A photo from open sources
Scientists spy on many things from nature, on the basis of which later brilliant ideas are born, for example, “air” tower designs and bridges, heavy-duty spider web threads, and so on. Quite Researchers at Edinburgh University recently noticed on dandelion parachutes and compared them to modern parachutes, which are used today by pilots, military, astronauts …
And it turned out that, despite all the modernization of modern devices for smooth and safe lowering of a person or load onto the surface of the Earth, it can not be compared with the ingenious the decision of nature embodied in the most ordinary and widely common plant – dandelion.
His parachutes with seeds can fly into the air for hundreds meters and cover a distance of up to 900 kilometers. Building on that a discovery already made long ago (by German researchers) Edinburgh scientists led by Dr. Catal Cummins created a special wind tunnel in which they could observe, shoot, and then study the flight of dandelion seeds.
A photo from open sources
Videos and pictures showed that air passing through the bristles natural parachute, forms a vortex bubble, which allows dandelion seeds to rise quite high and soar infinitely long.
Natural construction, says Dr. Cummins in an article, published in Nature at least four times more effective than the most perfect parachute invented by man. Of course, dandelion paratroopers have a slightly different task than human parachute, however, based on a study that conducted employees of the University of Edinburgh can create something useful for aeronautics. For example, use this “vortex ring” in small drones capable of flying on “porous parachutes, using almost only air energy streams.
Such drones, according to the Scottish scientist, can effectively used, for example, to monitor contaminated air, remote sensing of a particular area – yes little for what …
