Cooling butterfly wings. Free Technical Library News

NEWS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, NOVELTY IN ELECTRONICS
Free technical library / timeline

Butterfly wings cooling

23.02.2020

In order to take off, a butterfly literally needs to warm up: if its muscles are not warm enough, they simply cannot contract at the speed that is needed for flight. Therefore, if the butterfly is too cold - for example, after a cold night - it crawls out into the sun and warms itself. But after all, not only her pectoral muscles are heated, but her whole body, and the wings too, and the wings heat up faster than the muscles. And it may happen that by the time the muscles are ready to take off as they should, the wings will be overheated.

Although the wings of butterflies seem to us inanimate - in the same sense in which bird feathers or our nails are inanimate - they still have areas of living tissue: these are the vessels penetrating the wing, through which the hemolymph (an analogue of blood in insects) flows, and the so-called androconia are groups of specialized scales that evaporate pheromones. Overheating for living areas of the wing would be inopportune. But butterflies have some tricks that allow them to cool their overheated wing.

Researchers from Columbia University, together with colleagues from other scientific centers, developed a special method with which it was possible to evaluate the heat radiation at different points of the butterfly's wing (a conventional infrared camera was not suitable here - it could not even distinguish the heat radiation of the wing from the heat radiation of the background). The new method was tested on 50 species of butterflies, and it turned out that the living areas of their wings are covered with special tubular nanostructures that serve as a kind of radiator; in addition, both vessels and odorous areas carry a thicker layer of chitin, which also helps to dissipate heat.

Some butterflies also showed an additional cooling system: for example, the male pigeons Satyrium caryaevorus and Parrhasius m-album have a vascular structure in their wings that pumps blood through odorous organs - these vessels contract several tens of times per minute. Such a pseudo heart in the wings makes them heavier, but the butterflies are apparently ready to put up with the extra heaviness in the wing, just to keep it from overheating and not letting their own source of pheromones deteriorate.

<< Back: Drones against coronavirus 23.02.2020

>> Forward: Speed record in 5G network from Ericsson 22.02.2020

Latest news of science and technology, new electronics:

The existence of an entropy rule for quantum entanglement has been proven 09.05.2024

Quantum mechanics continues to amaze us with its mysterious phenomena and unexpected discoveries. Recently, Bartosz Regula from the RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing and Ludovico Lamy from the University of Amsterdam presented a new discovery that concerns quantum entanglement and its relation to entropy. Quantum entanglement plays an important role in modern quantum information science and technology. However, the complexity of its structure makes understanding and managing it challenging. Regulus and Lamy's discovery shows that quantum entanglement follows an entropy rule similar to that for classical systems. This discovery opens new perspectives in the field of quantum information science and technology, deepening our understanding of quantum entanglement and its connection to thermodynamics. The results of the study indicate the possibility of reversibility of entanglement transformations, which could greatly simplify their use in various quantum technologies. Opening a new rule ... >>

Mini air conditioner Sony Reon Pocket 5 09.05.2024

Summer is a time for relaxation and travel, but often the heat can turn this time into an unbearable torment. Meet a new product from Sony - the Reon Pocket 5 mini-air conditioner, which promises to make summer more comfortable for its users. Sony has introduced a unique device - the Reon Pocket 5 mini-conditioner, which provides body cooling on hot days. With it, users can enjoy coolness anytime, anywhere by simply wearing it around their neck. This mini air conditioner is equipped with automatic adjustment of operating modes, as well as temperature and humidity sensors. Thanks to innovative technologies, Reon Pocket 5 adjusts its operation depending on the user's activity and environmental conditions. Users can easily adjust the temperature using a dedicated mobile app connected via Bluetooth. Additionally, specially designed T-shirts and shorts are available for convenience, to which a mini air conditioner can be attached. The device can oh ... >>

