WATERTON CANYON - The natural world is the epitome of efficiency, and the study thereof is the basis for all advances in technology throughout the entire span of human history.
Every “leap forward,” from the use of prehistoric tools all...
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WATERTON CANYON - The natural world is the epitome of efficiency, and the study thereof is the basis for all advances in technology throughout the entire span of human history.
Every “leap forward,” from the use of prehistoric tools all the way to the creation of artificial intelligence networks, was inspired by something already existing in the natural world. Science is the act of attempting to understand the immaculately intricate complexity that makes this whole thing called “life” work, from the tiniest atoms to the vast expanses of the universe.
Technology is the art of applying the lessons learned from nature to practical applications that, in theory, make our own existence more efficient, healthy, and safe—or at the very least, easier.
This week we look at our state animal, the bighorn sheep (specifically, rams), and how we are studying their ability to undergo the ritual of head-butting with seemingly minimal long-term effect on their brains.
The understanding of this natural adaptation is being applied to studies on how to minimize head trauma in our own fragile species (without undergoing a millennium of our own headbutting, which may or may not induce natural adaptation).
Potentially harmful results from ram headbutting are mitigated by a combination of factors. Dense muscle structure in the neck help to absorb the impact. A thicker skull in the sinus region, along with the placement of the brain in the cranial cavity, also aid in protection from permanent injury or damage. The horns themselves also play a very significant role in damage mitigation.
Horns are a lifelong appendage, as opposed to the antlers of the deer family, which shed every year and grow back anew. They are comprised of an inner bone and a thick outer layer made up of keratin, the substance that helps form hair, nails, and the outer layer of skin.
Studies are beginning to show that the structure, material makeup, and the shape of the horns of bighorn rams all play a significant role in reducing the overall stress and physical force from an impact.
Structurally, the outer keratin layer grows with quite visible rings (the darker and thicker of which are called Annular Rings and can be used to tell the age of a ram) and ridges. The second year of life shows the most growth of a horn. As the ram grows older, there is less length gained and subsequently less space between annular rings.
In the case of the ram in this week’s image, the first-year ring would be very near the tip of the horn, and the second-year ring is likely the first darker ring located a few inches back in the spiral at the distinct crack.
Following the curve, the third-year ring is likely just to the right of its ear, and each year after, the darker rings can be seen closer and closer together with the newest very near to the skull.
This ring and ridge structure of the outer keratin horn greatly aids in dispersing the initial impact energy, as the hard outer layer takes the brunt force of the headbutt and transforms the energy wave from a longitudinal wave to a less impactful shear wave. The ridges then help to dampen the shear waves throughout the entire horn.
The energy then moves to the inner horncore structure, which is comprised of a dense cortical bone shell and a softer porous inner core of bony sail-like plates known as velar bone.
This structure further mitigates the impact forces by breaking up the waves even more within the bone shell, and more wave absorption by the inner porous material.
The curvature of the horns also helps in further dispersing the forces from the point of impact near the skull outward and away from the brain cavity.
While all male members of the Bovidae family (antelopes, cattle, gazelle, goats, sheep, etc.) have horns (with the exception of some domesticated members), the horns’ formations vary greatly depending on usage.
It has been found that those who use their horns for headbutting all tend to have a ridged outer layer along with some form of spiraled shape. The stronger the blows, the more defined those mitigating structures tend to be.
Studies of these naturally forming structures and their extremely beneficial properties are aiding in the development of new materials that can be used in creating improved protective equipment for those who might be most affected by cranial impacts via contact or explosive: soldiers in combat, football players, racecar drivers, motorcyclists.
This brings me to an amusing paraphrased line from comedian Jerry Seinfeld: Instead of simply not participating in activities causing brain damage, we simply make little plastic hats to protect us.
These studies of our vastly superior natural world help us to create better hats to allow for continued, and more extreme, participation in head-bashing.
Additional information for this article came from
https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/8/506#:~:text=This%20study%20elucidates%20three%20primary,structure%20by%20mitigating%20excessive%20strain and https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/acb478 .
For information about James DeWalt Photography, check out https://jamesdewaltphotography.com.