Thirty years ago Japanese trains had a problem. They could travel fast but they caused sonic booms.

The answer was the bullet train.  How did Japanese engineers develop it?  They learned from birds.

Watch this 6+ minute video from Vox + 99% Invisible to learn how birds showed the way and follow one woman’s quest to teach engineers that Nature has the answers.  Our world can benefit from biomimicry.

For best results, copy birds.

Thank you to Holly Hickling for sharing this.  For more cool videos, follow Vox (news site) or 99% Invisible (city design updates) on Facebook.

(video from Vox on YouTube)