Prototypes of the living. Spiritual prototype of living systems

Theory of biochemical evolution
Until the middle of the 20th century. many scientists believed that organic compounds could only arise in a living organism. That is why they were called organic compounds, as opposed to inanimate substances - minerals, which were called inorganic compounds. It was believed that organic substances arise only biogenically, and the nature of inorganic substances is completely different, therefore the emergence of even the simplest organisms from inorganic substances is completely impossible. However, after the first organic compound was synthesized from ordinary chemical elements, the idea of ​​two different essences of organic and inorganic substances turned out to be untenable. As a result of this discovery, organic chemistry and biochemistry emerged, which study chemical processes in living organisms.

In addition, this scientific discovery made it possible to create the concept of biochemical evolution, according to which life on Earth arose as a result of physical and chemical processes. This hypothesis was based on data on the similarity of substances that make up plants and animals, on the possibility of synthesizing organic substances that make up protein in laboratory conditions.

Academician A.I. Oparin published his work “The Origin of Life” in 1924, which outlined a fundamentally new hypothesis of the origin of life. The essence of the hypothesis was as follows: the origin of life on Earth is a long evolutionary process of the formation of living matter in the depths of nonliving matter. And this happened through chemical evolution, as a result of which the simplest organic substances were formed from inorganic ones under the influence of strong physicochemical factors, and thus chemical evolution gradually rose to a qualitatively new level and passed into biochemical evolution.

Considering the problem of the emergence of life through biochemical evolution, Oparin identifies three stages of transition from inanimate to living matter:

Synthesis of initial organic compounds from inorganic substances under the conditions of the primary atmosphere of the primitive Earth;

Formation of biopolymers, lipids, hydrocarbons from accumulated organic compounds in the primary reservoirs of the Earth;

Self-organization of complex organic compounds, the emergence on their basis and evolutionary improvement of the process of metabolism and reproduction of organic structures, culminating in the formation of the simplest cell.

Despite all the experimental validity and theoretical persuasiveness, Oparin’s concept has both strengths and weaknesses.

The strength of the concept is its fairly accurate correspondence to chemical evolution, according to which the origin of life is a natural result of the prebiological evolution of matter. A convincing argument in favor of this concept is also the possibility of experimental verification of its main provisions. This concerns the laboratory reproduction of not only the supposed physicochemical conditions of the primordial Earth, but also coacervates that imitate the precellular ancestor and its functional characteristics.

The weak side of the concept is the inability to explain the very moment of the leap from complex organic compounds to living organisms - after all, life was not obtained in any of the experiments performed. In addition, Oparin admits the possibility of self-reproduction of coacervates in the absence of molecular systems with genetic code functions. In other words, without reconstructing the evolution of the mechanism of heredity, it is impossible to explain the process of the jump from nonliving to living. Therefore, today it is believed that it will not be possible to solve this most complex problem of biology without involving the concept of open catalytic systems, molecular biology, and cybernetics

The essence of this theory is that biological evolution - i.e. The emergence, development and complication of various forms of living organisms was preceded by chemical evolution - a long period in the history of the Earth associated with the emergence, complication and improvement of the interaction between elementary units, the “building blocks” of which all living things are composed - organic molecules.

