21–30 of 34 posts
The Hawk moth has evolved to emit ultrasonic clicks that jam the bat sonar: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/moths-avoid-capture-... Just more examples of the power of evolution.
https://steveblank.com/2009/03/23/if-i-told-you-i%E2%80%99d-...
I know nothing about this kind of metamaterials [0] but would it be possible to replicate them at an industrial scale? For things such as superior acoustic insulation and so on? [0] https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/11/17/2014531117
This pavillion is the largest object on which VB was used to my knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxkvKJmlyHQ
However, it's hard to imagine VB being grown on it instead of sprayed, and the next-largest candidate seems to be the BMW X6.
> Holderied says it could be possible to make materials ‘10 times more efficient at absorbing sounds than what we are using in our homes and offices’. Think sound-absorbing wallpaper, not panels, he adds. I would love to have something like that. All these open floor plan offices and open concept homes are loud AF.
And after all that, filtering low frequencies is still a hopeless task.
Would be nice to understand how natural selection lead to this material and what were the steps. First you had a moth with some fur that absorbed maybe 0.1% ultrasound and then it started to increase from there generation and generation?
Would be nice to understand how natural selection lead to this material and what were the steps. First you had a moth with some fur that absorbed maybe 0.1% ultrasound and then it started to increase from there generation and generation?
Well the ones that didn’t do this got eaten by bats, it’s very easy to see how survival of the fittest works CB in this case. Designing an eye with evolution seems somewhat harder...
It's absolutely trivial. You just start with light sensitive skin. Then evolve a cavity to create a pinhole lens and then finally fill the hole with a lens. Making the eyeball move is optional but shouldn't be too tricky.
Would be nice to understand how natural selection lead to this material and what were the steps. First you had a moth with some fur that absorbed maybe 0.1% ultrasound and then it started to increase from there generation and generation?
I wonder if some of these processes might start out with a kind of genetic anti-resiliency that's selected for. Moths seem to have a wide variety of wing patterns and heavily rely on them for camouflage and mimicry (like when eyes are mimicked). Maybe the genes related to wing surfaces reduced in number over time, making wings more sensitive to mutation and variation. Kind of like increasing the wing learning rate at…
Would be nice to understand how natural selection lead to this material and what were the steps. First you had a moth with some fur that absorbed maybe 0.1% ultrasound and then it started to increase from there generation and generation?
> Holderied says it could be possible to make materials ‘10 times more efficient at absorbing sounds than what we are using in our homes and offices’. Think sound-absorbing wallpaper, not panels, he adds. I would love to have something like that. All these open floor plan offices and open concept homes are loud AF.
To use in construction one must have to answer some very difficult questions like how well does the material survive dust and the cleaning process? How long does it last by itself? How does it interact with the other constraints like fire resistance, allergies, etc? And after all that, filtering low frequencies is still a hopeless task.
> Holderied says it could be possible to make materials ‘10 times more efficient at absorbing sounds than what we are using in our homes and offices’. Think sound-absorbing wallpaper, not panels, he adds. I would love to have something like that. All these open floor plan offices and open concept homes are loud AF.
One does have to consider the frequency, I’m assuming dampening high frequency sound is easier than low frequency.
> Holderied says it could be possible to make materials ‘10 times more efficient at absorbing sounds than what we are using in our homes and offices’. Think sound-absorbing wallpaper, not panels, he adds. I would love to have something like that. All these open floor plan offices and open concept homes are loud AF.
I also play guitar so to have a “jam box” would be great. Like a vocal box where you’re isolated but for really REALLY loud guitars.