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Drones are awesome, but they could be even better. Like, they're kind of hopeless in smoke or fog.
无人机非常棒，但是它们可以更棒。比如，它们在浓烟或大雾中有些无助。
And they're just so… big. I want a drone that fits on my finger like a bug!
并且它们太大了。我想要一架像虫子一样戴在手上的无人机！
That kind of thing is exactly why engineers have been turning to nature to perfect drone tech.
这就是为什么工程师们一直在向大自然寻求完美的无人机技术。
After all, animals have been flying for more than 300 million years, so they've got a bit of a head start on us.
毕竟，动物们有超过3亿年的飞行史，所以它们比我们领先一步。
And we can learn a lot from them about navigation, miniaturization, and even the best color to be for optimal flight.
关于导航、微小化，甚至是最优飞行的最佳颜色，我们从它们身上学到了很多。
It's not hard to imagine a situation where it might be helpful for a drone to have an idea what's around it.
让它们帮助无人机制作提供想法，这一情景并不难想象。
Like, imagine if a drone could find its way through smoke-filled rooms in a burning building.
比如，想象一下，如果无人机可以火灾中浓烟滚滚的大楼中找到方向。
It could help emergency workers save lives by scanning areas where people might be trapped.
它可以帮助紧急救援人员通过扫描可能被困的地区来拯救生命。
But smoke makes it pretty hard to see anything because the small particles bounce visible light all over the place.
但浓烟让无人机难以看清，因为反射可见光的小粒子到处可见。
And it's not just smoke. Fog, snow, dust—any time you have lots of light-scattering particles, it can be pretty tricky to see where you're going.
不仅仅是浓烟。大雾、大雪和灰尘—不论何时只要有很多光散射粒子，它都难以看清你的方向。
Even some radar gets stumped. So to help drones navigate these conditions, scientists are studying animals who "see" with more than their eyes.
甚至一些雷达也被难住了。因此，为了帮助无人机在这些条件下导航，科学家们正在研究比眼睛“看”得更多的动物。
Echolocators like bats map their environment based on how long it takes a sound to echo back after they make it.
像蝙蝠这样的回声定位器会根据它们发出声音后回声需要多长时间来定位它们所处的环境。
Sound is a pressure wave, so it mainly moves through the air around particles instead of getting bounced.
声音是一种压力波，所以它主要在粒子周围的空气中传播，而不是被弹开。
But while a couple of scientists have made drones based on bats, bats are pretty hard to mimic.
不过，虽然有几位科学家已经制造出了以蝙蝠为原型的无人机，但蝙蝠是很难模仿的。
They're smaller and more maneuverable than a lot of today's drones,
比起现在的很多无人机，它们更小且更灵活，
and bats have evolved a ton of really specialized structures in their brains and bodies that are great for echolocation but aren't easy to recreate.
并且蝙蝠的大脑和身体已经进化出了大量非常特殊的结构，这些结构非常适合回声定位，但是很难重建。
So another team of scientists looked at oilbirds instead.
所以另一组科学家转而研究油鸱。
These South American birds use echolocation to find their way around caves,
这些南美洲鸟类利用回声定位来找到洞穴周围的路，
but they're bigger than bats and their echolocation isn't quite so sophisticated. Plus, they use their talents more sparingly.
但是它们比蝙蝠更大，并且它们的回声定位没有那么复杂。另外它们也不常使用自己的才能。
When there's a lot of light, they mostly use their eyes. Then, when it gets darker, they switch to their ears more and more.
当光线充足时，它们主要用眼睛。然后，当天变黑的时候，它们越来越频繁地转而利用自己的耳朵。
And that kind of switching between systems is exactly what you'd want in an autonomous drone.
这种系统之间的切换正是大家想要在自主无人机上实现的。
But it'll probably be a little while before any oilbird-inspired drones hit the market.
但可能还需要一些时间，这些受油鸱启发的无人机才能被投入市场。
Researchers still need to figure out how the birds' brains combine all this information to create a single picture of the world,
研究人员仍然需要弄清楚这些鸟的大脑是如何将所有这些信息组合起来，形成一个单一的世界图景的，
because that's what drones will need to do before we can let them fly by ear.
因为这就是无人机需要做的，只有这样我们才能让它们靠耳朵飞行。
Now, one of the upsides to oilbirds is that they're already about the same size as modern drones.
现在，油鸱好处之一是它们和现代无人机一般大小。
But one of the big goals of drone tech is to go small.
但无人机技术的一大目标是更小。
Problem is, really small drones can't fly the same way that big ones do… Because physics.
问题是，根据物理学，真正的小型无人机不能像大型无人机那样飞行。
Today's drones mainly have fixed wings like planes, or spinning blades like helicopters.