According to most scientists (primarily astronomers and geologists), the Earth was formed as a celestial body about 5 billion years ago by the condensation of particles of a gas and dust cloud rotating around the Sun.
During this period, the Earth was a hot ball, the surface temperature of which reached 4000-8000°C.
Gradually, due to the radiation of thermal energy into outer space, the Earth begins to cool. About 4 billion years ago, the Earth cooled so much that a solid crust formed on its surface; at the same time, light, gaseous substances erupt from its depths, rising upward and forming the primary atmosphere. The composition of the primary atmosphere was significantly different from the modern one. There was no free oxygen in the atmosphere of the ancient Earth, and its composition included hydrogen (H 2), methane (CH 4), ammonia (NH 3), water vapor (H 2 O), nitrogen (N 2), carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide ( CO and C0 2).
The absence of free oxygen in the atmosphere of the primordial Earth is an important prerequisite for the emergence of life, since oxygen easily oxidizes and thereby destroys organic compounds. Therefore, in the presence of free oxygen in the atmosphere, the accumulation of significant amounts of organic substances on the ancient Earth would have been impossible.
When the temperature of the primary atmosphere reaches 100°C, the synthesis of simple elements begins in it. organic molecules such as amino acids, nucleotides, fatty acids, etc.hot sugars, polyhydric alcohols, organic acids, etc. Energy for synthesis is supplied by lightning discharges, volcanic activity, hard cosmic radiation and, finally, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, from which the Earth is not yet protected by an ozone shield, and scientists consider ultraviolet radiation to be the main source of energy for abiogenic (i.e. taking place without the participation of living organisms) synthesis of organic substances.

When the temperature of the primary atmosphere is below 100°C, the primary ocean is formed, synthesis begins simple organic molecules, and thencomplex biopolymers. The prototypes of living organisms are coacervate drops that appeared in the primordial ocean and formed an organic broth.Coacervate drops have some semblance of metabolism:

• can selectively absorb certain substances from solution and release their decay products into the environment and grow;
• upon reaching a certain size, they begin to “multiply”, budding small droplets, which, in turn, can grow and “bud”;
• in the process of mixing under the influence of waves and wind, they can become covered with a shell of lipids: single, reminiscent of soap micelles (when a drop is lifted from the surface of water covered with a lipid layer once), or double, reminiscent of a cell membrane (when a drop covered with a single-layer lipid membrane falls again, on the lipid film covering the surface of the reservoir).

The processes of the emergence of coacervate droplets, their growth and “budding”, as well as their “dressing” with a membrane of a lipid bilayer are easily simulated in laboratory conditions.

Although the structure of the first living organisms was much more perfect than that of coacervate droplets, it was still incomparably simpler than living creatures today. Natural selection, which began in coacervate droplets, continued with the appearance of life. Over the course of a long time, the structure of living beings improved more and more and adapted to the conditions of existence.

In the beginning, only organic substances that arose from primary hydrocarbons were food for living beings. But over time, the amount of such substances has decreased. Under these conditions, primary living organisms developed the ability to build organic substances from elements of inorganic nature - from carbon dioxide and water. In the process of consistent development, they acquired the ability to absorb the energy of a solar ray, decompose carbon dioxide using this energy, and build organic substances in their bodies from its carbon and water. This is how the simplest plants arose - blue-green algae. Remains of blue-green algae are found in the oldest sediments of the earth's crust.

Other living beings retained the same way of eating, but primary plants began to serve them as food. This is how animals arose in their original form.

At the dawn of life, both plants and animals were tiny single-celled creatures, similar to bacteria, blue-green algae, and amoebas living in our time. A major event in the history of the consistent development of living nature was the emergence of multicellular organisms, that is, living beings consisting of many cells united into one organism. Gradually, but much faster than before, living organisms became more complex and diverse.

With the formation of complex ultra-molecular systems (probionts) including nucleic acids, proteins, enzymes and the mechanism of the genetic code, life appears on Earth. Probionts needed various chemical compounds - nucleotides, amino acids, etc. Due to the low degree of genetic information, probionts had rather limited capabilities. The fact is that for their growth they used ready-made organic compounds synthesized during chemical evolution, and if life at its early stage existed only in the form of one type of organism, then the primary broth would have been exhausted quite quickly.

However, due to the tendency to acquire a wide variety of properties, and first of all, to the emergence of the ability to synthesize organic substances from inorganic compounds using sunlight, this did not happen.

