Penguin’s Feathers Act Like a Natural Down Jacket

The King penguin lives on top of the ice in the extremely cold climate of the South Pole. The penguin can go without eating and withstand the cold for over 120 days while warming its eggs in a process called incubation. The secret to its success lies in its feathers. Unlike other birds, the penguin has short feathers made out of stiff material, each measuring about 3-4cm, shaped like small hooks. The feathers grow densely on the penguin’s body without any gaps. The stiff, dense feathers do not even move in the face of strong winds. Also, when the penguin enters the water, each feather bends like a hook until the surface of the penguin’s body looks like one flat sheet of cloth built from the feathers. Once the penguin returns to the surface, the feathers all spring back, returning to their original shape. In addition, when it feels cold, the penguin lays the feathers flat against itself so that the cold air cannot directly touch its body. When it feels hot, the penguin raises its feathers to let out the air from its body. The King penguin has slippery feathers that fit closely to its body like a bodysuit. Moreover, the penguin produces a grease from a spot at the base of its tail. The penguin disperses this grease all over its body with its beak while grooming itself, which makes its feathers water-repellant.

Defense/Stability:: Cold resistance、Temperature control

Other

Dawson.et al., Heat Transfer through Penguin Feathers, J. theor. Biol., 199, 291-295, 1999

The penguin’s feathers can serve as a model for the development of new synthetic fibers. If it is possible to artificially recreate the structure of the penguin’s feathers, we could make clothing using material that is light but also provides good heat insulation and water resistance. This would be helpful for creating clothing suitable for us when we go on vacation in cold climates. Right now standard cold weather clothing includes coats made from fluffy rabbit or angora fur, or down jackets stuffed full of feathers. However, if we created outerwear using more compact, flexible material (similar to the penguin’s slippery feathers), we could design pieces that are form-fitting, not bulky, and yet still keep us from feeling cold.

Query	Affected	Num. rows	Took (ms)	Actions
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents`	16	16	2	maybe slow
SELECT CHARACTER_SET_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLLATIONS WHERE COLLATION_NAME= 'utf8_general_ci';	1	1	1
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `users`	10	10	9	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups`	4	4	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `permissions`	5	5	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups_permissions`	3	3	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups_users`	3	3	9	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_searches`	6	6	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `attachments`	11	11	9	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `attachments_revs`	13	13	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_related_items`	5	5	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `related_items`	6	6	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_related_items_revs`	8	8	9	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_tags`	5	5	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `tags`	7	7	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `tag_groups`	6	6	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_tags_revs`	7	7	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_revs`	18	18	2	maybe slow
SELECT `Content`.`id`, `Content`.`user_id`, `Content`.`last_edit_user_id`, `Content`.`post_date`, `Content`.`post_date_year`, `Content`.`post_date_month`, `Content`.`post_date_day`, `Content`.`title`, `Content`.`title_en`, `Content`.`content`, `Content`.`plain_content`, `Content`.`page_view`, `Content`.`flag`, `Content`.`mod_count`, `Content`.`created`, `Content`.`modified` FROM `contents` AS `Content` WHERE `id` = 153 LIMIT 1	1	1	0
SELECT `Attachment`.`file_name`, `Attachment`.`dir`, `Attachment`.`model`, `Attachment`.`foreign_key` FROM `attachments` AS `Attachment` WHERE `file_name` <> 'default.jpg' AND `Attachment`.`foreign_key` = (153)	1	1	0
SELECT `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content`, `ContentsRelatedItem`.`related_item_id`, `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content_id` FROM `contents_related_items` AS `ContentsRelatedItem` WHERE `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content_id` = (153)	11	11	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 1	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 2	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 4	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 6	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 7	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 8	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 11	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 12	1	1	0
SELECT `ContentsTag`.`id`, `ContentsTag`.`tag_group_id`, `ContentsTag`.`mod_count`, `ContentsTag`.`tag_id`, `ContentsTag`.`content_id` FROM `contents_tags` AS `ContentsTag` WHERE `ContentsTag`.`content_id` = (153)	3	3	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 68	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 6	1	1	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 79	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 6	1	1	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 175	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 7	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`id`, `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name`, `RelatedItem`.`created`, `RelatedItem`.`modified`, `RelatedItem`.`flag` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `code` = 'function' LIMIT 1	1	1	0
SELECT `Content`.`id`, `Content`.`title`, `Content`.`title_en` FROM `contents` AS `Content` WHERE id = (NULL) ORDER BY `id` desc	0	0	0

Message	Memory use
Component intitailization	6.79 MB
Controller action start	6.83 MB
Controller render start	6.90 MB
View render complete	7.93 MB

Message	Time in ms	Graph
Core Processing (Derived)	351.41
Component initialization and startup	15.82
Controller action	38.92
Render Controller Action	54.93
» Rendering View	51.21
» » Rendering APP/views/contents/view.ctp	27.83
» » Rendering APP/views/layouts/default.ctp	21.75
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/header.ctp	1.41
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/content_sidebar.ctp	0.33
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/footer.ctp	0.47

Penguin’s Feathers Act Like a Natural Down Jacket

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Penguin’s Feathers Act Like a Natural Down Jacket

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