Miraculous secret to making “X-men” animals

The animal kingdom has a variety of shapes ranging from long-necked giraffes, spoon-shaped bird beaks to the sharp claws of predators.

But evolution also worked on a much smaller scale. It’s about creating nanostructures – parts less than 1/20 the width of human hair – to help animals climb, camouflage themselves, flirt … with supernatural abilities like characters in the movie X -men.

Let’s explore some animals that applied nanotechnology below.

1. Beautiful wings

Many of the butterfly’s shimmering colors are not made of cellular pigments but of nanostructures. The top of the wing is interspersed with grooves and pits made of a protein called chitin.

The scattering of light gives the butterfly an iridescent color – meaning its color changes with every angle.

When affected by heat in the form of invisible infrared radiation, chitin nanostructures expand, change shape, and thereby change color.

3. Flashy feathers

Butterflies aren’t the only species to use nanostructures in beauty care. In Australia and New Zealand, Eudyptula minor pigeons are found with dark blue feathers instead of the traditional black.

Scientists at Akron University in Ohio discovered that these birds created dark blue feathers in a completely new way. They use parallel nanofibers that separate the light to produce a perfect blue color.

The 180 nm wide strands are made of beta-keratin, a protein also found in human hair. Similar fibers have been found in a number of other blue-skinned birds, but have never been found in feathers.

3. The pigment produces electricity

Most wasps are most active in the morning and disappear by noon. However, this is not true for oriental wasps – the most productive workers in the sun.

According to the study, the nanostructures of this bee’s exoskeleton form a type of solar cell that collects light and energizes the bee.

The brown tissue in the belly of the oriental wasp contains melanin – a pigment that protects the skin by absorbing ultraviolet rays and turning it into heat.

In addition, the structure of these colorful fabrics also includes many grooves that “trap” the light and cut it into many smaller rays. Meanwhile, the yellow tissue of bees containing xanthopterin can convert light into electricity.

This is why this bee is the most productive at midday. It also explains an earlier study where anesthetized oriental wasps woke up earlier if exposed to UV light.

4. Slippery leather set

Snakes seem to crawl very easily with their catfish, but their movements are actually a complex interplay of muscle movements and small-scale physique.

The snake’s belly is made up of very small hairs called microfibrils, less than 400nm wide. They all headed in a certain direction towards the snake’s tail.

It protrudes about 200nm above the skin, allowing the snake to glide forward smoothly while preventing any backward movement.

The friction pointing in one direction also prevents the snake from sliding out of its way even when it is on an inclined surface.

5. Nano toes

Tokay’s geckos use nanotechnology to hang themselves from trees, walls, windows, and even ceilings. The gecko’s feet are covered with microscopic hairs called bristles.

They break down into thousands of smaller hairs with a 200nm wide paddle-like finish. The surface of these tiny hairs maximizes the effectiveness of the Van der Waals force – a weakly electrically attractive force between the molecules at the gecko’s feet and the molecules on whatever it is attached to.

The synergy was so strong that the gecko could give its whole body with just one toe, even on a piece of glass. Engineers mimicked the gecko’s structure to create super-sticky tape, glue, and even a climbing robot.

6. Super durable silk yarns

Spider silk is one of the strongest materials known to humans. It is stronger than steel, they can withstand the force of the wind and catch flying insects without breaking it

Spider silk achieves this power with the fine crystal protein stacked only a few nm away. At the atomic level, the layers are linked by hydrogen bonds.

The link is not particularly strong, but on the contrary it is an advantage, as it allows the silk to easily stretch and change shape, allowing them to stretch and bend under impact. by force instead of collapsing.