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moth powered electricity

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Seem that the cabbage tree emperor moth has little scales on them which absorb up to 50 percent of the energy (into movement) from sound waves - so bats can't find the little buggers.

Und zo, living near a rock concert, airport, motorway, rocking chair factory/cattery etc will become very popular with thrifty people.

* Oddly enough the moths don't have ears, so the moth must be thinking "Could have sworn I saw something" and the bat thinks "Could have sworn I heard something", truly Dame Nature has strange ways. Link.

not_morrison_rm, Nov 19 2018

Sound-absorbent wings and fur help some moths evade bats https://www.science...s-evade-bats?tgt=nr
[not_morrison_rm, Nov 19 2018]

piezoelectric protein https://aip.scitati...i/10.1063/1.4997446
[beanangel, Nov 20 2018]


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Annotation:







       This movement you speak of - presumably it's a vibration, not a displacement. And sound is already a vibration. So how is the modified vibration easier to turn into electricity than the original sound wave?
pertinax, Nov 20 2018
  

       Dunno, it's too early in the morning, try me after the 3rd cup of coffee.
not_morrison_rm, Nov 20 2018
  

       I would say that could accomplished with the use of magnets and mirrors. The technicians sort the details with this type of development.
xenzag, Nov 20 2018
  

       You could engineer moths with piezoelectric proteins [link] to produce electricity when they pick up vibrations.
beanangel, Nov 20 2018
  

       // living near a rock concert, airport, motorway, rocking chair factory/cattery etc //   

       The moth's systems will have evolved to deal with the specific ultrasonic frequencies used by their primary predators. They will need to be resonant at those frequencies, and no other.   

       Anechoic coatings on submarines have similar design constraints.   

       The sound from general environmental sources tends to be broadband and is therefore very challenging to attenuate satisfactorily, apart from catteries, where the main source of disturbance can be mitigated by purchasing a suppresor for your .22 rifle.
8th of 7, Nov 20 2018
  

       Desmond 22   

       No other information is available, for fear of reprisals.
not_morrison_rm, Nov 20 2018
  

       Do those moth scales convert sound into actual, usable "movement", or into "movement" of some parts of the scale relative to other parts, which is then converted by the intervening structures (seen in the image in the article) into heat? Though I suppose that latter "movement" could still be usable if you could hook up some of those piezoelectric proteins (!!) to the different parts of the scale.
notexactly, Dec 06 2018
  


 

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