6 modern technologies that use animals for more than a million years

Humanity is proud of its technology. It seems to us that they elevate us above all other biological species.

However, analogs of at least some "outstanding" achievements of our science animals used when a person is in the world, and yet there was no trace ...

1. Termites use hydrogen energetiku



As long as companies and governments spend billions of dollars trying to build a future, based on hydrogen energy, tiny creatures nesmyshlёnye using this technology for millions of years.

You think what tirelessly termites gnaw our homes? Not out of spite. Their bodies - the most that neither is perfect bioreactors. They are processed pulp in hydrogen and then use its energy. From a single sheet of paper is obtained as much as two liters of hydrogen - like performance for a long time we would only dream of. In the body of the termite lives about 200 different species of bacteria. Together they make up something like a miniature chemical plant.

And it is not only energy invention termites. They are able to build building height of ten meters with a specific air-conditioning system. During construction, they somehow take into account the shape of the hill and the location within the tunnel. As a result, the air circulates exactly to provide ventilation strategically important objects (for example, they have a greenhouse where they grow a special fungus).

2. Cuttlefish have built flat ekranami



Cuttlefish - representative of group of cephalopods. Almost everyone who has teeth (including humans) cuttlefish seems awfully tasty. So her not to die out, it is necessary especially to dodge. Pride security cuttlefish - the ability to almost completely merge with the environment. They change color almost instantly. And not just the color, but even the structure of the skin.

How do they do it? They have something like an analogue of our flat screens TVs that cover every centimeter of their bodies. Cuttlefish skin is made up of multi-colored layers, so while reducing the tiny muscles in it can appear almost any image - even Mona Lisa, if necessary.

It is not an exaggeration. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other research institutions have created a flat TV screen, based on the principle of cuttlefish skin. It is made out of layered polymers, which expand under the influence of different voltage, something like cuttlefish skin. The simplicity and cheapness karakatitsepodobnogo device allows you to make ultra-thin screen - almost up to one micron (0 001 mm approx. Mixstuff.ru).

3. Elephants have an idea of ​​farmakologii



Let's start with the fact that from time immemorial the elephants were treated to what we call geophagy - eating earth, ashes, dirt and various mineral precipitates. So they got rid of the toxins, which could swallow with plants.

In addition, it is known that they use special plants (borage family, approx. Mixstuff.ru), to speed up deliveries.

Apparently, it's also some kind of medical procedure, do not undertake to assert

At one time, the South African elephants were on the verge of extinction. They managed to survive only thanks to the fact that they were eating Ganoderma - is a genus of fungi of tinder, which is widely used in Chinese medicine as an anticancer and antiviral agent.

4. Spiders invented diving kolokol



Imagine for a moment that you are a spider. And, yielding to the call of the charming mermaids, decided to settle in the water. How do you do? You can not live without air.

Out of this situation I have found a spider-diver who went and built his own submarine. Splёl dense spider web in the shape of a ball, she scored in the air and went under the water.

Although Aristotle and described something similar back in the fourth century, the first human diving bell was built only in 1535, the year. By our standards it is quite a long time, but with a 300-millionnoletnim spider experience ridiculous to even compare.

5. Pigeons use navigation system that is much older and more perfect than nasha



Despite his reputation as a foolish bird that only knows how to shit where no hitting, dove (especially e-mail) also has one very important advantage - the navigation system, which is equal to, we still have not invented.

You can take a pigeon, put in the trunk of his car, and drive hundreds of kilometers - to a place where the bird had never been never. Release and she will find a way home. Cases of when doves were doing way back in 1800 kilometers.

Scientists once did not try to explain this phenomenon, including the theory that pigeons somehow guided by the magnetic fields of the Earth.

During World War II, America let down a lot of money on research project codenamed "Project Pigeon," which studied the use of carrier pigeons in the guidance. Before the bird exhibited screen on which to project an image area, "relayed" to the nose guided munitions. From pigeons to peck at the screen required electrical contacts, keeping so "sight" in the facility.

Nothing in them, however, did not work.

6. Among the Malaysian ants have smertniki



Mandibular gland Malaysian ant soldier stretch the entire length of his body. This is no accident. These glands are filled with poison. If such ant enters into an unequal battle and one point realizes that the enemy can not win, he inflates these glands, they explode. The explosion is so strong that the head is completely detached from the body and poison scatters in all directions.

So the invasion of predators if force is clearly not equal, these ants are waiting until around them gather more enemies and ... detonate.

via factroom.ru

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