At the beginning of the next stage, biological membranes-organelles are formed, responsible for the shape, structure and activity of the cell. Biological membranes are constructed from aggregates of proteins and lipids that are capable of separating organic matter from the environment and serving as a protective molecular shell. It is assumed that the formation of membranes could begin during the formation of coacervates. But for the transition from coacervates to living matter, not only membranes were needed, but also catalysts for chemical processes - enzymes or enzymes. Selection of coacervates enhanced the accumulation of protein-like polymers responsible for accelerating chemical reactions. The results of selection were recorded in the structure of nucleic acids. The system of successfully working nucleotide sequences in DNA was improved precisely through selection. The emergence of self-organization depended both on the initial chemical prerequisites and on the specific conditions of the earth's environment. Self-organization arose as a reaction to certain conditions. During self-organization, many different unsuccessful options were eliminated until the main structural features of nucleic acids and proteins reached an optimal balance from the point of view of natural selection.

Thanks to prebiological selection of the systems themselves, and not just individual molecules, systems acquired the ability to improve their organization. This was the next level of biochemical evolution, which ensured an increase in their information capabilities. At the last stage of the evolution of isolated organic systems, a genetic code was formed. Once the genetic code is formed, evolution proceeds through variation. The further it moves in time, the more numerous and complex the variations.

Once life emerged, it began to develop at a rapid pace, showing the acceleration of evolution over time. Thus, the development from primary probionts to aerobic forms required about 3 billion years, while about 500 million years have passed since the emergence of terrestrial plants and animals; Birds and mammals evolved from the first land vertebrates over 100 million years, primates evolved over 12-15 million years, and the emergence of humans took about 3 million years.

Conclusion.

The true basis of life was formed as a result of the appearance of the cell, in which biological membranes united individual organelles into a single whole.

The first cells were primitive and did not have a nucleus. But such cells still exist today. Surprisingly, they appeared more than 3 billion years ago.

The first cells were the prototype of all living organisms: plants, animals, bacteria. Later, in the process of evolution, under the influence of Darwinian laws of natural selection, cells improved and specialized cells of higher multicellular organisms, plants and animals - metaphytes and metazoans - appeared.

As a unifying relationship between chemical evolution, which then turns into biochemical and biological evolution, the following can be cited:

simple molecules

complex macromolecules and ultra molecular systems (probionts)

unicellular organisms.

So, the living world was created. This took over 3 billion years and was the hardest. It is impossible to enumerate the huge number of options for the development of initial carbon compounds. However, the most important result was the emergence of life on Earth.

Despite the importance of knowledge regarding the conditions, causes and processes of the emergence of life on Earth in our time, scientific and technical progress does not pay due attention to this. Although it should be very clear to everyone that the life around us was formed over such a gigantic period of time that is simply beyond the control of our consciousness. And only because of this, the damage that has already been caused to all living things over the past century has not yet led to irreversible consequences. However, thanks to scientific and technological progress, man himself, without realizing it, creates inventions that are increasingly dangerous for all living things. And, unfortunately, no one knows which one will be the last...

But we are part of the living world, the creation of which took billions of years. I think there is something to think about.

Literature.

Vashchekin N.P. “Concepts of modern natural science”, M, MGUK, 2000

Poteev M.I. "Concepts of modern natural science", St. Petersburg, Peter, 1999

Yugay G. A. “General Theory of Life”, M., Mysl, 1985

S. Kashnitsky Synthesis of fate? The transformation of inanimate matter into living matter is completely...

S. Kashnitsky

Synthesis of fate?

The transformation of inanimate matter into living matter is not at all the hopeless nonsense of medieval alchemists. Man did not come from animals at all. Homo Sapiens is not the crown of nature, as we used to think, but the same beginning of it as single-celled organisms. Since ancient times, our planet has been a kind of Noah's Ark, in which lived the "prototypes" of all living beings - "every creature." And space can infect us with the flu. And human civilization is capable of populating the planets of distant star worlds in much the same way as life was once brought from the vastness of the Universe to Earth.

More? Please.

The homunculus - our fellow human being grown in a "flask" - not only has every right to exist, but is also ready to become the plenipotentiary representative of humanity on the virgin lands of space.

