Bionics birthday

The 20th century was marked by scientific and technological revolution and progress in many sectors of human activity From the mid-1940s to the 1960s, there was a rapid development of natural disciplines aimed at understanding the laws of nature and technical sciences Thanks to this, robotics, computer science, and bionics appeared The young science arose at the intersection of biology, physics, chemistry and cybernetics with radio electronics The birthday of bionics is considered to be September 13, 1960 This date marked the opening of the first international symposium in the USA on the topic: “Living prototypes of artificial systems - the key to new technology” It is believed that the first person who decided to use the natural forms and structure of living organisms to create structures for various purposes was Leonardo da Vinci The Renaissance scientist's plans were to build a flying machine by applying knowledge about the structure of a bird's wing After 400 years, humanity managed to make a breakthrough in the creation of new technologies as a result of studying natural processes An example of this, if we recall the research of da Vinci, was the invention of the zipper - a fastener created as a result of analyzing the structure of bird feathers Research into living systems, such as the eye system of snakes, has led to the development of infrared night vision cameras The work of Velcro, Velcro tape, is based on the principle of spreading burdock seeds The study of the structure of the lotus leaf became the impetus for the invention of water-repellent fabrics, the stems of cereal crops - for the construction of high-rise buildings Scientists have learned to grow artificial stones that are not inferior in beauty and characteristics to their natural counterparts, and to create radars based on echolocation, which is used by bats These and other inventions arose as a result of the emergence of bionics The design of fins is based on the fins of whales, the design of snowshoes is based on the hind legs of a hare, and the solar panels are based on the structure of a sunflower It is no coincidence that the helicopter blades resemble the wings of a dragonfly, and the front fairing of a bullet train to reduce the acoustic shock when leaving a tunnel resembles the beak of a kingfisher Its shape allows the bird to enter the water in a deep dive without raising a splash The strength and stability of the Eiffel Tower is the result of the study of the human tibia and the use of this knowledge in the design of the structure To reduce friction, the front part of the supersonic Concorde liner, which appeared in 1969, resembles the shape of the nose of dolphins, the structure of submarines - a cephalopod of the genus Nautilus To rise to the surface, it pumps into its hollow chambers a special gas that is produced by the body, displacing the water previously collected for the dive A similar ascent technique is used on submarines Thanks to relatively young science, it has become possible to create fundamentally new building structures, machines, apparatus and instruments An example of its application in medicine is the invention of prostheses and exoskeletons, surgical instruments coated with SLIPS, which effectively combats “biocontamination” of surfaces The material appeared after studying the method of catching insects with the leaves of the carnivorous plant Nepenthes Man draws inspiration from nature for many technical developments Observations of living organisms help both in creating a design and in developing the principle of functioning of structures of various types and purposes The Birthday of Bionics encourages us to pay tribute to a scientific direction that has great prospects for development