Biomimetics with Living Parts?

An interesting and even fun topic is biomimetics (or biomimicry), which means that people study certain things in nature and try to copy them for human use. Of course, secularists do not give the Creator credit for what they copied — which is still nowhere near as efficient as the original design.

Dogs have been trained to sniff out drugs, bombs, and even cancer (which scientists are attempting to copy). It seems to be the nature of some scientists to keep on working to see what they can come up with.

Hawkmoth, Flickr / David Bygott (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In this case, a quadcopter for detecting smells. Nifty idea to have something small that can go into dangerous areas that would be hazardous for dogs or humans. The hawkmoth has very sensitive antennae for detecting odor molecules (in itself a testimony for the skill of the Master Engineer), so researchers helped themselves. Literally. They plucked an antenna and were able to get promising results from what they call Smellicopter.

And now, researchers haven’t just copied one of God’s designs, but succeeded by using it. Needing a super-sensitive smell detector, University of Washington engineers attached an actual antenna of a moth to their drone quadcopter. Their goal? To build an odour-sensing aerial robot to remotely assess and navigate danger zones; one able to sniff out gas leaks, explosives, or disaster survivors.

The researchers used the antenna of a hawkmoth (Manduca sexta) because no human-made odour sensor can match its sensitivity and quick response. The moth’s antennae can sense chemicals in the air to find food or potential mates.

You can read all of this short article at "The ‘Smellicopter’ — Not just copying, but actually using, God’s design."