Even as animals and plants face mass extinctions from human-driven causes such as climate change, the natural world continues to inspire scientific discovery in unexpected ways. “Nature has spent hundreds of millions of years optimizing elegant solutions to extremely complex problems,” said Alon Gorodetsky, a biomedical engineer at the University of California, Irvine.
“So if we look to nature, we can shorten our development process and get a valuable solution right away,” he told AFP.
From squid-skin food warmers to lubricants made from cow mucus, here’s a selection of this year’s scientific work inspired by nature.
Okra ointment stops bleeding from the heart
Staunching the bleeding heart and liver of dogs and rabbits without stitches may now be possible with a biodegradable plaster made from sticky okra gel.
Okra is a fuzzy green vegetable with a slimy texture that inspired Malcolm Jing of Canada’s University of Manitoba to turn it into a medical adhesive.
“Okra is a wonderful ingredient,” Jing said.
In a July study published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, researchers found that refining okra in a juicer and then drying it into a powder produced an effective bioadhesive that quickly forms a physical barrier and initiates the blood clotting process. Is.
Researchers plan to test this plaster on humans in the coming years.
cow mucus lubricant
Snot may invoke feelings of disgust, but lab tests found that a lubricant made from cow mucus shows promise in reducing the spread of some sexually transmitted infections.
However, the study published in September in Advanced Science is very preliminary. It has not yet been tested on humans and should not replace other forms of protection like condoms.
The researchers extracted mucus from the salivary glands of cows and turned it into a gel that binds to and inhibits the virus. Mucus is made of a protein called mucin that may have antiviral properties.
It is also both a solid and a liquid.
Being solid, it can trap bacteria or viruses in the body. Being a liquid, it can clear those pathogens from the body,” said study co-author Hongjie Yan from KTH Royal Institute of Sweden. technology in Stockholm.
robot firefly
The firefly lighting up the night sky inspired scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of technology To build tiny, bug-sized robots that emit light when they fly.
Glowing artificial muscles help the bee-sized robots communicate with each other, which could make them useful for search-and-rescue missions someday.
Although robots can only work in laboratory environments so far, researchers are excited about their potential uses in the future.
cancer sniffing ants
There are an estimated 20 quadrillion ants in the world, and researchers have discovered that one species may be able to smell cancer in human breasts.
In a study conducted at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University and published on the preprint server BioRxiv, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, scientists used a sugar-water reward to train ants, which, along with humans, The difference between transplanted mouse urine with and without that was done to smell. Tumor.
While dogs can be trained to use their super noses to detect cancer, it is expensive and takes time.
Ants may provide a less cute, albeit cheaper alternative.
Squid-skin tea cosies
The strange skin of squid has inspired a packaging material that could keep coffee and food hotter, or at least longer, for longer, according to a March study published in Nature Sustainability.
Squid have tiny organs called chromatophores that can change shape drastically, and also help them change color.
To mimic “these pigment-filled organs,” study co-author Alon Gorodetsky of the University of California, Irvine, said he developed “little metal islands that you can detach” and contract.
The level of heat can then be controlled depending on how much the material is spread.
“If you place it around a hot object – for example, a cup full of coffee or a hot sandwich – you can control the rate at which it cools down,” he said.
“Nature really is the epitome of innovation and engineering,” Gorodetsky said.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)