help to develop different fields of technology and even more there is a facts that most of used technologies are based on nature workflow.
2.
There are millions of examples but what comes to my mind right now is ART of Nature itself. Mostly I get inspiration from pure nature and from beautiful colors.
3.
Yep I read some scientific books and watched some videos and that is interesting and entertaining to discover lots of interesting facts and things.
dominik.samsel said…
1. Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Nature has always been an inspiration to the greatest minds and I think it still can be, even when looking at what we are able to do at the moment. You may think there are not many things which may be invented, improved, but I think nature has a lot of suggestions, we just should listen.

2. Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
Whenever this question is asked I like to follow it by example of helicopters. The model of propeller's movement is taken from maple's leaves which are dropping from the tree. It's really amazing if you think about it, such a simple thing become a protoplast of this great piece of engineering.

3. Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
Yes, I do. These divagations are great source of interesting facts and useful knowledge. As a child I would't have thought that I might enjoy things like this, but I do now!
I am a little bit familiar with the idea of open source software as swarm intelligence. But unfortunately I am not very much of IT person myself. However I know that there are projects which require the cooperation of many people from different parts of the world. And this contains also projects based on knowledge of nature.
You mentioned some very interesting of the many examples! I personally like very much the idea of basing different structures and architectures on admirable termites mounds. Those are insanely huge and durable. Also designet in very original and much more complicated way than one could say.
I am glad that you like discussing such subjects. I was also fascinated in it and I still am but don't have as much time as I would like to, to expand my knowledge an keep up with newest discoveries and inventions.
Our society already had great hopes based on technology developed with the help of nature. It is highly possible that in the future the influences will be even bigger.
I am not quite sure what you mean by "growing near the access to water". I am sure you know many examples but might be unaware of this.
If you find this fascinating I encourage you to watch or read for example about the topic of research about spider thread construction. It is very interesting.
Yes but even if we learned a lot and many solutions are based on nature i find very interesting that we don't know everything yet. The fact that we haven't explored all what nature has to offer shows us that there is more to come. I hope that people who work on newest technology will be inspired more by nature and enviroment. Especially nowadays it is essential that our creations should benefit not only humans but entire world.
I absolutely agree with you and speaker! We have lot to learn and hopefully will!
Great and commonly known example with planes! The aerodynamic and construction based on light, empty inside bird bone was for sure huge inspiration.
I agree with you.I'd love to see more similar videos myself
Paweł Hadacz said…
1.Do you think that observing nature can help us develop future technology?
Of course, it can help us develop future technology. Most of the things come from the nature, even artificial intelligence.

2.Are there any examples you know in human everyday life inspired by creations of nature? If so mention some of them.
There are a lot of such examples including airplanes or wind turbines that are very famous nowadays.

3.Do you enjoy divagations about scientific research of this type?
Yes, it is very fascinating for me to find out about scientific achievements in the world that we live in.

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