It would seem that, continuing the list of sensational statements, we will come to the Volga, which does not flow into the Caspian Sea. However, all of the above is a consequence of a strict scientific hypothesis, confirmed by numerous experiments. They are produced in the astrophysical department of the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the guidance of senior researcher Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Evgeniy Alekseevich Kaimakov.

Postmen of life.

These small celestial bodies with huge shining tails have inspired superstitious fear in people since ancient times. They began to observe them through telescopes, and learned to predict the appearance of many of them in the sky. But unlike planets, large satellites and asteroids, the development of life was not associated with comets. What kind of life is there - after all, more than half of them are made of ice!

Astrophysicist Kaimakov devoted a considerable part of his life to space wanderers, and seven years ago [from 1981] he suggested that comet tails must contain organic compounds, primarily cyanogen and acetonitrile. Soon, American scientists found these substances in the tail of comet Kohoutek.

Biophysicists' interest in wandering stars has increased: where are the cyanide compounds? There it is very likely that amino acids, the elementary “building blocks” from which protein is built, will appear. Potassium cyanide in the light is already an amino acid. The gas and dust cloud of a comet's tail contains methane and ammonia. If you pass a lightning electric discharge through a mixture of these gases and water, you get amino acids - such experiments have been successfully performed more than once by Miller, Ponnamperuma and other researchers of the beginning of life. Complex organic compounds in comets! This means that there may also be nucleotides - the same simple “building blocks”, only for DNA chains. These substances are not visible in the emission spectra of comets: they are not so volatile. But, according to Kaimakov’s assumption, their number could be one percent of the total mass of the core. Not so little: after all, the nucleus of an average-sized comet is already a billion tons.

Amino acids mean proteins; nucleotides means DNA, sugars, fats are not at all so far from what is meant by the word “life”. Understood, of course, by biophysicists, not philosophers. If “components of life” are present in comets, could tailed travelers be carriers of life?

It would be tempting to test the assumption. Several years ago, Evgeniy Alekseevich began experimental tests. Since it is not yet possible to fly to the comet, it had to be done artificially.

A solution of ordinary table salt is frozen. In a vacuum chamber, water sublimates, that is, it evaporates without turning into a liquid state - like the moisture of wet laundry that is dried in the cold. A sediment remains in the cups with the frozen solution: fine-grained “extra” salt. Microcrystals are so small that they can only be seen with a microscope. Let's take a look: here it is, a granule, two microns in diameter. The ice evaporated in a vacuum, but the salt remained, because its volatility is a hundred million times less than that of water.

Now do the same with another aqueous solution, only instead of salt there are amino acids. When there are enough of them, the remainder is again “extra”, but not from table salt, but from amino acids. If the concentration is low, then the dry residue changes its appearance. There is no more “extra” - under a microscope the structure is similar to arctic fox fur. Vertical villi “grow” very densely: ten million pieces per square centimeter. The diameter of one is two microns, the length is approximately 2 centimeters. After weighing the sediment, Kaimakov was convinced that a fifth of the mass of the solution remained. That is, the villi consist not only of impurities, but also of ice. It turns out that for some reason not all the water sublimated - some remained in the sediment. What happened?

The rod, “swaddled” with amino acids, could not quickly evaporate. Water, sublimating, comes out in a spiral - in the same way it flows out of a bathtub, forming a funnel. That's why a thread of impurity wound around the ice core in a spiral. The impurity molecules lined up “back to back of each other.” What a sublimation design! Sublikon, as the scientist called it.

A protein is just the same molecular chain of various amino acids, there are twenty types in total. Sublikon is a similar structure of molecules. All that remains is to connect them or, as Evgeniy Alekseevich says, “sew together” the molecules. Then there will be a biopolymer. The researcher did this by shining a beam of light onto the sublicon. The result was biosublicon.

Here's another very similar experience. A low-concentration solution of nucleotides is frozen and sublimated. Just as “cross-linked” amino acids form an artificial protein, so nucleotides connected by light form a DNA chain. She is the passport and life program of a living being.

