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"Scientists have engineered perhaps the whitest natural substance, using the same physics behind one ghostly white Southeast Asian beetle. White and black feel like opposites for a reason. Black-colored things absorb nearly all of the light that strikes their surface, while white things send the light back, scattered equally at all wavelengths. A team of European scientists have essentially created the whitest paper using this physical property." 
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January 4, 2021 3:42 AM
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"Water Factory imitates the catchment method used by the Namib desert beetle. The transparent plastic film in the upper part of the water factory has two different types of hydrophilic textures on its surface to increase the contact area between the air and the film. With the combination of two types of textures and air convection generated by a solar fan, moisture in the air condenses into drops at the convex hydrophilic endpoint and is finally gathered in the inner and outer walls of water collectors through hydrophobic groove."
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"From water marks to colored threads, governments are constantly adding new features to paper money to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters. Now a longhorn beetle has inspired yet another way to foil cash fraud, as well as to produce colorful, changing billboards and art displays. In the journal ACS Nano, researchers report a new kind of ink that mimics the beetle’s color-shifting ability in a way that would be long-lasting and difficult to copy."
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"Technology inspired by the exoskeleton of a hardy desert bug is being aimed at big industrial problems, and investors are betting several million dollars that it could make a difference."
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"Researchers in the lab of Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan found a way to mimic the Stenocara beetle, which survives in the desert by stretching its wings to capture and drink water molecules from the early morning fog. They modified carbon nanotube forests grown through a process created at Rice, giving the nanotubes a superhydrophobic (water-repelling) bottom and a hydrophilic (water loving) top. The forest attracts water molecules from the air and, because the sides are naturally hydrophobic, traps them inside."
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The Bombardier beetle fires boiling poison at would-be predators. What can humans learn from them about fuel injection, drug delivery, and fire extinguishers from this walking weapon?
The Morpho Institute's curator insight,
September 19, 2013 8:48 AM
Biomimicry: Take your STEM learning activities to the wild side!
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Beetles have an impressive ability to walk underwater. It is all down to tiny bubbles trapped between hair-like structures on their feet. [...] Inspired by the beetles, researchers developed a polymer structure covered in bristles that mimic the beetles' feet. Attached to small objects — such as the treads of a toy bulldozer — it successfully stuck them to vertical surfaces underwater.
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A couple of Boston College graduates and MassChallenge finalists are banking on a beetle to help solve the world’s clean water crisis.
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“An elytron is very delicate and super lightweight, because after all, the beetle still needs to fly,” says Achim Menges, an architect and professor at the University of Stuttgart. “At the same time it’s very robust and exceptionally high performance.”
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"Plants and certain animals like the fog beetle can survive in very arid regions because they’ve developed ways of absorbing minute amounts of water from the atmosphere. Learning from their example allowed us to develop fog harvesting technologies—basically giant nets that trap moisture in the foggy mist, and funnel all of the tiny droplets into a container where they add up to water we can drink. In 2013, scientists at MIT created an advanced fog harvesting material that enables these giant mist catchers to generate five times more water."
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"The little Cyphochilus beetle from Thailand is strikingly white – whiter by far than is common in nature. Researchers from the UK and Italy have now discovered how the very structure of its shell allows the beetle to be both ultra-white and ultra-light."
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A robotically woven carbon-fibre pavilion based on the lightweight shell encasing a beetle's wings and abdomen is revealed by the University of Stuttgart.
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"Drawing inspiration from how beetles and tree frogs keep their feet attached to submerged leaves, National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers have developed the first effective process, called “face-to-face transfer,” to grow and transfer high-quality graphene on silicon and other stiff substrates."
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The onymacris unguicularis is a beetle found in the Namibian desert and has the most unique way of procuring water. Early in the morning, when the dew enriched fog is settled over the dunes, the beetle goes to the peak and positions its body in such a way that it helps in dew formation, and slurps up the water thus formed. Using this technique is the Dew Bank Bottle. It’s made is such a way that the steel body helps to assimilate the morning dew and channel it into the bottle immediately. Ideal for the nomads in the desert! Be sure to watch the BBC clip at the end of the post, which explains this ingenious tactic.
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Devices inspired by beetle wings could give robots a more nuanced sense of touch.
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