We are biomimicking Millions of years of evolution to get fast and tested results. Art is always inspired by the nature surrounding us. We all remember the organic structures of Jugendstil or the romantic Paintings from nature. We urban dwellers often forget, that without nature we are nothing. It is not electricity that keeps us alive it is the energy from food, air and bacteria in our guts. We are in a deep connection with nature and equally fragile like animals. It is not that technology will save us from all our actions but maybe we can learn from some animals. Some evolved into using some kind of technology to survive in their niche.
A perfect example is the silver ant or Cataglyphis bombycina with her silver hairs. These Hairs have a prism like structure so they are able to reflect Infrared and also part of the visible Sun Rays. This is the ideal combination, so the heat is not scattered. The prism like hairs reflect the sun rays in a very target oriented way, so they do not blend each other.
These silvery hairs protect the ants against getting overheated in at least three ways. First, as a result of Mie scattering and total internal reflection, the hairs enhance reflectivity in the visible and NIR, where solar radiation culminates. Second, in the MIR, where solar radiation becomes negligible for wavelengths >2.5 μm, the hairs acting as an antireflection layer enhance emissivity and thus increase the ants’ ability to offload excess heat via blackbody radiation. Third, the ants’ bare bottom surface reflects MIR radiation from the hot desert floor more efficiently than if it were covered by hairs.
Experts have mimic these into a pyramide like structur small like these hairs in the 8 micrometer or 0,008 mm scale. They made a photomask, like you to make a photolithograpy, as we do to applicate computer processor structures. This is important to know, for receiving subsidies from the Chip industry. I doubt this, because new cheap cooling methods are threatening established businesses. We know from the passive cooling research and when you read my posts, that this structure is very similar to the radiative cooling surface of photovoltaic silicon cells.
With the current warming of the Oceans and Air and record low Ice we should slowly realize, we are in Climate Collapse and CO2 Reduction and Removal is way to slow. We have to superfast figure out how to cool whole regions to keep us and all the other species we depend on, in the ecological niche. I know this will not happen, but at least I tried to communicate what can be done to cool down urban places.
Cheers
Thomas
