Friday 30 December 2016

Smart Design Feature: Air-Conditioner in Antelope Nose

Image courtesy of Vladimir Yu. Arkhipov, Arkhivov, Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).




Joel Kontinen

The Saiga antelope might not win prizes in beauty contests. A native of the steppes of Kazakhstan, it has a nose that looks really bizarre.

But just like the Toucan’s beak or the penguin’s cold-proof feathers, it is there for a reason. When it’s hot, the nose acts like a cooler. And when it gets cold, it serves as a heater.

We can see designed features everywhere in nature, provided we’re not blinded by naturalistic thinking but keep our eyes open instead.(See examples here, here and here.)


Source:

BBC Earth. 2016. The bizarre beast with an air-conditioning nose. (30 November).