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未来的潜水服有可能是温暖的

从自然中学习,有时候小动物会成为我们的老师灵活运用自然的奥秘才能提升我们的科学技术水平和生活质量,下面和小编一起看一下科学界又有什么新奇的事:未来的潜水服有可能是温暖的

Future Wetsuits Otter Be Warmer

Whales, seals and walruses stay warm in chilly water because they have a thick layer of blubber. We humans rely on something like blubberneoprene rubber wetsuitsto spend time in cold water. But the thick versions for really icy water are heavy and ungainly. So rather than taking after big marine mammals, what if we could learn from the littler ones, like beavers and otters?

鲸、海豹和海象能在寒冷的水中保持温暖,因为他们有厚厚的脂肪层。我们人类依靠像鲸脂氯丁橡胶雨衣在冷水中渡过时间。但厚厚的雨衣在冰冷的水里非常沉重而笨拙。所以如果我们能向小哺乳动物如海狸和水獭学习,就不用向大的海洋哺乳动物学习了?

These animals are quite small and they can't carry around a thick layer of blubber. So instead they have fur that is evolved to trap air, and this air provides a layer of insulation for them in water.

“这些动物都很小,他们没有厚厚的脂肪层。然而,相反他们有皮毛,包裹着空气为他们在水中提供了绝缘层。

Alice Nasto is a graduate student in mechanical engineering at MIT. Scientists have known about this air-trapping insulation mechanism for a long time, but they had not teased out the details of how it works. So Nasto and her colleagues took on the challenge.

Alice Nasto是麻省理工学院机械工程研究生。科学家们很早就知道这种空气潴留的绝缘机制,但他们并没有梳理出它是如何工作的细节。所以, Nasto和她的同事们接过这一挑战。

We're creating these furry samples from these rubbery materials by laser cutting molds and casting these hairy surfaces. And through our approach we can precisely control the spacing of the hairs[ and] the length of the hairs.

“我们从这些橡胶材料中创造出这些毛茸茸的样品,用激光切割模具并铸造这些毛茸茸的表皮。通过我们的方法,可以精确地控制头发的间距和的头发的长度。

The researchers then created a system to gather data when their pelts entered and moved through a liquidin this case not water, but silicone oil, which makes it easier to see air bubbles. The key is to keep the pelt’s air layer intact.

然后研究人员创建了一个系统来收集数据,当它们的毛皮进入并穿过这样的液体——不是水而是硅油的液体时,这使得它更容易看到气泡。关键是要保持皮毛空气层的完整性。

So when they're crossing the air water interface, initially their hairy texture is full of air. And then you go into water. How much of the air comes down with you as you're moving in through the interface. So that's what this model will tell you.

因此,当他们穿过空气-水界面时,最初他们毛茸茸的纹理充满空气。然后你进入水中。当你通过界面移动时,空气中有多少会下降。这就是这个模型会告诉你的。

They found that the denser the hairs, the more the air gets trapped. Which should keep the animalor potentially the human in a future furry wetsuitwarm. The research is in the journal Physical Review Fluids. [ Alice Nasto et al, Air entrainment in hairy surfaces]

他们发现,头发越密,空气就越被困。这能让动物或可能在未来身着毛茸茸的潜水服的人保持温暖。这一研究在物理评论期刊上发表。

What we would like to work on moving forward is understanding how, after you dive into the water, how do you maintain this air layer trapped in your fur. And there's lots of interesting properties of the fur in nature that we haven't yet looked at in our model that could help explain how this mechanism might work.

“我们想进一步了解,当你潜入水中后,你是如何让空气层充满毛皮。而且在自然界中有许多有趣的特性,我们还没有在我们的模型中看到,这些模型可以帮助解释这种机制如何工作。

So for now, cold-water divers and surfers will still emulate seals or sea lions. But the day may come when theyll more closely resemble otters or beavers. Or even a Wookiee on a boogie board.

所以现在,冷水潜水员和冲浪者仍然会模仿海豹、海狮。但也许有一天,他们会更像水獭或海狸,甚至猿人踏着冲浪板。