WEBVTT - Creature Classic: Biomimicry 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:10.120 Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host of. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:14.720 Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.360 and today on the show, we are talking about biomimicry. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.919 It is when humans plagiarize from animals. 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:23.040 We are not. 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.400 Given any royalties to these creatures, and yet we use 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.400 them as inspiration for our inventions. 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:32.840 We're talking about shark. 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:38.560 Skin suits in a non hannibal elector way, butterfly money. 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.840 We're talking about gecko tape. And I have a guest 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.680 who is bringing up some mystery animals even to me, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.840 So discover this more as we answer the age old 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.600 question have you ever rubbed a shark? 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.200 Joining me today is host. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.800 Of the Maximum Fun Network podcast Just the Zoo of Us, 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.800 Ellen Weatherford, Welcome woo. 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.520 Nobody listening can see me dancing. I'm dancing. 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:08.520 Feel the energy. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.280 Just imagine in your head that I'm dancing and it's 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.160 like really good, like I'm doing a really really like. 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.000 The subtle vibrations of the air waves into the microphone 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:23.360 as you dance does give an energy to the audio, 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.480 a dance energy. Ellen, have you ever have you ever 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:28.279 rubbed a shark. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.160 I have rubbed a shark. It's kind of fun. How 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.920 you ask, because I just told this story like on 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.640 like two weeks ago, maybe on our podcast. So my 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.800 husband and I when we were just friends. This was 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.560 prior to our relationship with a bunch of other friends. Yeah, 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.880 I got shark. Sond We were out with a bunch 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:52.680 of friends on the beach in the middle of the night. 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.560 We were flying kites at like I don't know, eleven pm. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.680 It's pitch black dark. I've got my dog out on 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.080 this beach. And she runs up and finds a dead 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:06.360 bonnet head shark on the beach. Yeah. This is in Florida, 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.880 by the way, I should have said. And Christian, who 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.240 is now my husband, picks it up and he's like, 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:15.960 you know, checking it out. He's he's looking at he's 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.800 interested in sharks and stuff. Sure, And I was like, 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.480 that's me, but I yeah. He's like, I'll mess with 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:26.279 it a little bit. And I have historically been absolutely 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.760 terrified of anything that lives in the water. I don't 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:30.000 want to touch it. If it's in the water, I 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.120 don't want to touch it. And so Christian asks me, 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.959 because he knows I'm I'm also just a perilously curious person. 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.760 And he says, do you know what a shark feels like? 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.920 And I was like, no, I don't. Uh what does 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:45.680 it feel like? He goes, I'm not gonna tell you. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.000 I was like why not? And he's like, because I 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.359 think you should get over your fear and touch it. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.440 It's dead, it can't do anything to you. So if 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:55.760 you want to find out what it feels like, you 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.000 got to touch it. And he knew that my curiosity 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:00.680 was going to get the better of me. And I did, 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:02.160 in fact touch the shark and. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.839 I rubbed it how to feel. 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:06.320 I don't know if you want me to spoil what 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:10.480 the texture is. I've rubbed a. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.760 Shark before, I've rubbed rays, I've rubbed sharks, I've rubbed 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.720 a lot of things. Your fear about touching things in 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.519 the ocean is actually pretty reasonable, because there are some 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.560 things that if you touch, you could die. 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:26.600 Most things will mess you up. 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.119 A lot of things in the ocean will mess you up. 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.560 Like if you see a little yellow octopus with its 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.320 adorable and it's got bright blue rings, and you know, 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.080 don't touch that one. It'll kill you with a touch 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:45.680 A toxin, So your instinct is correct. But usually a shark, 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.840 especially dead one, is not going to hurt you if 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.320 you rub it. So what did it feel like, Ellen, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:53.920 when you were rubbing that dead shark. 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.200 So if you were to pet it as one would 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.080 a dog, when you pet it from like head to 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.680 tail in that direction, feels kind of like what you 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.000 would expect it to, like a sort of smooth feeling 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.360 from head to tail. But if you were to go 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:12.120 in the opposite direction, it is really really rough and 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.840 sand papery and like a like a really coarse grit 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.359 sand paper, like you could you could actually get a 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.520 rash from like rubbing it in the opposite direction. 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.800 In fact, researchers do sometimes get rashes, like when they 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:26.599 handle sharks getting too much. 