October 9, 2012 at 9:55 pm
As humans, it is inevitable to believe that we are born into this world with an instinct; an unknown conscious which is the means to our development. Without this instinct, many of the activities we take for granted would be a prioritized thought (i.e. breathing, sleeping, and walking). If humans were not born into this […]
October 9, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Atlantic Puffins truly are remarkable birds. Puffins can swim underwater and fly in the air. They have evolved their high speed wings and their rudder like webbed feet enabling them to swim efficiently underwater, where they catch small fish including herring and sand eel. They can dive to a depth of 200 ft and can […]
October 9, 2012 at 7:24 am
With the help of Hollywood, bats throughout the years have given the wrong impression to the general public. Portrayed as blood suckers that only mean to harm people, these amazing creatures in actuality are vital and essential to protecting our ecosystems. With bats being one of the bug exterminators of the animal kingdom and with […]
October 8, 2012 at 11:24 pm
Researchers at Harvard and MIT have been hard at work trying to understand the mechanics of in flight collision avoidance in birds. the goal of this project is to develop small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that can navigate a forest or urban setting without crashing into trees or buildings, while still being able to fly relatively […]
By lneves
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Tagged avoidance, bio-inspired engineering, birds, coordination, flight, flying, Harvard, MIT, obstacles, robots, UAVs
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October 8, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Bats aren’t the only aerial predator of night. Owls with their stealth abilities and quick moves dominate the night. Owls are known as the most silent flying animal. How do owls approach their prey so fast without being noticed? Can we take their solution of silence and apply it to our aircraft?
October 8, 2012 at 9:49 pm
The Quetzalcoatlus, named after the frightening Aztec God, was a ptrodactyloid dinosaur known for being the largest creature to ever take flight. With an astonishing wingspan of 40 feet and a weight of 400 pounds, these species must have been incredibly feared as they soared through the skies in search of food. Right? Well, maybe […]
October 8, 2012 at 4:10 pm
The Galapagos Islands, a group of islands in the South Pacific off the coast of South America, became infamous in 1859 because of the industrious work of Charles Darwin, a naturalist. Darwin’s research came under extreme scrutiny because his book, On the Origin of Species, claimed that evolution occurred, arguing against the common held beliefs […]
October 4, 2012 at 11:36 pm
The image of Spider-man swinging through New York City on his webs is a familiar image to many people. He looks cool and dynamic as he flawlessly swings from building to building using his powerful webs. Luckily, for the many people who are scared of spiders, spiders can’t actually fly around like Spider-man can. Or […]
October 4, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Proponents of intelligent design thought they had this small, yet vastly important, query under their control, or in the bag if you will. The flight of bees, that is. In the mid-1930s, French entomologist August Magnan came to the strikingly weird, yet seemingly true observation, that bees’ flight was aerodynamically impossible. However, most humans have […]
October 3, 2012 at 5:20 pm
There’s no way bumble bees can fly! Their body is way too big, their wings too small. And it makes sense because wing loading increases as weight increases (bumble bees are definitely heavy) and the higher the wing loading the faster you must fly. With such small wings, there’s no way they can generate enough […]