Woodpecker's head inspires shock absorbers

New Scientist ^ | 2/4/11 | Paul Marks

[La Lydia]

Wonderful. I love stories like this.

[WayneS]

That is precisely the reason that when I bang my head against a wall in utter frustration at the latest outrage perpetrated by leftists I try to keep the frequency down to around 10-12 'beats' per second.

[lurk]

Now that is useful research, as opposed to redundant polling research by universities concluding that boys are different from girls or kleptos tend to steal stuff.

[WayneS]

...an area of spongy bone in its skull...

So Al Gore could survive what; 2,500-3,00 g without serious injury?

[camerongood210]

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

Leonardo da Vinci

[jda]

Hmm, kind of sounds like it was designed that way, doesn’t it???

[fishtank]

Intelligent design.

.

[bunkerhill7]

Woodpecker’s self-designed head inspires shock absorbers

[LibWhacker]

Me too! I love it because of the number and variety of potential applications... Motorcycle and football helmets that give wearers the ultimate protection against shock. They might even be able to vastly improve the padding football players wear on the field, or the gear soldiers wear into combat.

Someday you might be able to walk around on the freeway without fear of being hit by a semi-truck, or jump out of an airplane without a parachute, etc.

Fantasy maybe, but I'd wager in time scientists will be able to improve greatly upon the woodpecker's natural design.

[martin_fierro]

[DecentAmerican]

On that note...

woodpeckers, agreed amazing creatures, but these varmints are literally destroying my house! Every spring, one or two find a spot under the eaves of my roof and start hammering away, making huge holes that i have to patch up. Any suggestions by anyone on how to get rid or prevent them? I just can’t put shiny hanging objects all over the place, which is the only thing I have been able to do.

[martin_fierro]

Any suggestions by anyone on how to get rid or prevent them?

Easy. Tinfoil house.

[OneWingedShark]

Some sort of bird-eating cat?

[DuncanWaring]

Air rifle?

[dblup]

My Marlin .22 Mag puts a hole in ‘em even a woodpecker would admire.

[LibWhacker]

Lots of suggestions here: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=gsnesc&xhr=t&q=how+to+get+rid+of+woodpeckers&cp=21&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=0&aqi=&aql=f&oq=how+to+get+rid+of+wood&pbx=1&fp=6ff3edaf3d921b6b

A few years ago we were getting a lot of woodpeckers attacking our house. But I couldn't figure out where exactly they were pecking. I couldn't see any damage. And everytime I heard them and went outside to check it out, they'd fly away. Then, just by chance, our shake roof happened to need replacing and we choose composite shingles. Haven't had a woodpecker here since, and that was five years ago.

[Billthedrill]

Dunno about the tinfoil. I think I have one with a scrambled brain, because he’s pecking furiously at my garage’s metal roof. I’m wandering out there of a morning, nice and quiet and peaceful, cartoon bubbles popping before my eyes, and this little bugger cuts loose and scares the pluperfect poop out of me. Sounds like a riveter. He’s torn swaths of bark off this cedar tree outside my window, too. I’m thinking...napalm...

[COBOL2Java]

[Secret Agent Man]

Woddpecker’s ‘accidentally evolved head...

All this stuff is just a cosmic accident, right? And in the end it won’t matter because in a billion years the sun will be so big earth will be burned up and maybe even sucked into the expanding sun.