If a creature is giantized, what humans fear most is not tigers and lions, but it , the drum shrimp, which comes with its own super weapons. During World War II, when the Allied navies were tracking Nazi submarines, they encountered a strange thing: their underwater listening equipment was always disturbed by some crackling noise. Could it be that his movements had long been detected by the Nazis?
Later, scientists discovered the culprit of the "attack" warship, a new creature drum shrimp, which is distributed in the oceans of the earth, and unlike other shrimp, it has clawed feet of different sizes, generally only 5 centimeters in length, and the larger claw can grow to 2.5 centimeters, almost half of the body.
The secret of the noise comes from this big claw, which is a super weapon of the drum shrimp, the drum shrimp hunting method is very special, the other animals are melee mages, only the drum shrimp is a gunner.
Although the U.S. Navy had discovered in 1946 that the noise came from drum shrimp, it was not clear how the noise was generated until 2000, with the help of high-speed cameras, scientists discovered how drum shrimp made noise.
The noise of the drum shrimp does not come from the collision of the rapidly closing giant claw, but from the cavitation bubbles (also known as cavitation cavitations) caused by the high-speed jet generated when the giant claw closes.
Drum shrimp "gun" slow motion
Scientists have found that the laser weapon that humans have always wanted to build, in this biological has been realized, these low-pressure cavitation bubbles because of the role of the pressure difference rapid collapse, will make the water vapor and air volume in the cavitation bubble compress sharply, in the collapse to the minimum volume of the moment (nanosecond level) to produce extremely high pressure and temperature, because the phenomenon is the water collapse inward, so the heat generated in the process can not spread outward at the moment of collapse, so that the center of the vacuum area can even reach about 5000 degrees Celsius, you know, The surface temperature of the sun is only 5500 degrees Celsius.
The researchers also observed that the explosion even produced shock waves and a large number of photons, which we call light in the popular sense, a process that lasted for a very short time, and this luminous phenomenon could not be observed by the naked eye, but could only be detected by professional instruments. This phenomenon is called shrimpoluminescence, and the jets fired by drum shrimp can reach speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour.
High-speed cameras capture the closing process of the giant claw of the gun shrimp
The simple understanding is that when the drum shrimp hunts, it will quickly close its giant claws, spraying a stream of water with a speed of up to about 100 kilometers per hour, shocking, knocking out, and even killing prey such as small fish and crabs. This high-speed flow of water triggers cavitation (a force that causes low-pressure bubbles in the liquid to suddenly form and burst), forming a tiny low-pressure bubble that cracks and cracks when the water pressure returns to normal, and the drum shrimp's skill is also known as the Shock Wave Plasma Gun.
And how loud is this sound? 218 dB! How loud can the average person withstand? Staying in a 100-decibel environment for a long time will be hearing impaired, 120 decibels for a minute will temporarily cause deafness, more than 120 decibels, once the time is long, the ears will suffer irreversible damage, and even deafness, because of this, the drum shrimp is also known as the pistol shrimp.
The clawed feet of the drum shrimp
Flocks of drum shrimp can form a fairly strong noise, enough to interfere with underwater communications, sound guidance weapons and submarines, so that they can not accurately pursue the target, in the World War II period so far, the most important interference of the sonar system of submarines on the seabed comes from the drum shrimp, it can be said that the drum shrimp is the only creature that can have a substantial impact on the submarine, if they have wisdom, it is even more terrifying. Therefore, the vocal habits of drum shrimp and the nature of the sound they emit have always been of interest to the military.
1946 Naval Electronics Laboratory, Department of War Studies, University of California, on noise caused by gun shrimp in the ocean
Scientists scanned the claws of the drum shrimp and found that its structure was so delicate that a typical giant claw of the gun shrimp consisted of four main parts: a chelch, a chessel, a cricket groove, and a crust joint connected to the penultimate joint.
Among them, the cheet and chessel parts are the main active parts. Before firing, the gun shrimp's shock plasma gun will first open the giant claw to a certain angle, and then trigger the claw hammer to close quickly through muscle control, while the chelation quickly enters the crust, forcing the water in the crawl slot to drain quickly from the chelation channel.
The exoskeleton, muscles and joints of the giant claw are delicate and complex, and over the long years have evolved a biodynamic curve suitable for the "shock plasma gun", which is difficult to replace with the existing precision mechanical device.
X-ray 3D scanning of the geometry of the giant claw of the gun shrimp (A-C) and the corresponding 5-fold magnification of the bionic device components (D-F)
What is the ammunition of the drum shrimp? It is the seawater, and in the ocean, the drum shrimp is equivalent to a gunner with unlimited ammunition. Relying on this powerful weapon, the 5-centimeter-long drum shrimp can shoot prey up to 1.8 meters away, and even break human glass, and the sturdy fish tank can be cracked. If not hit, they can also stun their prey with a 200-decibel noise.
They use this weapon to the extreme, using this powerful weapon to use, in addition to preying, it can also be used for defense, communication, and to build hiding places on coral reefs.
In addition, the birth of this efficient biomimetic device that produces cavitation will greatly promote research progress in related scientific and engineering fields - such as geothermal drilling: traditional mechanical drilling is PDC drilling in drilling fluid, but if the cavitation cavity and PDC drill bit are combined to produce cavitation cavitation air holes in the drilling fluid, causing micro-cracks on the rock surface, it can increase the drilling rate and greatly reduce the drilling cost. In addition, it may also be helpful in areas such as sewage treatment, underwater shock treatment recovery, underwater acoustic devices, and reduced fluid resistance.
Of course, the drum shrimp are not without weaknesses, and their eyesight is not good, so they have cleverly found an ally, the gobies, and when danger comes, the gobies will shake their tails to remind the drum shrimp when they encounter danger. Whenever the goby hides in the burrow, the drum shrimp will also hide, and in return, the drum shrimp will use their claws to build a beautiful house for the goby.
Think about it, if the drum shrimp had wisdom and became as big as humans, what would happen?