{"id":12363,"date":"2020-01-19T23:50:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T06:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=12363"},"modified":"2020-01-19T23:50:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T06:50:30","slug":"pigeon-feathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/pigeon-feathers\/","title":{"rendered":"Pigeon Feathers!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We lag behind nature in many areas, and constantly need to remind ourselves of our relative ignorance of her many secrets.\u00a0 Feathers are a case in point, and Stanford University researchers found that, unable to duplicate the nature of these lightest of airborne structures, they needed to use the real thing in their latest drone.<\/p>\n

The IEEE Spectrum reports, \u201cThe few attempts at making artificial feathers that we\u2019ve seen in the past<\/a>\u00a0have been sufficient for a few specific purposes\u00a0but haven\u2019t really come close to emulating the capabilities that real feathers bestow on the wings of birds. So\u00a0a century later, we\u2019re still doing the rigid wings with discrete flappy bits, while birds (one has to assume) continue to judge us for our poor choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Feathery Primer<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Before looking at Stanford University\u2019s Pigeonbot, we will indulge a few minutes learning how complex a seemingly simple feather really is.<\/p>\n