Moth wing–inspired sound absorbing wallpaper in sight after breakthrough

I thought I had understood moths vs bats a long time ago.<p>Then I read <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;steveblank.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;03&#x2F;23&#x2F;if-i-told-you-i%E2%80%99d-have-to-kill-you-the-story-behind-the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;steveblank.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;03&#x2F;23&#x2F;if-i-told-you-i%E2%80%99d-...</a> after watching Steve Blank&#x27;s amazing talk on the Secret History of Silicon Valley. (About an hour long, see <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo</a>, and well worth it.)<p>Yeah, moths are designed to be hard to echolocate. But bats find them anyways. The moth knows the bat is coming - they have ears as well. And finally the moth rubs its legs together, making a loud sound to deafen the bat, and then randomly dodges.<p>The bat knows the moth will do this, but has to guess which way at the critical moment, so only gets the moth half the time.

Maybe not “wallpaper”…<p><i>”… with the scale layer being only 1&#x2F;50th of the thickness of the wavelength of the sound that they are absorbing…”</i><p>The scales work in the ultrasonic range. Bats are 30-50kHz if I recall, maybe higher.<p>The oboe tuning the orchestra is ~440Hz which is a 75cm wavelength, so a “wallpaper” a bit thicker than a centimeter. Tuning for power line hum or traffic rumble will make the wallpaper about as thick as a banana is long.

Paper: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;royalsocietypublishing.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;epdf&#x2F;10.1098&#x2F;rspa.2022.0046" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;royalsocietypublishing.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;epdf&#x2F;10.1098&#x2F;rspa.202...</a><p>Their graphs are from 20kHz to 160kHz (at a quick skim), so this doesn’t appear to be an immediately useful breakthrough. Some graphs show the scales are mostly tuned to a frequency, not wideband, so even more limited. Very cool science though.

Nanolayr has a developed product (spun nano-fibres) that has ridiculous acoustic performance for its thickness&#x2F;weight. The path to market for these sorts of product is long.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nanolayr.com&#x2F;product&#x2F;sonolayr&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nanolayr.com&#x2F;product&#x2F;sonolayr&#x2F;</a>

It’s fascinating to learn about how deep the game of cat and mouse goes. It gives me deep appreciation for evolution and long timescales.

This would be a game changer for living in apartments, please expedite this as an affordable material