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.240 It seems like the least cool injury you could get 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:32.480 when working with sharks. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.719 It sounds like it sounds like you could be easily 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.480 misunderstood if you're like, I got a rash from rubbing 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:45.720 this shark. But yeah, it's it's not it's not ideal 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.799 thing to rub in the wrong direction, and it's actually 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.000 kind of reminds me a bit of cat tongues, you know, 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.080 like that, Yeah, like they're kind of smooth in one direction, 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.440 but they're super sand papery and rough in the other direction. 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:01.160 And have you ever liked. 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.200 Yeah, and they don't look that way, Like when you 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:04.839 just look at them, you can't. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:07.360 Yeah, when you look at a distance, you're like, that's 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.719 just a little tongue that should feel gross and wet, 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.640 but it's like actually really rough. And when you look 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.839 at it more closely, you see all these like kind 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:15.800 of tiny like hooks, like it looks a little bit 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.479 like velcrow. And that's what causes that sort of coarse 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:25.040 texture with sharks. The thing that's causing that coarse texture 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.200 is denticles, which I. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.160 Love the word. It is just such a fun word. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.120 And dentical can' out stress enough the d at the 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.560 beginning delta, we're not talking about tentacles. They're not covered 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.119 in tiny little tentacles that would be LOVECRAFTI. 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.440 In I can only assume that denticles comes from the 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.599 same I'm gonna say Latin root as dentin or dental 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.599 meaning tooth, because it is these are tooth like projections, 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.680 and when you look at a shark skin close up, 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.440 it kind of looks like tiny teeth all lined up 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.000 kind of like dragon scales, I want to say, And 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.880 so it makes sense then, right, like imagine you're petting 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.400 a dragon, as I do all the time, and you're 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.200 petting it in one way where the scales are sort 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.760 of like the direction the scales are facing, then it 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.400 will be smooth. But if you pet against it, it's 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:23.560 gonna be really rough in sand paper. And so that's 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.599 why that shark feels like you could sort of you know, 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:31.800 finish a wood project, a table that you've. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:32.400 Been working on. 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:35.640 This is my shark lathed. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:37.760 Yeah you like. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.320 You like this banister? I I evened it out with shark, 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:43.800 so uh yeah. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:45.640 So they have these these. 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.799 These denticles and they are really interesting because they offer 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:56.479 these shark a few cool perks. One is obviously kind 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.480 of some armor, right, Like it makes their skin a 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.320 little harder, a little tougher, And you'd think that maybe 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.880 this is for like shark on shark sort of attacks, 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.920 but like it, which is true. It can make them 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.840 a little more tough endurable like against other sharks or 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:14.560 whales or large you know fish. But it has a 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:20.320 lot of use actually for the small things, so like barnacles, parasites, bacteria. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:21.480 Even algae. 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:26.760 It the surface makes it harder for them to adhere to, 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.760 to stick to, and so there it's kind of like 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.560 you know, like if you have a section cup and 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:34.880 you put it on like glass, like that's stuck on 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:36.760 there forever and it's really hard to get it off. 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:37.840 But if you put it on like. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.400 A wall that's kind of bumpy, you stick it on there, 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.360 it doesn't have as much like suction. It's harder to 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.520 like stick on there. Even though like barnacles don't necessarily 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.440 use like section to stick on things. It's like a 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.360 similar concept board. It's like their their adherence to the 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.000 shark is made more difficult by the fact that it 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.120 has this like sharp bumpy texture. 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.520 Like disrupts the sort of adherence to exactly. It's it's 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.320 funny that you say suction because the like, just two 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.880 weeks ago, I was talking to a researcher named Amani 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.920 Weber Schultz who studies were moras and they do suction 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:20.160 right onto like the underside or the side of a shark. 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:22.400 And a lot of the things we talked about was 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.040 that she actually studies denticals on different types of sharks 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.040 and was telling me about how not only do like 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:33.880 different species of sharks have different shapes of the denticals, 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.760 just like how different sharks have different teeth, right, Like 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.760 you can you can identify, like what shark a tooth 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.720 came from by the shape of it. And it goes 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.679 for the denticals too, that if you really zoom in, 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.559 you could look and like the denticals will have different shapes. 