Amazing ways Animals using nanotechnology #1
Hey Steemians,
Its been a long time I haven't written a post on nanoscience, So today I decided to just make a different section of my forth coming articles. If you have followed my articles, I have talked about how nature uses nanotechnology and basically how nature inspires us to nanotechnology.
So, I have talked about some of the animals which uses nanotechnology for different functions or you can say nature blessed them with the power to use nanotechnology for their daily life.
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRB9PGkyngymV7nqqLex2wfWxBzGZTBo3U4DrvLMJ5dm3/na1.jpg)
You must have seen yellow hornet, they are different from bees and are more aggressive and attack in group force.
They build there hive by chewing the woods and then engineering a hive which have several functions.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/01/21/10/06/branches-1153393_960_720.jpg)
They produces nano sized silk fiber and these silk fiber are being used in the development of their hives. They are known to regulate temperature of the hive, provides luminescence property to the inner silk of hive and thermovoltaic and photovoltaic property of silk.Image Source
They are self powered super bugs
Some of the species build their hive in open air whereas some species of it make it underground. As most of the wasps are active in day time and slow down considerably at midnight. Apart from all these unique abilities these yellow hornets are also capable of restoring light energy and can self power themselves using sunlight.
A research group of Tel Aviv University revealed that nanostructures present in insect's exoskeleton happens to form a kind of solar cell, used to harvested light energy that could power the hornet's work. In the brown section of hornet back (abdomen) carries the nano structured grooves. These grooves are arranged in a manner which help in storing the light energy, the sunlight which impacts the surface bounce back to cuticle and the yellow colored band at the abdomen also supposed to absorb light. Xanthoperin is the pigment that gives yellow color and can be used to convert the light into electricity. The conversion is more likely happening inside the body and that tells why they are more active in the sunshine.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/http://discovermagazine.com/~/media/Images/Zen%20Photo/A/Amazing%20Animal%20Nanostructures/3532.jpg?mw=1000&mh=800)
Interestingly when they anaesthetized these hornet by diethyl ether they awake spontaneously in about an hour. However, when anaesthetized the hornets which are in contact with direct irradiation awake much faster and fly out. Light has effect not only on whole body but also on the body parts, be they head, thorax or gaster. But, surprisingly hornet without the gaster region awakes much later than normal. (Gaster is the abdominal part of the hornet body)
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/03/25/10/35/hornet-296083_960_720.jpg)
What to expect, in the coming series!
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWiNLiU432nCCnBSeYUY2Mc2TLzaMsFV7viLUvGWRr1LB/na2.jpg)
Reference
Jacob et. al., 2004 Hornet flight is generated by solar energy: UV irradiation counteracts anaesthetic effects 53(6);623-633
Marian et. al., 2010 Solar energy harvesting in the epicuticle of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) 97(12);1067-76
Image Source 1,2,3,4.
Hope you have found this article interesting. If you do please upvote and resteem
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmZYMAFrS7HKdsgHVHTWAL8uJKnsXS1ptp8bSeBU6nRUzx/final%20xxx.jpg)
Being A SteemStem Member
Yeay, someone is starting a series :) Looking forward to more
Thanks @thethinkingdr
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Last chance!
Can you please highlight that sentence.....
Because I don't think I have taken anything directly from somewhere.
good post