Nature's bubble wrap

I imagine everyone who's ever been to a beach has spotted these pale, crinkly clusters of empty capsules on the tide line, light enough to be tossed around  by the breeze.

They are the egg cases  of whelks, laid in clumps by one or more female whelks, in which the developing embyros gestate and hatch. (The first ones out eat their slower siblings - nature's like that.)

It occurred to me that bubble wrap (or popping paper as my sons used to call it - great for stamping on) may actually have been inspired by these empty egg case clusters, just as plant burrs, with their tiny hooks, gave the idea for Velcro to a Swiss engineer in 1941 (blipped here).

Well, no, it turns out that bubble wrap was an accidental discovery when  an experiment with embossed wallpaper went wrong.  (Must have been a profitable mistake!)

However there are increasing numbers of inventions  copied from nature. The concept is called biomimicry and there are some great examples here  inspired by birds, fish, insects, plants etc. Worth a look.

Thank you for all the  Gwyl Dewi/St David's Day good wishes. The weather was  beautiful and we had cawl for supper.