Learn some physics from biology: from a woodpecker’s head banging! Berkeley, CA: Engineers and physicists have long been inspired by the living world. For example, aeronautical engineer’s fascination for the dragon fly is well known – the way it abruptly stops in the middle of a flight may actually split up an aircraft not designed for the purpose. Sang-Hee Yoon and Sungmin Park of the University of California, Berkeley, however studied video and CT scans of the woodpecker [commonly called kathphorwa in Bihar] bird’s head and neck. The question the researchers asked was – how...