The little secret in bat "martial arts"

In people's minds, bats are often associated with darkness, bloodlust, and terror. It lives day and night, in the company of vampires, and lives in dark caves, forests, or deserted castles. I don't think there are any animals in the world with more "notoriety" than bats. Let's take a scientific look at bats.

First, he found that bats can "martial arts"

As the only mammal that can truly fly, bats have a series of morphological characteristics that adapt to flight in addition to the characteristics of ordinary mammals: light bone throughout the body, muscular to control flight, degenerated hind limbs, and large ears.

Why are big ears a physical feature adapted to flight? This is because bats have practiced a unique "martial art" - echo positioning. When the bat flies, it emits ultrasound waves from its mouth and receives sound waves with its ears for localization.

This "martial art" of bats was first discovered by an Italian biologist, Lazzaro Spallanzani. In the summer of 1793, Sparlatier, who was accustomed to going out for a walk after dinner, noticed that many bats flew around flexibly in the night sky, never hitting trees or walls.

Spartier couldn't help but wonder: What special ability do bats have to fly freely in the night sky?

Second, reveal the secret of bat "martial arts"

At first, Sparlatier thought that these elves must have a particularly sharp pair of eyes. If their eyes were obscured, it would be impossible to deftly dodge obstacles in the dark and catch moths with agility. So Spartier blindfolded the bats and released them. To his surprise, bats were still able to fly flexibly.

Sparlatje wondered, without eyes, how can bats identify objects in front of them and catch moths? This time, he blocked the bat's nose. As a result, bats still fly with ease.

"Could it be that he has membrane-like wings that not only can fly, but can also see everything at night?" Sparlatier guessed. He caught a few more bats and painted them all over their bodies, but it didn't affect their flight.

Finally, Spartier blocked the bats' ears and put them into the night sky. The bat lost its previous aura and bumped into the air like a headless fly, quickly falling to the ground.

yes! Bats that fly at night originally rely on hearing to identify directions and confirm targets! It is Spartier's curiosity and persistence that reveals the secrets of bat flight.

Later, people continued to study and finally figured out the principle. Bats make "sounds" that are inaudible to the human ear through their throats, and this sound travels in a straight line and reflects back as if light had shone on an object when it hits a mirror. Bats receive this reflected "sound" with their ears and can quickly make road conditions judgments, so that they can deftly fly freely and catch food.

Experiments have shown that most bats have a throat that makes sound, but it is not the same, and some large fruit-eating bats such as brown fruit bats use their tongues to make sounds.

So, what is this inaudible "sound" made by bats? That's right, it's the ultrasound you've all heard of. Depending on the frequency of the sound, from low to high, the sound can be divided into infrasound, audible sound, and ultrasound. The frequency range of sounds that humans can hear is 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Sounds with frequencies below 20 hertz, which humans can't hear, are called "infrasounds," but some animals can hear them, such as elephants.

Sounds with frequencies above 20,000 hertz, which humans cannot hear, are called "ultrasonic waves." The sound that bats use to locate navigation is "ultrasonic", which is why bats are so quiet when flying at night.

After people discovered "ultrasound", they used it to bring a lot of convenience to life. In fact, everyone is not unfamiliar with ultrasound, and now we have many applications of ultrasound around us.

For example, the B ultrasound system commonly used in hospitals is to use ultrasound to check the health of the human body or fetal development. In modern society, many people's first photos are taken with B ultrasound in their mother's belly.

In addition, ultrasonic cleaning technology is also more common. Ultrasonic can be used to clean glasses and other daily necessities, and some electric toothbrushes also use ultrasonic technology to improve the effectiveness of dirt removal.

The "reversing radar", which can provide drivers with more safety tips, has become a standard component of most cars, and it also uses ultrasonic waves to detect obstacles and calculate distances.

The humidifier commonly used in northern households also uses ultrasonic waves to break water into small water droplets, so as to achieve a fogging effect.

We have been inspired too much by the bat, the "silent hero", and then the ultrasound is widely used in industry, medical and many other fields, which greatly facilitates people's production and life. Should we be thankful for bats?

Third, for the bat "debunking"

In the Internet era, every day in the media, the drama of "rumors" and "debunking rumors" is staged in the media. Here I also "debunk" two articles for bats.

First, due to the similarity of principles, many people believe that "radar was invented based on bats" and is a "model" of biomimicry. Is this really the case?

Let's first look at how radar works. Radar emits electromagnetic waves in a certain direction in the air through an antenna. These electromagnetic waves will be reflected back when they encounter the target; the radar antenna will then receive the reflected waves, and through the processing of these data, the distance, speed, altitude, orientation and other information of the target are calculated.

First of all, although the principle seems to be the same, in fact, the ultrasonic waves emitted by bats belong to mechanical waves, while radar produces electromagnetic waves, and the two are fundamentally different.

Second, as early as 1886, the German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz confirmed the existence of electromagnetic waves, thus laying the theoretical foundation for the invention of radar. Radar eventually became a device used in the military field in the late 1930s. Donald Redfield Griffin, an American zoologist who discovered that bats have ultrasonic and echolocation properties, was only a Harvard student when he tried to study bats in 1938, and it was only in 1944 that the animal Echolocation ability was determined.

Therefore, the invention of radar has nothing to do with bat echo localization.

Second, bats have the ability to echolocate, and many people think that bats are "blind". Is this true?

Bats belong to the order Pterodactyl, and there are many species, mainly divided into large bat suborders and small bat suborders, which use different sensory patterns to perceive the surrounding environment.

One of the representatives of the suborder Of the Great Bat is the large flying fox (Pteropus dasymallus). This bat lacks laryngeal echolocation and relies on smell or vision to find food, and it has a highly developed visual system.

Although the vision of the suborder of small bats is not as good as that of large bats, it also plays an auxiliary role in flight in a light environment. Although they have vision, echolocation is still their primary means of perceiving their surroundings.

Therefore, bats are not "blind", and not all bats have poor eyesight.

Having said all this, do you think that bats are very capable? When we face bats, the "natural spirits" with extraordinary skills, we should not only panic, disgust and even hate, but also treat them scientifically and objectively. For the inspiration it brings us, we must scientifically study and use it.

Bats' superb flying skills and exquisite echolocation technology are beyond the reach of human beings' current technological level. The research on bionics, mechanics, medicine and other aspects of bats will be deepened. Human beings should always maintain a sense of reverence in the face of nature and live in harmony with the natural environment.