STEM与日常科技·英语30篇（2）

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鲨鱼皮表面与工程中的减阻设计

Sharks swim fast because their skin has tiny tooth-like structures called denticles.
These denticles break up water flow and reduce drag as the shark moves forward.
Engineers copied this pattern to make swimsuits that help athletes swim faster.
Today, similar textures coat airplane wings and ship hulls to save fuel and energy.
This field of copying nature’s designs for human technology is called biomimicry.
Researchers use microscopes and fluid simulations to test how well new surfaces work.
Unlike smooth coatings, shark-inspired textures control turbulence without adding weight.
Even wind turbine blades now use this principle to improve efficiency quietly.
The idea seems simple, but precise scaling from shark skin to machines is challenging.
Still, it proves that evolution solved engineering problems long before humans invented them.