The Physics Alive Kingfisher

The Physics Alive Kingfisher

What’s with the kingfisher? It’s a physics podcast – why the bird? Okay, it’s finally time to answer this. Every logo must have a story. Here we go.

It’s an evolving story. The story has changed and grown since the podcast Physics Alive first took root in my mind. The kingfisher was actually one of the first logo ideas that came to me. I explored a few others, but this one stuck.

My episode about Biomimicry just went live the other day. Ever since I discovered this…I’m not even sure what to call it…this philosophy, this way of knowing and creating, I’ve been fascinated by it. The notion of observing Nature, discovering how solutions to problems in the plant and animal (and fungi!) world have evolved, and then applying these solutions to our own human problems, whether product-related or global-systems-related – it’s been so appealing. I love everything I learn: every solution, the connections between physics and biology, the engineering. As a physicist, I’m quite familiar with the classic textbook examples. But when I started exploring the physics of health and medicine and the human body, and then the physics of the natural world, I felt like I’d discovered an entirely new field of study!

As an amateur birder (thank you, Lena!), I’m particularly drawn to birds. And the kingfisher is one of the classic examples highlighted in biomimicry. This link between birds and biomimicry is what first drew me to the possibility. The problem that needed to be solved was the loud sonic boom produced by the Shinkansen Bullet Train in Japan. The train traveled so fast that an atmospheric pressure wave would build up in front of it as it careened through a tunnel. Upon exiting the tunnel: boom! The bullet-shaped nose was part of the problem.

Enter: the birdwatching engineer – Eiji Nakatsu. While out on his walks, he observed kingfishers diving into the water to catch fish. As the bird entered the water, barely a splash was made. This ensures that the fish is not frightened away at the moment before it is caught. Eiji recognized this scenario as an analog to the bullet train. The website https://asknature.org/idea/shinkansen-train/ describes:

“Kingfishers move quickly from air, a low-resistance (low drag) medium, to water, a high-resistance (high drag) medium. The kingfisher’s beak provides an almost ideal shape for such an impact. The beak is streamlined, steadily increasing in diameter from its tip to its head. This reduces the impact as the kingfisher essentially wedges its way into the water, allowing the water to flow past the beak rather than being pushed in front of it. Because the train faced the same challenge, moving from low drag open air to high drag air in the tunnel, Nakatsu designed the forefront of the Shinkansen train based on the beak of the kingfisher.” 

Birds exemplify so much delightful physics. Certainly flight is a key and exciting feature, with the balance of drag, lift, and thrust. The structure of bird bones and feathers, both lightweight and strong, points to materials physics. The colors of feathers are often explained by structural color rather than pigment, necessitating the study of diffraction and wave interference. And with the kingfisher, the change from one medium to another and the streamlined shape of the beak is icing on the physics-cake.

So where are we at? Birds are busting with awesome physics. The kingfisher connects with biomimicry and interdisciplinarity. Its colors are striking. This is probably sufficient evidence to select the Common Kingfisher¹ as the logo’s centerpiece. But the bird also serves as a metaphor. For instance, its dive for fish can represent a diving into new ideas, new physics.

But an additional metaphor has taken shape in my mind. The kingfisher is moving from two different phases, in this case a gas to a liquid, without disturbing the water. The newly designed train is moving from a tunnel into the open, also with minimal disturbance. This is my journey as an educator and now a podcaster. I wish to move from one phase to another, but without disturbance. Can I take the right shape, move from one medium to another, and make my catch? Time will tell.

I want to give a shout out to my sister-in-law, Nika Romanov, who designed my logo. You can find more of her work at https://nikaromanovart.carbonmade.com/.

¹ The kingfisher that is most often shown connected to this example of biomimicry is the Common Kingfisher, which is commonly found in Europe and southern Asia. However, other photos have shown the Ruddy Kingfisher and Pied Kingfisher, both of which are also found in Japan. It is not clear if one of these was the true inspiration rather than the Common Kingfisher.