Have you ever been in a crash? Not necessarily a car crash. You might have fallen off your bike,

bumped into a door, or had someone bash into you whilst playing a sport like rugby? It hurts, doesn't it?

The human body is a wonderful thing, but we're only able to take impacts up to a certain level before we bruise, break, get concussed or worse.

But as the world speeds up, as planes, trains, cars and even bicycles get faster, these kinds of impacts will also get bigger,

and will need better ways to deal with them when they come.

Now this has got to be one of the most recognizable woodland sounds. It seems to

reverberate amongst the trees. It's hard to believe that it's made by a bird, a woodpecker drumming

its beak against the trunk of a tree. But there's more to this sound than meets the ear.

Because in the future, we could have the head-banging antics of the woodpecker to thank

for better tech when it comes to dealing with crashes.

Be that the survival of flight recorder data from the wreckage of a plane crash,

or better designed crash helmets for us humans.

Welcome back to 30 animals that made us smarter, an original podcast from the BBC World Service,

which reveals how animals like the Kingfisher, Octopus, and mosquito, which featured in previous episodes, have been helping us humans out

with some really challenging design problems.

This is called Biomimicry and I'm fascinated by this stuff.

I'm Patrick Aye by the way and if you know of a great Biomimicry story,

then do get in touch.

And you never know.

We might even feature your story in one of our podcasts later on in the series.

Email us at 30 animals, that's 3.0 animals at BBC.com or you can contact us on our website.

BBC World Service.com slash 30 animals where you'll also find our privacy notice.

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