Mimic Makers: Biomimicry Inventors Inspired by Nature
How does a kingfisher dive into the water without a splash Why are a whale’s flippers bumpy
Why do maple seeds twirl when they fall How does a gecko walk on walls Mimic makers wonder how nature works They learn from living things such as animals plants and fungi They mimic or copy good ideas to create useful inventions What can you learn from the living world What can you invent Be inspired by these mimic makers
A Bullet Train with a Beak
Whoooosh Here comes the Shinkansen bullet train a locomotive with a nose like a bird beak Its sleek shape makes it quiet fast and energy efficient But it wasn’t always a two-hundred-mile-per-hour silver streak At first every time the train traveled through a tunnel it blasted out the other end with a boom that could be heard for miles around That all changed when a bird-watcher’s ideas took flight
