Page 186 - For Men of Understanding

THE CROCUS FLOWER
AND THE SENSITIVE THERMOMETER

The crocus is a flower equipped with a bio-thermometer. This plant opens, when the temperature
rises to a favourable degree and then starts to close again, when it falls below it. The Schott
Company, which imitated this flower's sensitivity to temperature, produced thermometers
o
measuring temperature changes of even 0.001 C. (Bild Der Wissenschaft, February 1990)
THE CORN ROOT AND LIGHT
CONDUCTING GLASS CABLES

An equivalent of light-conducting glass cables already
existed thousands of years ago. Researchers, however,
have only recently discovered that cables can convey
light. The shoot of corn seed can conduct daylight to the
deepest place of the root and it helps develop the corn
seeds. Fibre optics, which has this light-conducting
feature, is extensively used in many
areas from traffic signs to inter-
computer data transfer.
THE
MUNICH
OLYMPIC
STADIUM
AND THE
COBWEB
In the construction
of the ceiling
coatings of the
Munich Olympic Stadium, the structure of
the crested lark spider’s home, which it
makes by stretching web on grasses and
184 bushes, is taken as a model.