1) Cleaning tools
Do you notice that houseflies will extend their "tongue" when they are eating? If you don't, you can refer to this picture.
Houseflies digest their food externally, unlike other animals. They applied solvent liquid onto the food to dissolve the food into liquid form so that they can suck up. So, how do they digest food externally?
This special phenomena attributed by the unique sponging mouth parts of houseflies. The mouth parts consist of a fleshy labium, at the end of which are large, sponge-like organs called the labella (singular, labellum). Labium can be moved and bent. The labella is a complex structure which consists of many grooves, called pseudotrachea. It sops up liquids similar to what sponge does. Salivary secretions from the labella help in dissolving and collecting food particles so that they may be more easily taken up by the pseudo trachea (by capillary action). Then, the liquid food is drawn up from the pseudotracheae through the food channel into the esophagus.
This special phenomena attributed by the unique sponging mouth parts of houseflies. The mouth parts consist of a fleshy labium, at the end of which are large, sponge-like organs called the labella (singular, labellum). Labium can be moved and bent. The labella is a complex structure which consists of many grooves, called pseudotrachea. It sops up liquids similar to what sponge does. Salivary secretions from the labella help in dissolving and collecting food particles so that they may be more easily taken up by the pseudo trachea (by capillary action). Then, the liquid food is drawn up from the pseudotracheae through the food channel into the esophagus.
 |
| Housefly labellum magnification 41x |
 |
| Housefly mouth part structure |
 |
| Housefly labellum magnification 170x |
 |
| Housefly labellum showing individual papillae structure (magnification 2300x) |
From the mechanism that houseflies suck up food into pseudotrachea by capillary action, we could apply this idea in developing an efficient, sustainable and environmental friendly cleaning tool like vacuum cleaner or mop. We can make use of the capillary action instead of electricity to capture particles.
2) Spiked shoes for athlete
There are many functions of houseflies feet. The claws on feet can grab to hold on and the small hairs can adhere to smooth surfaces through Van Der Waals force. Other hairs are sensory organs which allow them to taste food with their feet.
Fly has two fat foot pads on each of the foot that provide plenty of surface area with which to cling. The adhesive pads on the feet, called pulvilli, come equipped with tiny hairs (also known as satae) that have spatula-like tips. Van Der Waals force will be created between fly foot and surface that allow them to cling to the wall or ceiling like gecko. This mechanism allows gloves and shoes with millions of tiny hairs to be manufactured to assist rock climbers, or workers who need to keep a firm grip on their tools. Not to forget that shoes could be developed for athlete especially track runners to replace the spikes shoes. This is for the safety issue as athlete could get hurt by the spikes.
 |
| Close-up of the tacky hairs and claws on a fly foot taken with an Electron microscope |
Fly has two fat foot pads on each of the foot that provide plenty of surface area with which to cling. The adhesive pads on the feet, called pulvilli, come equipped with tiny hairs (also known as satae) that have spatula-like tips. Van Der Waals force will be created between fly foot and surface that allow them to cling to the wall or ceiling like gecko. This mechanism allows gloves and shoes with millions of tiny hairs to be manufactured to assist rock climbers, or workers who need to keep a firm grip on their tools. Not to forget that shoes could be developed for athlete especially track runners to replace the spikes shoes. This is for the safety issue as athlete could get hurt by the spikes.
 |
| Rock climbing gloves |
 |
| Spiked shoes for track and field |
No comments:
Post a Comment