Power Amplification

Several small species of animals evolved bio-mechanical power amplification to overcome the downsides of being small in a world where big continues to assert its dominance. Frogs for example jump much further than can be expected based on their size. Mantis shrimp do something similar to catch their prey, as do trap-jaw spiders, fleas and snipefish. And in an earlier post we marvelled at the chameleon’s ability to shoot its tongue at prey.

Through power amplification, power can be increased past regular muscular levels. Biological P.A. systems works through an elastic medium (e.g. a tendon) able to catch and store large amounts of energy. The system must also include a mechanism to undo the latch and allow the large amount of stored energy to be used in an instant. The force is the same as a muscle would have provided, but the time it takes to use that force is much shorter, meaning it has a greater velocity and thus greater power. Power amplification can provide a diverse range of benefits: some animals use power amplification for prey capture like trap-jaw spiders, some for jumping like fleas, and some to puncture the hard shell of prey, like mantis shrimp.

In the 1967 article “Is there a better human size?” R.J. Hansen and M.J.Miley, two civil engineering professors from MIT foresee a times where “the engineered needs of society might be more succesfully provided for small man then for pre-small man.” even if “per capita energy consumption would be increased, through the desirability and possibility of substantially increased powers assists to man.” Perhaps we’ll need a bit more energy and power assistance while we’re waiting for biomechanical power amplification to evolve but let’s not forget that shrinking itself is also a power amplifyer. The decrease in body mass will be much greater than the decrease in muscle power, leading to an enormous relative increase in strength.