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.760 But then they'd have different shaped denticals on different parts 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.680 of their body, like the ones that the nose would 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.520 be different than the ones at the tail. She was 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.600 telling me about that, my mind was blown. Like she was. 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.600 She had some really amazing research that they did on 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.160 shark scales, because it is so much more complicated than 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.040 you might think. When you just look at a shark, 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:08.240 like you can't even really tell they have those now 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:09.240 they're tiny. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.440 You really can only see them under a microscope and 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.280 you can feel them with your hand because of the roughness. 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.600 But yeah, that's interesting. I mean, like remoras are. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.280 Not necessarily bad for sharks. It's a debate whether there 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:28.680 it's a mutualistic versus like a commensal relationship, meaning like 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.320 the remora might benefit more from the shark than the 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.560 shark benefits from the remorra, but the remorra is not 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:36.360 hurting the shark. 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.120 So like the I think it's interesting. 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.559 So like, I think the reason the remora can kind 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.040 of stick to the shark one thing is that the 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:47.920 remort is probably picking a part of the shark that's 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:52.319 a little smoother. Also, but also the remorra is larger 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.000 than say a barnacle, so it's like the larger it 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.200 is like if you stick a plunger to a wall, 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.920 you might get some suction where it's like a section cup, 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.000 you might not get it. I mean again, I'm not 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.359 saying that the small animals use like section necessarily. 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.360 It's just like the that surface. 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.080 Becomes as you zoom out, it becomes smoother, and then 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.600 as you zoom in, like when you're smaller and smaller, 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.800 that's even bumpier for you as a tiny animal trying 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:18.240 to like stick on to the shark. 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.600 It's funny how like physics works differently when you're just 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.560 tiny exactly. You know we're gonna talk about physics. 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:27.079 We're going to talk about that some more. 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.640 I mean, I'm I'm not like a doctor of physics 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:36.920 or of anything, despite what you might think in terms 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.800 of my you know, garage clinic, but no, I don't 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.439 have any like I don't have a great understanding of physics, 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:50.559 but yeah, it is. It is crazy. So the these denticles, 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:56.840 in addition to providing a hostile environment for like bacteria, algae, barnacles, 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.000 also reduce drag underwater, so it breaks up the resis 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:04.320 distance from the water and allows them to basically cut 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:08.000 more through the water. So like you know, just like 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.880 with air, will create drag, if you're a shark under 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.600 the water, you're also gonna encounter some drag, like the 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.559 resistance of the water against your shape and your body 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.840 that slows you down. And so by reducing drag, they 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:27.880 also so they make themselves more energy efficient, they make 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.560 themselves faster and quieter. All of this is very important 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:36.000 for an apex predator like a shark that wants to 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.800 be well, not always apex depends on the size of 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.840 the shark, but a shark that wants to be quiet, 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:46.280 it's an ambush predator generally speaking. And it also is 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.880 it benefits the shark to get to an animal quick 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:54.880 more quickly than say other sharks or other predators. So 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.360 all these things really benefit the shark, it also benefits 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:00.480 Olympic swimmers, or at least used to. 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:00.800 So. 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:04.400 The most obvious use of shark skin in terms of 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.839 human innovation is like a swimsuit to make us swim 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.680 good and speedo, which is apparently not just a type 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:16.959 of swimsuit. It's like a company made a swimsuit out 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:21.520 of basically like manufactured fake shark skin. It's not made 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:26.479 out of actual shark called fast skin that uses microscopic 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:31.439 structures that are similar to denticles to reduce drag, and 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.640 it was used by Olympic swimmers and it was so 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.720 good that, like in two thousand and eight, the Olympic 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.679 Committee was like, Okay, stop, you can't use this anymore. 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.480 Guys are going too fast, You're breaking too many records 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.439 and we don't like it, which seems weird to me 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.800 because it seems fun that we're getting people to be 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.679 faster and faster. I don't know, I'm not like an 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:59.480 Olympics uh expert. I don't really know what the term 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:01.839 for Olympics fans. 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:06.760 Is an Olympian OLYMPI I don't think that's. 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.440 Is that like, is that someone who's into the Olympics 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.760 or someone who competes in the Olympics. 