The third, most important experiment: amino acids and nucleotides of all types are dissolved in water. Sublimation in a vacuum, light - biosublicon. A prototype of a living cell: after all, its spiral contains “semi-finished products” of both protein and DNA. Moreover, periodic sections randomly alternate with non-periodic ones, which gives an infinite variety of information.

Biosublicons already provide for the ordering characteristic of biopolymers of various classes. It is enough now to place biosublicons in a nutrient liquid medium, the scientist believes, and real cells will appear in it. They will respond to reproduction and divide. That is, to live.

English physicists Hoyle and Wihramasinghe discovered a connection between the passage of cometary tails by the Earth and outbreaks of pandemics. It would seem that here it is, scientific confirmation of mystical prophecies: the wrong light brings innumerable troubles.

Now we can find a completely material explanation for the ominous heavenly signs. Interstellar wanderers shower the Earth with biosublicons, which, when thawed in the nutrient medium of the Earth's reservoirs, give rise to viruses and phages.

Isn’t it true that comets “infected” the Earth with life 3.5 billion years ago? True, the riot of all life on our planet began only 700-800 million years ago, that is, 2.5 billion years after the appearance of blue-green algae. How can we explain this gap?

Taking his hypothesis into account, Kaimakov offers his answer to the question. The probable final result of evolution, the entire development program, is already recorded in the DNA of a particular biosublicon.

In other words, two identical-looking worms could crawl side by side on the ancient earth. But one has already worked out his genetic program - he has become what he is destined to be during the construction of the biosublicon for that ancient cell that began to evolve and reached the worm. The other one is still on his way, in his DNA chain it is written: “to go public.” That is, you and I, strictly speaking, have never been either a fish, or a lizard [that’s for sure - R], or a squirrel, or a monkey - we only temporarily took on their guise.

Our planet, having received a “batch of biosublicons” with “comet transport”, immediately stocked up with a fund of all future species of plants and animals. It became that Noah's Ark, where the “ancestors” of all future flora and fauna lived.

By the way, some astrophysicists are sure that not all comets strictly live at their place of registration - in the Solar System. Honor of them can travel from star to star. And if this is so, we can doubt not only our terrestrial, but even our circumsolar origin.

And again the long-rejected idea of ​​the ancients is filled with new meaning: man and animals have completely different roots. Or, in terms of the new hypothesis, biosublicons with different lengths of chains and the order of arrangement of the “bricks” - beads.

But if comets are carriers of life, maybe they are now populating the Earth with new biosublicons, from which new forms of life will eventually develop?

Hardly. Biosublikons are like meat cubes for broth. And already developed viruses and phages greedily attack them, devouring the “aliens.” Viruses are easy to understand: they eliminate competitors - it is possible that they are potentially more highly organized than you and me.

We are in debt to the cosmos. The time is coming for people to populate distant worlds. Even today, send biosublicons to neighboring planets - just find conditions for revival.

But you can set the parameters of these conditions, the cybernetic system itself will look for them at new places of residence and only then “unload the refrigerators.” The duration of many human lives is not enough to fly even to the nearest star. But biosublicons will successfully fly anywhere. And in their new homeland they will develop into those living creatures that will best take root in the unknown world. By rearranging the beads in the chain, scientists will be able to vary the appearance and properties of the Earth's messengers. And even endow them with the necessary qualities.

Finally, when the order of nucleotides in human DNA becomes known, we can try to construct a biosublicon that will come to life into an ordinary female egg. This is how the long-standing dream of Aristotle and Paracelsus - an artificial man - is being realized. Science, having ridiculed the fathers of the homunculus in ancient times, is ready to become its mother. One of the paradoxes of knowledge.

Or maybe our weaknesses and imperfections are also determined by nucleotides? Swap the beads and make a better one than me?

I want to believe. Moreover, science allows it.

We asked one of the largest Soviet astrophysicists, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR O.V. Dobrovolsky, to comment on the article.

