Bee tongues could inspire new textiles
Researchers in China are analysing how the water-repellent hairs on a bee’s tongue could provide inspiration for textiles.
A report in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces journal, from the China’s Sun Yat-sen University, said researchers had previously studied the structure and motion of the hairs, but their surface properties and relationship to overall flexibility hadn’t received the same scrutiny.
They said: “Honeybee hairs are water repellent. That’s unexpected, since most liquid-capturing organs in nature are hydrophilic, or water loving. But the hairs’ hydrophobic nature makes the tongue more flexible, which is useful when foraging from sources with differing shapes. The findings could help researchers design new materials.”
The authors received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Sun Yatsen University, Guangdong Province and Shenzhen Science and Technology Programme.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