Energy from space for Starship 08.05.2024

Producing solar energy in space is becoming more feasible with the advent of new technologies and the development of space programs. The head of the startup Virtus Solis shared his vision of using SpaceX's Starship to create orbital power plants capable of powering the Earth. Startup Virtus Solis has unveiled an ambitious project to create orbital power plants using SpaceX's Starship. This idea could significantly change the field of solar energy production, making it more accessible and cheaper. The core of the startup's plan is to reduce the cost of launching satellites into space using Starship. This technological breakthrough is expected to make solar energy production in space more competitive with traditional energy sources. Virtual Solis plans to build large photovoltaic panels in orbit, using Starship to deliver the necessary equipment. However, one of the key challenges ... >>

New method for creating powerful batteries 08.05.2024

With the development of technology and the expanding use of electronics, the issue of creating efficient and safe energy sources is becoming increasingly urgent. Researchers at the University of Queensland have unveiled a new approach to creating high-power zinc-based batteries that could change the landscape of the energy industry. One of the main problems with traditional water-based rechargeable batteries was their low voltage, which limited their use in modern devices. But thanks to a new method developed by scientists, this drawback has been successfully overcome. As part of their research, scientists turned to a special organic compound - catechol. It turned out to be an important component that can improve battery stability and increase its efficiency. This approach has led to a significant increase in the voltage of zinc-ion batteries, making them more competitive. According to scientists, such batteries have several advantages. They have b ... >>

Alcohol content of warm beer 07.05.2024

Beer, as one of the most common alcoholic drinks, has its own unique taste, which can change depending on the temperature of consumption. A new study by an international team of scientists has found that beer temperature has a significant impact on the perception of alcoholic taste. The study, led by materials scientist Lei Jiang, found that at different temperatures, ethanol and water molecules form different types of clusters, which affects the perception of alcoholic taste. At low temperatures, more pyramid-like clusters form, which reduces the pungency of the "ethanol" taste and makes the drink taste less alcoholic. On the contrary, as the temperature increases, the clusters become more chain-like, resulting in a more pronounced alcoholic taste. This explains why the taste of some alcoholic drinks, such as baijiu, can change depending on temperature. The data obtained opens up new prospects for beverage manufacturers, ... >>

Random news from the Archive

Memory makes it difficult to distinguish colors 12.06.2015

Our eye distinguishes many shades of colors: among only blue, we can distinguish azure, and cobalt, and ultramarine, and many more other options. However, in our memory, we still have some kind of “main” color that replaces all shades: azure, cobalt, and ultramarine become just blue.

Jonathan Flombaum from Johns Hopkins University and his colleagues from a number of other American research centers set up the following experiment: volunteers were asked to look at a color wheel with 180 different shades and find among them the "best" blue, "best" green, orange etc. Then for a moment (more precisely, for one tenth of a second) they were shown a colored square, which was replaced by an absolutely white square - at this time it was necessary to revive the color of the first square in memory. Finally, the person had to find that color on the same color wheel.

As psychologists write in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, when trying to indicate the color they saw, all participants in the experiment were mistaken, trying to point to the one that seemed to them the “best” for the first time, that is, the most corresponding to yellow, blue, green, etc. and not the one that actually happened. Moreover, the craving for such a primary color intensified if, after a colored square, it was necessary to remember its color at least for a split second. That is, the more actively the memory worked, the worse the person found the shade that he really saw.

In other words, when we go to the store and take some wallpaper or paint of the same (as it seems to us) shade that we have at home, and then we come and understand that the shade is not at all the same, it’s not the fault so much the seller who convinced us to take not that, but our own memory. The same can happen not only with flowers, but in general with everything that we see: the brain tries to reduce all objects to some basic "prototypes" that have been deposited in it. Of course, when we talk about the best, or basic, or prototypical color, then this has nothing to do with the physics of color - here we are talking about the personal psychological characteristics of the individual. Why this or that object or color suddenly became the main one for him is another question that requires a separate study. It is possible that the clue here lies partly in the language and word usage: if we meet and pronounce the word "blue" more often than the word "azure", this may affect which of the colors our memory will retain.

See full Archive of science and technology news, new electronics

All languages of this page

Home page | Library | Articles | Website map | Site Reviews