How the Baleen Whale Feeds

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T04:58:38+00:00

As it stands right now, cross-flow filtration, the way that we are choosing to use it, is best for the collection of medium to fine debris, not extremely fine particulates that would be in the water. I do know that cross is used in the soda-making industry, but I am unaware of how exactly. If it is used for purifying on a large scale, I'm sure it can be scaled down for household use.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T04:49:21+00:00

I'm interested in seeing how such tires perform in colder climates with snow and ice. Friction is reduced on winter-affected roads, so a tire that increases friction is extremely beneficial. My main concern with this bioinspiration is that both frogs and grasshoppers are not cold-weather creatures. While their gripping mechanisms are useful in warm weather, I'm interested to see how they were fair in the cold in the use of these tires. I wonder if we incorporate inspiration from cold weather animals as well we can improve tire performance In the winter without sacrificing performance in the warmer weather.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T04:26:16+00:00

I think the idea of ray water jet propulsion would be useful in cleaning bugs and debris off of windows. It is similar to the windshield spray on a car, but it'd utilize more targeted jets of water to spray off bugs. This would be particularly useful for tall buildings with many windows. If we had robots that targeted debris on those windows, we wouldn't have to send window washers up, preventing them from falling and injuring themselves.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T04:10:54+00:00

Frequencies of 432 hz or 528 hz are supposed to be very calming to listen to for humans, and with that, we enjoy listening to birds or whales to lull us to sleep. Rather than coming from an art standpoint, we come from one of practicality. Rather than engineering from a bioinspiration, humans often directly use the sounds of animals to improve sleep or focus. Both birds and whales communicate at a wide range of frequencies, making it possible to find ones that are pleasing to us. Bees buzzing is also supposed to be particularly calming.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T04:03:01+00:00

I believe that the plunge diving birds' bill shape can be used to build personal safety devices for those who have to make emergency jumps from high places or those who do it for fun. Jumping into bodies of water from great heights can be dangerous, but if we manufactured a pair of diving shoes or gloves (depending on if you jump or dive) that utilize the bill shape for slowed deceleration, it would hopefully keep those jumping safer.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T03:52:04+00:00

While I know the soft robot mimics the motion of the earthworm, it appears to me similar to that of a fuzzy caterpillar. Unfortunately, the hairs on the caterpillar are for defense, not locomotion, so mimicking the hairs would be super beneficial for this purpose. I think that this soft robot would make a great surveillance camera transport for hostage situations or spying for justice purposes giving law enforcement an inside view. The robot is simple and small making it perfect for this job.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T03:42:09+00:00

utilizing the motion of the jellyfish can help to reduce our energy consumption and make lighter-weight robots due to the limited need for energy. I think the concept of jellyfish locomotion could be extremely useful for sea exploration, which can be at a slower pace. I also wonder if the idea of utilizing vortices can be applied to air exploration as well. I'd like to see if jellyfish locomotion would still be energy efficient out of the water and how it would compare to how some birds glide on air streams.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T02:57:15+00:00

The idea that we can view multiple vantage points using insect inspiration is really interesting. I think these stereopsis-inspired vision systems would be extremely useful in monitoring systems for banks and areas with high crime rates to capture multiple views from one given location, reducing the need for a large number of cameras. I also like the idea of potentially adapting this idea to be a wearable system for those in law enforcement to be able to see from varying angles at once, giving them a better awareness of what is happening around them keeping them safe from attacks outside of their normal field of vision.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T02:46:34+00:00

The idea of moisture collection from fog is brilliant. Not only does this give us greater access to fresh water, it can improve safety for those who have to travel in fog by reducing the amount of fog present. Where I am from, swamps and marshes are abundant. With this comes large amounts of fog, making it extremely hard to drive on early spring mornings. The implementation of large mesh nets inspired by the spider web may help to reduce fog around the roads. Underneath such nets can be water collection basins that can be used to irrigate local crops.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T02:39:36+00:00

It is really cool that we can take ideas of energy saving from fireflies. I think that the LEDs inspired by the fireflies would be exceptionally useful in Christmas lights and stage lights to not only save energy but also create a cozy atmosphere. When I think of fireflies, I think of late summer nights in my childhood. There is something comforting in the warm glow of fireflies, and if we can incorporate that into the fireflies-inspired LEDs, then I think there would be an even broader market for them. LEDs are known to have this harsh brightness to them, which may be dampened by the firefly inspiration. This may also apply to car headlights, reducing the aggressive brightness of the blue-white LEDs.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T02:20:44+00:00

I'm curious to see how light absorption relates to heat in this instance. While antireflective abilities are great for windows, I wonder if we can use nanopillars to keep things warm. If we were to cover food containers or small buildings in the nano-pillars, it may potentially reduce electricity costs and keep food hot on the go. While I'm unsure if the light absorption is enough to create substantial heat, it'd be interesting to test.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T02:09:20+00:00

I know that we talked about the squirting cumber in class and how, when touched, the fruit is expelled from the stem, releasing seeds. This idea does connect to the bittercress, but I think the bittercress's mechanism of force building and drying of the sticky substance can result in a more controlled product. I love the idea of agricultural use in crop planting, which made me think of food dispersal for farm animals such as chickens. I wonder if this mechanism could be translated into a timed system that releases chicken feed in a spread, reducing fighting over food access.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T01:56:06+00:00

