November 15, 2022
Nature Knows Best, a video series from Xploration Station, looks at the clever ways scientists and innovators are copying nature to create some of the world’s most amazing advancements. For example, in season 1, episode 1, “Planes Inspired by Nature,” host Danni Washington takes a look at how exactly birds were the inspiration for the first airplanes. She flies planes in tight formation to try to mimic the energy-efficient flight patterns of migrating birds. She looks at how engineers are inventing wings that change their shape while in flight. And she even jumps out of a plane to test an innovation based on the flying squirrel! In episode 10, “Copying Nature’s Communication,” Washington takes a look at how today’s scientists are studying “swarm” behavior of animals to make better robots that will help in factories, collect things on other planets, or make better autonomous cars.