The Namib Desert is one of the hottest and driest places in the world. Not only does the temperature of the desert sand reach up to 140 degrees, but there is also very little ground water in this area. However, the Namib beetle is able to live there. How does the Namib beetle succeed in living in these terrible conditions? The beetle's shell(壳) allows it to turn fog into drinkable water!
Fog is a cloud of water drops. A few mornings of a week, fog appears across the desert floor. This is where the main water in the desert comes from. To collect the water from the fog, beetles climb to the top of the sand dunes(沙丘). They lift their special wings. The water drops down the beetle's wings and runs into its mouth.
Scientists have been thinking about how to make use of the beetle's wing scales(翅鳞) to collect water for people. Tools that collect water from fog have been around for a while and they were called fog nets. But scientists think that they could be made much more useful by adding waxy bumps(蜡状凸起物) to the design. Except for changing fog nets, scientists have invented a new type of water bottle. The inside of the water bottle is covered in bumps like the Namib beetled wing scales. These water bottles are special because they are self-filling! Would you want one of these water bottles?
