Kaleidoscope

as a dandelion // A tender shoot sprouts precociously through a hole in the asphalt—how can that happen? Professor Thomas Stützel, a botanist at the University of Bochum, explains: “Over small areas it takes very little force to build up a huge amount of pressure.” Biochemical processes enable the plant to develop pressures of 13 bar, concentrated at the tips of its shoots and roots: that’s six times greater than the pressure of a car tire. During the day the asphalt becomes warm and slightly malleable. Tiny cavities are formed into which the shoot pushes forward until finally it penetrates the surface.

Sleek // Anyone who has ever watched penguins in the zoo will remember the amazing ease with which they glide through the water. Scientists have discovered that a penguin traveling at a speed of around 11 km/h has a resistance to fluid flow of around 0.03 cd. That’s roughly equivalent to a one euro coin moving edge-first through the water.The bird’s spindle shape that broadens in several stages from the beak to the head and from the head to the bulbous trunk adapts itself so ideally to the swirling eddies that occur when swimming that the water is able to flow virtually unimpeded around the body.

Flexible // Scientists dream of being able to create spiders’ webs artificially: the natural material has five times the tensile strength of steel and twice the elasticity of nylon.What’s special about the spider is that its gossamer thread of long protein molecules in a sticky solution does not harden until after it has been secreted via the spinneret. As a result, the thread acquires a microstructure lending additional elasticity and strength. The gossamer is ten times thinner than a human hair. But the resulting webs can trap even large and fast-flying insects.

Bright // In terms of efficiency, glowworms are the undisputed champions: they convert over 95 percent of consumed energy into pure light. Light bulbs are pretty dull by comparison. Only 5 to 15 percent of the energy they use is turned into light, while the rest dissipates as heat.To date, efforts to reproduce the insects’ glow have failed. They light up like other technical light sources—electrons are first boosted to a higher energy level, and as they return to normal, photons are released. But glowworms use complex biochemical processes to transfer energy to organic molecules.