Winter clothes and ski equipment
Light yet strong building materials
Birds (Aves) are feathered, winged, bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying, animals. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe and range in size from the 5cm Bee Hummingbird to the 2.75m Ostrich.
With around 10,000 living species, they are very extensive and yet not incredibly diverse. Birds are regarded as the only type of dinosaur to have survived the major extinction event 65.5 million years ago.
Birds
Due to the lattice structure bird bones are extraordinarily impact-resistant yet extremely light at the same time. This performance and physical property can be applied in structure or architecture design, with the intention of designing a highly efficient bio-inspired surface. You could mimic these properties the material for a large pavilion, or this concept could also be applied when building and designing safer cars.
Penguins live in the Antarctic and despite cold temperatures and major loss of body fat during nesting season they are able to stay warm using air pocket and feather networks. This could be used to in clothing design to create lightweight, low-cost clothes which were still incredibly warm.
Species of owl have some of the keenest auditory systems known, able to hear potential prey stirring deep under leaves, snow or grass, and identify the species based on sound alone.
The paired ear openings are exceptionally large and asymmetrically placed on either side of the skull, the better to help localize a sound’s origin; the super-swively neck enhances the power to sample the ambient soundscape.
Then the owl’s famously flat face, also called the facial disk — pie-shaped in some species, heart-shaped in the barn owl. The facial disk inspired modern satellite dishes, gathering sound waves, and directing them to the owl’s ears by stiff, specialized feathers with as little sound loss as possible.
Structural colouration is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light, sometimes in combination with pigments: for example, peacock tail feathers are pigmented brown, but their structure makes them appear blue, turquoise, and green.
One idea being researched is creating camouflage fabrics that vary their colours and patterns to match their environments. The ability to vary reflectivity to different wavelengths of light could also lead to efficient optical switches that could function like transistors, enabling engineers to make fast optical computers and routers. It has already been used for the screens in tablets such as the kindle fire.
Sensitive satellite dishes
Structural dye-free colour
Safer car crumple zones
Night-vision technology
Woodpeckers hammer their beaks into trees at the astonishing rate of 18 to 22 times per second, subjecting their brains to massive deceleration forces. Scientists found the birds’ anatomy acts to protect their brains in four ways. Their beaks are hard but elastic; their skull bones are spongy; there’s very little room for fluid between the skull and brain, cutting down on vibrations; and they have a special structure to reduce vibration.
The researchers came up with mechanical analogues for all these capabilities, and built a new type of shock-absorbing device.
Along with protecting electronics the four-part case could yield new protection technologies for the armed forces, aeroplane black boxes, athletes and race car drivers.
Much of today's night vision technology was inspired by birds.
Many birds, including owls, bat hawks, frogmouths and nightjars have good night vision. They have very large eyes for their size, The Tawny Owl's retina has about 56,000 light-sensitive rods per square millimetre and some scientists claim that it can see in the infrared part of the spectrum.
There are few coloured oil drops, which would reduce the light intensity, but the retina contains a reflective layer. This increases the amount of light each photosensitive cell receives, allowing the bird to see better in low light conditions.
The Oilbird is the only nocturnal bird to echolocate, but several swiftlets also utilise this technique.
Stealth drones
Gliders and low emission flight
As well as inspiring the design of many gliders, vultures are helping with the extreme sports that follow as well.
Gliding + falconry = parahawking, a unique and exhilarating experience. Birds (vultures, eagles, hawks) are trained to "guide" a paraglider through thermals (columns of rising air in the lower altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere which provide large, soaring lifts). The birds also perform incredible acrobatic maneuvers. Developed by British falconer Scott Mason in 2001, Nepal is the home base for the sport.
Aeronautical engineers are studying owls for clues to better wing designs. Many owl species are renowned for their ability to fly almost completely silently, without the flapping noises or even air disturbance that might warn prey of their approach.
The bulk of the wing is broad and curved — the ideal shape for slow gliding — and is abundantly veined with velvety down plumage to help absorb sound. Moreover, the feathers at the edge of the wing are serrated to effectively break up and smooth out air turbulence as a comb disentangles knots.
Last year researchers from Cambridge University proposed that well-placed perforations in an aeroplane wing could have a similar smoothing effect on turbulence, leading to quieter and more fuel efficient flights.
The bullet train
The shinkansen bullet trains of Japan are airplanes on rails, traveling at over 300 km per hour in comfort and style.
Traveling at this speed, tunnels present a problem. When the train enters the tunnel it compresses a cushion of air ahead of it. The compressed air waves become a small shock wave when they exit the tunnel, moving through the air faster than the speed of sound. The tunnel boom sounds like a clap of thunder, and residents complained.
Engineers looked for examples in nature to solve the problem, and they fixed on the kingfisher. When the bird dives into the water for fish it makes hardly any splash. They generated computer models and found that modifying the nose of the train to mimic the kingfisher bill would reduce tunnel boom. The new generations of bullet trains now sport the kingfisher look and are quieter, faster and use 15% less electricity.
