Following on from our post the other day, “Human Designers Struggle to Match Biological Designs,” here’s another illustration from the field of biomimetics.
Light bulb technology has come a long way in recent decades, with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) supplanting tungsten bulbs, with their wasteful heat, in many applications. Still, engineers would like to increase the efficiency of bulbs further. A simple trick used by fireflies turned out to dramatically increase the light output of a test bulb designed by Belgian physicist Jean-Pol Vigneron, after he became intrigued by the display of fireflies one night on a field trip in Central America. A video clip shows how the story unfolded, as the BBC News explains “How fireflies inspired energy-efficient lights.”
Congratulations to Vigneron for his design smarts. Imagine the smarts of the designer who came up with his original inspiration.
Image credit: Victoria Borodinova, via Pixabay.