Free Republic

While broken bolts on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge are commanding everyone's attention, Caltrans has another problem on its hands - 96 seismic shock absorbers on the western span, some of which began leaking lubricant just three years after they were installed. The estimated cost of the fix - $13 million. And, like the brittle bolts on the eastern span, there are questions as to whether Caltrans ordered the right shocks - or dampers, as they are known - in the first place. The dampers are located between the bridge towers just below the roadway, and are...

When aircrash investigators of the future retrieve a flight recorder from the wreckage of a plane they may have the golden-fronted woodpecker, Melanerpes aurifons, to thank for the survival of the flight data. The reason? A shock absorber inspired by the bird's ability to withstand severe deceleration. A woodpecker's head experiences decelerations of 1200g as it drums on a tree at up to 22 times per second. Humans are often left concussed if they experience 80 to 100g, so how the woodpecker avoids brain damage was unclear. So Sang-Hee Yoon and Sungmin Park of the University of California, Berkeley, studied...