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.760 I think it's actually someone who lives in Olympia, Washington. 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.920 Olympus heads, Olympics heads. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:21.160 Yeah, so it's I feel like if I was in 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.040 that position where we're like, oh, we got to do 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.880 something about these guys swimming too fast with it. Instead, 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.400 just make the fast skin mandatory for everybody, right level 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:35.079 the playing playing field, but faster, everybody going as fast 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:35.600 as they can. 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.439 I think a good compromise is like, you can use 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.400 the fast skin, but you also have to dress like 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.680 a little shark, so like you need a little dorsal 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.800 sh need a little shark outfit. 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:52.600 Like when I was a kid, they sold these like 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.520 goggle like goggles that had the shark fin on and 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.400 also these like flippery sort of maybe this was Shark 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.880 Boy in lave a Girl tie in Merch, but they 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.240 definitely and March for that movie almost certainly. 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.360 That's a deep cut. But no. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:16.439 Yeah, if okay, look compromise Merman and women mer people. 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.040 Put everyone in a murr person tail. 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.920 Everyone everyone gottaware Mermaid outfit shark, but the shark. 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.160 Kind the Murman, Merman and Mermaid. 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.280 Sorry, I feel like we should have more inclusive like 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:35.360 merh murpholk murfolk. That's it murfolks, and they have to 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:37.280 be shark based murpholk. 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.440 Yeah, I think that's what everybody do. Make it mandatory 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.880 for everybody, then it's equal merfolcification. 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.640 So in addition to turning Olympians into murph folk, there 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.160 are other applications for man made dentacles. You can use 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.200 it to, like in paint to make the holes of 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:04.600 ships more resistant to barnacle attachment, and in medical settings 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.560 actually to prevent bacteria from growing on surface they're like 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:12.080 working on sort of they like basically surfaces in a 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:16.040 hospital make them more resistant to bacteria. One way to 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.280 do that would be to make the service disruptive to 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.080 the growth of bacteria by doing something similar to shirkskin 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:26.320 with like little projections. And then also to improve aerodynamics, 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.720 right like whend turbines, airplanes, it's a constant like air, 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:38.640 obviously different than water, but similar concept supply in terms 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:41.920 of breaking up wind reserves, wind resistance. So like some 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.560 things that work in terms of hydrodynamics might also work 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.800 in aerodynamics. And that is all I know about the 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.360 physics of this situation and nothing more. 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.320 We maybe at a disadvantage here, because I also, uh, 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.520 not only do I not know anything about physics, tried 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.720 to learn about physics. I took a physics class in 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:08.520 college and I immediately failed, like within two weeks. They 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:10.000 were like. I was like, they weally, I don't know 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:11.560 how you have an f already. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:11.760 Because I want to. 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.160 I once answered a question so bad on a physics 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.960 test in high school. My teacher was like, wait, this 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:19.800 was you, and I said yes, and he was like 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:25.000 this made me so upset, and he was like heartbroken 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.480 that I would answer it so bad. He was like, 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.440 this made me really sad. I'm like, wow, I've broken 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:33.720 my teacher. I answered a question so bad. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.200 I'm a biology person, leave me alone. 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:37.480 Yeah. 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:39.680 I don't even know what I was at that point. 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.240 I was a World of Warcraft person who wasn't No. 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:44.359 I was very studious. 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.920 I just sometimes would get very much in my own head, 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.080 like during a test, like overthinking it to the point 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:54.080 of writing a small paragraph that made no sense. Anyways, 0:16:55.200 --> 0:17:00.960 I traumatized my physics teachers the point, So Ellen, you 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:05.000 have some you have some human innovations of your own 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:06.480 that you wanted to draw attention to. 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.520 I do. And luckily my first one ties in so 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.480 perfectly to the one that you were just fantastic because 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.760 you were talking about, you know, using animal adaptations for 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.639 increased fluid dynamics, right like better in the case of 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:28.960 shark skin, this is hydrodynamic, mineus aerodynamic. Nice. So to 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.120 kind of set the scene a little bit, it's Japan, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:34.080 it's the nineteen nineties. 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:35.360 I'm already sold. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.320 Yeah, Evangelian is huge city pop playing in the background. 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.199 I have a very limited understanding of Japanese culture in 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.439 the nineties outside of anime. 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:47.520 That's all I got. I'm so sorry, Like. 