E.A. Kaimakov, as far as I know, was the first to express the hypothesis about the possible relationship of comets to the origin of life. Its viability is evidenced by the fact that its supporter is one of the most prominent biochemists in the world, Ponnamperuma, the executive editor of the scientific journal “The Origin of Life.”

It would be very desirable to continue Kaimakov’s experiments. This is all the more important because interesting logical conclusions are made that point the way for further conclusions, but the final decision still remains with experiment. It is very likely that experiments could help clarify the question of the origin of life on Earth.

Biology

9th grade

TEST

organic world

Option 1

1. Finally refuted the theory of spontaneous generation of organisms

a) K. Linnaeus

b) Aristotle

c) A. van Leeuwenhoek

d) L. Pasteur

2. According to the hypothesis of A.I. Oparina,

a) life on Earth has always existed

b) life on Earth was brought from space

c) the first predecessors of organisms appeared as a result of chemical evolution

d) the first predecessors of organisms appeared as a result of natural selection

3. The prototypes of living organisms were

a) viruses

b) bacteria

c) unicellular algae

d) coacervates

4. Oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere appeared due to

a) autotrophs

b) heterotrophs

c) coacervates

d) prokaryotes

5. What were the first land plants called?

a) mosses

b) ferns

d) rhiniophytes

6. During the Catarchaean era it happened

a) the appearance of the first land plants

b) formation of the “primary broth”

c) the appearance of protozoa

d) the appearance of invertebrates

7. Reptiles flourished in

a) Mesozoic

b) Cenozoic

c) Proterozoic

d) Paleozoic

8. Selectthree true statements

a) the primary atmosphere did not contain oxygen

b) the primary atmosphere contained oxygen

c) free oxygen appeared as a result of the activity of heterotrophs

d) there was no methane in the primary atmosphere

e) as a result of the activity of autotrophs, oxygen appeared in the atmosphere

f) water vapor was present in the primary atmosphere

9. Establish the correct sequence of development of life on Earth

A) unicellular algae

B) coacervates

B) bacteria

D) insects

D) lobe-finned fish

10. Proponents of which theory argued that all living organisms originate exclusively from living matter? _______________________________________________

11 . Which organic substances ferment the fastest? ______________

organic world

Option 2

1. There was NO

a) hydrogen

b) carbon dioxide

c) ammonia

d) oxygen

2. According to the hypothesis of A.I. Oparin, the main role in the development of life on Earth belongs to

a) proteins

b) carbohydrates

c) lipids

d) amino acids

3. The first living organisms based on their feeding method were

a) autotrophs

b) heterotrophs

c) prokaryotes

d) eukaryotes

4. The first photosynthetic organisms to produce oxygen are

a) coacervates

b) green algae

c) cyanobacteria

d) amoebas

5. The first eukaryotic cells appeared in

a) catarchaea

b) archaea

c) Proterozoic

d) Mesozoic

6. Appeared in the Mesozoic era

a) multicellularity

b) main types of invertebrates

c) reptiles

d) mammals

7. Currently, living organisms appear on Earth

a) only abiogenically

b) abiogenic and biogenic pathways

c) only by biogenic means

d) due to spontaneous generation

8. Selectthree true statements

a) the first living beings appeared 5000 million years ago

b) the first living beings appeared 4000 - 3500 million years ago

c) the first living organisms were prokaryotes

d) the first living organisms were algae

e) the first land plants were rhinophytes

f) the first land animals were amphibians

9. Establish the correct sequence of eras of development of the organic world on Earth

A) Cenozoic

B) Paleozoic

B) catarchaea

D) Proterozoic

D) archaea

E) Mesozoic

Answer: __________________________

10. Proponents of which theory argued that all living organisms are capable of spontaneous generation from nonliving matter? _____________________________________________________

11 . The emergence of which process of vital activity of organisms put an end to the process of the origin of life? ____________________________________________________________

BIONICS Bionics is the most popular of the young sciences, which arose in the 60s of the 20th century. The name comes from the ancient Greek word “bion” - the element of life, literally living. The emblem of bionics is a scalpel and a soldering iron, connected by an integral sign, and the motto is “Living prototypes are the key to new technology.” Bionics is a science that studies the construction and functioning of biological systems, their use for radical improvement of existing ones and the creation of new machines, devices, devices, building structures, etc. In the process of long evolution, nature has created countless living organisms on Earth, many of which can rightfully be classified as “Living Engineering Systems” that function very accurately, scientifically and economically, are distinguished by amazing accuracy, the ability to respond to subtle changes in the external environment, remember and take these changes into account and adapt to them. Bionics distinguishes several areas: Biological and medical, mathematical and technical, etc.

