Light Learning for Engineers from Animals

Biomimetics is where humans imitate characteristics of nature for their own benefit, so here are two examples. Indeed, if scientists who learn from creation were not such materialists, they might use Bible verses like Psalm 104:25-26 and  Job 12:7-8 as inspiration.

Using the night setting on my camera, instructions are given to stay still because the exposure is several seconds instead of the usual fraction of a second. The human eye (an inspiration for a researcher) does the opposite: It has constant tiny movements. His results were surprising when he imitated these movements.

Prism effect, Flickr / Ian Mackenzie (CC BY 2.0)

The researcher programmed robot cameras with the small motions like the human eye. It seems like they would be blurry, but he obtained sharper images!

In other news giant clams may have an impact on solar panels. Algae grow a certain way on the shells, and this helps the clams get the light they need. Their light collection strategy is more efficient by far than solar cells made by humans. Add to this the fact that northern spruce fossils use the same mechanism.

Apparently there is no "Hail Darwin! Blessed be!" or other evolutionary nonsense to get the Science imprimatur. Once in a while we get news of real science without that clutter, which is nice. Although the Creator does not get credit, his engineering expertise is evident. To see the material that inspired this post, click on "Animals Teach Engineers How to Manage Light."