English · livello B2. Leggi il testo in inglese e allena la comprensione. Il video con audio e sottotitoli sincronizzati è in arrivo sul canale YouTube.
Oil spills can have a profound and devastating impact on marine life. So it is somewhat ironic that marine life has inspired a new way to handle them. Engineers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia have developed a tiny robot — affectionately termed "Robomop" — designed to clean up oil spills in a way that mimics nature itself.
The disarmingly cute device you see above is a bio-inspired platform for on-site, remotely actuated oil-water separation. More simply, it is a minibot that has been built to clean up oil spills. And the way it does that is by mimicking two creatures that live in the ocean: dolphins and sea urchins.
At the electronic dolphin's heart is what Ghadei and his colleagues call an "oil-selective biomimetic filtration material". In simple terms, it is a sponge with properties inspired by sea urchins. "Sea urchins possess fascinating hierarchical surface architectures that interact uniquely with water," says Ghadei. "Inspired by these micro- and nano-scale structures, we engineered a material with controlled roughness and surface energy to make it superhydrophobic and superoleophilic." This means the filter strongly attracts oil but repels water.
The electronic dolphin represents a genuine improvement over existing methods of dealing with oil spills. It keeps clean-up crews out of harm's way, it works in rough waters, and it does not release harmful chemicals into the water or atmosphere. Even better, the filters can be reused repeatedly with only a minor drop-off in their performance, unlike many existing absorbents, which are all single-use.
Oil spill — accidental release of oil into the environment. Bio-inspired — designed by imitating nature. Sea urchin — small spiny sea creature. Superhydrophobic — strongly repelling water. Superoleophilic — strongly attracting oil. Absorbent — material that soaks up liquid.
Why is biomimicry — copying nature — such a powerful engineering principle? What other environmental problems might be solved by studying living creatures?
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