Bionics in medicine The invention of anesthesia in medicine was facilitated by the observation of wasps. The wasps injected a nerve agent into the area of ​​the spider's nerve trunks, completely paralyzing it, but not killing it, which lay motionless in the wasp's nest until the larvae appeared and served as food for them.

An example of modern bionics in medicine is the technology of reconstruction and extension of tooth enamel, nail and hair extensions. The basis for this technology is the principle of building sea sponges, as well as the technique of building swiftlet nests. Both of these principles are based on chemo-curing and light-curing techniques.

Few people know that the state of deep hibernation of many small rodents and insects in winter, during which the metabolic process in organs and tissues slows down, has helped to perform operations on the heart and brain. At this time, the human body is consciously supercooled to slow down metabolic processes in tissues and organs.

Snowshoes Snowshoe hares' paws are surrounded by fluffy "mats" on their feet, so their weight is better distributed and they can walk on soft snow. Snowshoes - shoes for hunters in the Arctic - are created according to exactly the same principle: they distribute body weight over the entire area of ​​​​the shoe.

Velcro In 1957, a common burdock that caught on a dog's fur inspired the Swiss engineer Georges de Mistral to invent Velcro. Having spent 8 years on his invention, he created “Velcro” - a synthetic material made from two nylon strips. One is covered with tiny loops, and the second with tiny hooks. When they are put together, they stick tightly to each other, but can easily separate again.

Tire Patterns Our fingers are covered in a fine pattern of folds and indentations that help hold smooth or wet objects. The patterns on the tire cover - a larger version of the same device - ensure that the tires do not slip on wet roads.

Zipper The feather consists of thousands of tiny fibers attached along its shaft. Each villus is equipped with microscopic hooks. They adhere in such a way that they create a smooth, dense surface of the feather. Inside the sliding zipper there are wedges that either connect or separate the teeth. These cloves tightly and reliably cling to each other with hooks.

Making Paper People make paper by processing wood and turning it into a soft pulp, which is then pressed, peeled, bleached and rolled into sheets. Wasps are the inventors of the natural method of paper production. They build nests from particles of chewed wood, moistening them with their saliva. Particleboard is a similar material, only the wasp drool is replaced with artificial glue.

Dams Beavers dam small rivers, creating dams where they build huts. Their dams are so well built that they can last for centuries. People build dams to create large artificial reservoirs containing millions of liters of water. These huge reserves of water are used in homes, factories, and factories.

Tunnel Gophers dig long labyrinths of interconnected tunnels. The main thing in them is good air circulation, so they build volcano-like ventilation towers. The Channel Tunnel is one of the most gigantic engineering projects of the 20th century. It is designed for high-speed rail transport between the UK and France. Ventilation systems guarantee safety from toxic substances and gases, and also make the air clean.

Building Construction The complex network of veins on the underside of the giant water lily leaf reliably strengthens and supports its extensive surface. This arrangement of veins has been copied in several building designs, the most famous of which is the Crystal Palace in London.

Architects, designers, engineers, psychologists and biologists have developed the “Vertical Bionic Tower City” project. In 15 years, this city should appear in Shanghai. It is designed for 100 thousand people. The project is based on the “principle of wood construction”. The city tower will have the shape of a cypress tree with a height of 1228 m, the tower will have 300 floors, 12 vertical blocks between them with screed floors with gardens. The carefully thought out design is similar to the structure of the branches and the entire crown of the cypress tree.