现在的无人机主要像飞机一样有固定的机翼，或者像直升机一样有旋转的叶片。
But once fixed wings and blades get down around a few centimeters long or less, they stop generating the lift needed to stay airborne.
但是一旦固定的机翼和叶片短几厘米或更短，它们就会停止产生保持飞行所需的升力。
Air just doesn't really glide around small things like it does big ones.
空气不会像在大型物体周围滑动在小型物体周围滑动。
Instead, it piles up, and little random differences in pressure from one place to another push objects around
相反，它会堆积起来，并且从一个地方到另一个地方的随机的压力差会把物体推来推去
destroying any lift they get from moving through the air in the first place.
破坏它们从空气移动中获得的任何升力。
But we know that small things can fly because insects exist. And researchers are learning from them how to miniaturize.
但因为小昆虫的存在，我们知道小物体可以飞行。研究人员正在向它们学习如何微型化。
Insects don't use rotary blades for wings, for example. And their wings don't stay still, either.
例如，昆虫的翅膀就不用旋转叶片。并且它们的翅膀也不是静止不动的。
They're constantly flapping during flight, and the smaller they are, the more they flap.
在飞行过程中，它们不断拍打翅膀，越小的昆虫，拍打翅膀的次数越多。
Flapping wings are just better for flying at small sizes where flying depends on pushing against the air instead of gliding through it.
扇动的翅膀更适合小型昆虫的飞行，因为在它们的飞行过程中，飞行依靠的是对空气的推动而不是滑翔。
So engineers have built little, flappy drones modelled after little, flappy insects.
所以工程师们以小昆虫为蓝本，制造出了小而有活力的无人机。
They're still working on efficient batteries for something so tiny,
他们还在为这么小的东西研制高效电池，
and they're still trying to make their little mechanical insects as stable as actual insects are.
并且他们仍在尝试让他们的小机械昆虫和真正的昆虫一样稳定。
But they imagine a future where tiny drones can do things like precision-pollinate crops.
但他们想象的未来是，微型无人机可以做精确授粉作物之类的事情。
We could try to train bees to do that, of course, but it turns out they don't always listen when we tell them what to do.
当然，我们可以训练蜜蜂做这些，但事实证明，它们不太听我们的话。
And who can blame them when they look so cool in those classic black and yellow outfits.
当它们穿着酷酷的经典黑黄套装时，谁敢责备它们呢。
Though, bees do come in different colors. And so can drones.
不过，蜜蜂确实有不同的颜色。无人机也可以。
And it turns out that different colors don't just make your drone look cool—
事实证明不同的颜色并不会让你的无人机看起来更酷—
studies on animals suggest they might actually help it fly.
动物研究表明它们可能真的有助于飞行。
Right now, you can split drones into two broad color groups: Black ones and not-black ones. But they should probably all be black.
现在，你可以把无人机分成两大类：黑色的和非黑色的。但它们应该都是黑色的。
You see, a lot of animals have what's called countershading.
你看，很多动物都有所谓的反影伪装。
They're light on the bottom because it makes them look more like what's above,
它们底部颜色很浅，因为这可以让它们看起来更像上面，
and they're dark on the top because it makes them look more like what's below. Or, so everyone thought.
并且它们的顶部颜色很深，因为这让它们看起来更像下面。或者，每个人都这么认为。
But experiments with models of birds, dolphins, and orcas have all found that darker backs may be more than camouflage.
但对鸟类、海豚和逆戟鲸模型的实验都发现，深色的背部可能不仅仅是伪装。
Both in air and water, they seem to let the animals move with less drag because of how dark colors absorb and radiate heat.
无论是在空气中还是在水中，它们似乎都能让动物以更少的阻力移动，因为深色的颜色吸收和散发热量。
They heat up faster from sunlight and transfer that heat to what's around them, which makes the air or water they're in thinner and easier to move through.
它们从阳光中迅速升温，并将热量传递给周围的物体，这使得它们所在的空气或水更稀薄，更容易穿过。
So if you want a drone that uses as little energy as possible to fly,
所以，如果你想要一架尽可能少消耗能量的无人机，
you should get one that's the color we all instinctively know is the coolest: black.
你应该买一种我们本能地认为是最酷的颜色：黑色。
Also, if someone ever says you wear too much black, just tell them you want to be more aerodynamic.
另外，如果有人说你的黑衣服太多，你就告诉他们你想要更符合空气动力学。
And the next time you see a tiny, black, screaming drone flapping its wings above your head,
下次当你看到一个很小的黑色无人机在你头上拍打翅膀时，
you'll know which human and non-human animals you have to thank for the technological marvel.
你就知道是哪些人类和非人类的动物创造了这一技术奇迹。
