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Lucy
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The
remains of "Lucy," our most famous ancestor, were spotted
by anthropologist Donald Johanson in Ethiopia |
Anthropologist
Donald Johanson was surveying for fossils near a river in
Ethiopia in 1974, when his keen eye spotted the fragments
of an arm bone poking out of the ground. Soon Johanson and
his teams had unearthed a bit of skull, a jaw bone, a leg
- several hundred pieces in all and the most complete remains
of a human ancestor found to date. The skeleton we now know
as "Lucy" earned her memorable moniker when the Beatles's
song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" played at the festivities
that night.
Belonging
to a species called Australopithecus afarensis, Lucy
is the "missing link" anthropologists had long been searching
for. She is essentially part ape, part human; however, the
surprising thing about Lucy is which part was which. Until
her discovery, most scientists assumed that intelligence arose
before our ancestors became bipedal. Upright, tiny-brained
Lucy flew in the face of the theories of the day and forced
anthropologists to revise their ideas about human evolution.
Velcro
Like
Newton's apple, nature often inspires inventors and scientists.
Cockleburs have annoyed many a hiker, and electrical engineer
George deMestral was just such an outdoorsman. One day in
1941, he returned home from a walk in the Swiss countryside
covered with the sticky seeds.
Though
deMestral was certainly not the first person to pluck
burrs from his clothing, he was the first to examine them
under a microscope
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Though
deMestral was certainly not the first person to spend some
time plucking burrs from his clothing, he was the first to
examine them under a microscope. Each cocklebur, he discovered,
used hundreds of tiny barbed hooks to secure themselves to
the clothing fibers. DeMestral wondered if a manmade version
might make a useful fastener.
The
engineer teamed up with a French textile worker and a Swiss
loom-maker to perfect his invention. But the logistics of
mass-producing material with 300 hooks per square inch held
up their work for some time.
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Nature's
ingenious method for seed dispersal inspired Velcro ®
brand fasteners |
By
1955, the advent of synthetic fibers such as nylon made production
viable, and Voila! VELCRO ® brand fasteners were born. Today
the sticky stuff- whose trademarked name is a combination
of "velvet" and "crochet"- can be found on jackets, footwear,
wallets, space craft and anything else that needs temporary
but secure fastening.
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Photos:
Institute of Human Origins; : Velcro USA, Inc.
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