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.800 I am a rube, I'm not city pop is playing. 0:17:53.480 --> 0:18:01.639 It's a vibe. Now. The original Shinkansen bullet tree had 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.639 a problem. They were way, way, way too loud. So 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:09.879 these bullet trains had this kind of like blunt, rounded nose, 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.320 and when the bullet train would go through a tunnel, 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.560 which these tunnels were often like around neighborhoods and offices 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.359 and places where people are going to be. So when 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.400 this train with the rounded nose would go through a tunnel, 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.760 they would make a booming sound. Every single time. It 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:31.680 would be like a sonic boom that would like wake 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:32.479 people up at night. 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.600 That sounds a bad I love train, it's not ideal. Yeah, 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:37.800 that would make me turn against trains. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.240 Like I have lived with a train with train tracks 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.840 literally in our backyard, Like, yeah, we have a tram 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:45.800 that train would go by. 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:47.679 We have a tram that runs like right outside, and 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.480 it's fine because it's Oh. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.080 We had a slight train, great trains going through a 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.560 backyard where like when the trains would go by, our 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:59.600 dishes would shake in the cabinets and you kind of 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.320 get used to it after a while. But this was 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.359 like this was a legitimate, like sonic boom that was 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:05.720 happening every single time of training. 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.200 It's like that's a form of torture to like wake 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:09.600 people up with loud noises. 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:12.760 Maybe it was intentional. I don't know. Maybe there was 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:14.800 some sort of CIA. I don't know. 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.200 Thomas the tank engine gone CIA. 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:25.040 He's an agent of the state. So this engineer named 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.000 ag Nakatsu had to figure out how to make them 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.120 quieter because this was a menace. Ag Nakatsu was also 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.960 a bird watcher. He spent a lot of time out 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:36.840 watching watching birds. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:37.920 Am I right? What? 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.560 Oh my god? I could never would be so embarrassing. 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.560 I'd never do that my binoculars in the background. 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.000 I'd never get excited about gray tits. 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.760 I've never done that. I've never taken pictures from five 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:53.879 hundred feet away of a grebe that I wanted to 0:19:53.960 --> 0:20:00.879 identify later. So being a birdwatcher, he knew about kingfish, which, 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.399 if you're not totally familiar with what a kingfisher is, 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.399 it's kind of a stout shaped bird with a really 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:12.080 really long, really really pointy beak. A kuka burra is 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.760 a type of kingfisher. So he was familiar with kingfishers 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.360 with this really long, really pointy beak. Now, the important 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.040 thing is that kingfishers often dive into the water because 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.040 they eat fish. And when they dive into water, they 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:29.119 do it at really really high speeds. But they don't splash, 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:33.639 like they just kind of seamlessly like dive into the 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.680 water totally. 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.840 Like, yeah, it is beautiful, it is gorgeous. 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.600 Yeah, like these these guys are they have the game cornered. 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:46.520 It is beautiful. So the reason they're able to do 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:51.520 this is because their long, pointy, tapered beaks are pushing 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.520 the water to the side rather than in front, so 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.080 it's making the water go around their head and behind 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.040 them rather than like bunching all of it up in 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.520 the front and making it splashed to the sides. So 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.359 Nakatsu and his team gathered a bunch of data on 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.400 Kingfisher beaks, right, they did like you know, high speed 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.479 videos and observations, and they measured the curvature of the 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.720 beak and the length and the proportions and everything like that. 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.159 Used all of that, used what they learned from Kingfisher beaks, 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:24.600 and tested out simulations of different shapes of trains and 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:28.399 settled on this long tapered It wasn't completely pointy in 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:30.840 the front, but it was much less rounded than it 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.600 had been originally. And so in nineteen ninety seven, the 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:39.160 West Japan Railway Company introduces the five hundred series, which 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.720 has a long pointed nose that mimics the beak of 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:47.400 a Kingfisher. And not only were the tunnel booms eliminated, 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:51.600 so problem solved, Mission accomplished. We did it, boys, uh. 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.000 But the trains were also so aerodynamic that they ran 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.960 faster and consumed less electricity, so they worked better than 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.199 they did before, and they were cheaper to run, so 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.000 all around total win. 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:09.159 I'm looking at these trains and they're pointy. I like it. 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:10.160 It's a pretty train. 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:17.000 One. This is beautiful. I love these trains. It's so cool. 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:18.440