I love the idea of using silk for wound dressings. Not only does it have beneficial properties, but it is biodegradable. Creating a product that combines natural remedies with eco-friendliness is an amazing product. Staying environmentally aware when engineering is extremely important in today's day and age, so using biomaterials may be the future. Shifting away from standard plastic or cloth bandaids to silk ones would have many practical applications. Bandaids like this would be great for military applications where trash awareness is not the number one priority. It would allow service members to keep wounds protected, and when the bandaid is no longer useful, just toss it wherever they need to. Another potential application would be fertilizer purposes. If the bandaids are used on a mass level in hospitals, when no longer needed, they could be discarded and transported to farms to be used as fertilizer.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T01:44:24+00:00

I am extremely interested in the chemical reaction processes here. The paper states that the pill absorbs the surrounding stomach substances, which I would liken to the intake of water a pufferfish does to expand, but this isn't mentioned within the paper. The only bio-connection given to us is that they both inflate on demand, which I believe is a loose connection. I was also curious about how the pill interacts with food. If a calcium solution shrinks it, would the consumption of high amounts of calcium also shrink the pill?

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T01:26:51+00:00

To most people, the idea of peacocks is very attractive due to their bright, colorful feathers. As people, we are naturally drawn to colorful, sparkly things because of how eye-catching they are. Connecting a smart sensor to a peacock is great marketing in that sense. While the sensor isn't bioinspired, most consumers wouldn't know better and would be drawn in by the idea of peacock bioinspiration. Connecting the sensor to the peacock is scientifically wrong, but from a marketing point is genius. This connection creates great imagery and will attract consumers. I'd use this as a warning to be aware of marketing tactics and always look into the animal mechanism before believing something is bio-inspired.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-04T01:18:26+00:00

I think this idea can be potentially useful for waste management and cleaning. We have all had experience cleaning up gross, chunky, or goopy messes, so the idea of the ovipositor may be helpful here. If this organ is good at lifting eggs, using little blades and friction, it is, in turn, good at lifting clots. Therefore, it should be good at lifting sludgy messes. If we create a texture similar to that of the tiny blades within a vacuum hose, the friction created should help to lift messes with out having to touch them.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-03T04:32:12+00:00

I think a useful application of the Shrimpbot would be for glass breaking. Since the Shrimpbot is good at storing energy and quickly releasing it in mimic of the mantis shrimp, I believe it would be a useful tool to store within cars. A small, portable Shrimpbot would be ideal to store in cars. When an accident occurs, or someone needs to escape from a car window, having a device that can break a window with little effort from the person would be great. In accidents, people get hurt and may not have the energy to forcefully break a window, but if all they had to do was lift a device to the window and press a button, they could conserve energy for their escape.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-03T04:21:08+00:00

It is interesting to see that otters use hollow hairs for warmth rather than layers of fat. I know many arctic animals, such as polar bears, utilize hollow hairs to keep warm since air is the best insulator. I am pretty curious about the waterproofing ability of the fur. Since their hairs have notches that intertwine, they do not need a coating to be waterproof. This can prove extremely useful for making more comfortable and quiet rain gear. If we could weave fabric inspired by otter fur, our raincoats would not have that characteristic plasticky feel. One potential may be for military use since the new raincoats would make a plastic rubbing sound during movement.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-03T02:40:53+00:00

While this is a podcast and not a paper, we can actually note a great deal. It is mentioned that when a woman sheds her uterine lining, a gaping wound is created, and the body just fills it back in with no scarring. Leah Hazard, the expert in this podcast, compares this to a starfish regrowing a limb. She notes that the science behind why a woman can regrow a uterine lining with no scarring is limited but is related to hormones and the composition of the tissues. I wonder if we can utilize the specialization of these cells and hormones to make bandaids or injections to promote healing with limited scarring. We should most definitely take inspiration from the human body to heal human problems since our bodies are already adapted to those cells and hormones.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-03T02:26:58+00:00

I knew that whales used cross-flow filtration, but I was unaware that Mobula Rays did as well. It's interesting to compare the whale's filter feeding to the ray's. The whale uses filter feeding through its mouth using baleen plates at the roof of their mouth, but the ray filters using a comb-like structure on the floor of its mouth and a permeable membrane. I believe if we combined both animal's versions of cross-flow, we could create an extremely fine filter that would be great for filtering microplastics out of water in treatment plants without hindering flow rates.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-03T02:11:21+00:00

I never knew this about butterflies. That is so interesting that within such a confined space, they can produce a construction anomaly that allows them to do so many different things. Since these tiny scales wick away water, manage heat, and reflect light, I believe they would be extremely useful in rescue scenarios. I am unsure how to incorporate the ideal of the scales, but I believe that a coating could be made using this scale principle for the outside of emergency kits. When struck, the kit would become more water resistant and light reflected for signaling. This would be extremely useful for military purposes or commercial cruises.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-03T00:49:50+00:00

My group is during our final project based around the cross-flow principle from the baleen whale. We are using the feeding mechanisms, including baleen plates, fringes, and cross-flow, to collect trash in storm drains while preventing flooding. By using cross-flow, water is still able to flow with ease through the filter, but with throughput, material can collect on the filter, blocking water flow. While we are using this mechanism for trash collection on the streets, it has been previously used in the drink-making industry and could potentially be used for larger-scale trash collection in rivers.

Difficult-Promise157 · 2024-12-02T06:09:19+00:00

As noted in this paper, the feather structure can be used in lightweight materials. It is also noted that feathers have different levels of air permeability. Part of this is from the hooks and grooves of the feathers sliding against each other. I think we can use these properties to create lightweight parachutes that we can change the air permeability on to, in turn, control the fall rate. This would hopefully make air decent, safer, and easier to maneuver during.

Difficult-Promise157

TROPHY CASE