Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35756872›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences2022

Moth wings as sound absorber metasurface.

Thomas R Neil, Zhiyuan Shen, Daniel Robert, Bruce W Drinkwater, Marc W Holderied

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Physical Intelligence in Small-Scale Robots and Machines.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Moth wings as sound absorber metasurface.Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Thomas R NeilSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Zhiyuan ShenSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Daniel RobertSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Bruce W DrinkwaterDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-8307-1175
Marc W HolderiedSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-1573-7908
University of Bristol · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In noise control applications, a perfect metasurface absorber would have the desirable traits of not only mitigating unwanted sound, but also being much thinner than the wavelengths of interest. Such deep-subwavelength performance is difficult to achieve technologically, yet moth wings, as natural metamaterials, offer functionality as efficient sound absorbers through the action of the numerous resonant scales that decorate their wing membrane. Here, we quantify the potential for moth wings to act as a sound-absorbing metasurface coating for acoustically reflective substrates. Moth wings were found to be efficient sound absorbers, reducing reflection from an acoustically hard surface by up to 87% at the lowest frequency tested (20 kHz), despite a thickness to wavelength ratio of up to 1/50. Remarkably, after the removal of the scales from the dorsal surface the wing's orientation on the surface changed its absorptive performance: absorption remains high when the bald wing membrane faces the sound but breaks down almost completely in the reverse orientation. Numerical simulations confirm the strong influence of the air gap below the wing membrane but only when it is adorned with scales. The finding that moth wings act as deep-subwavelength sound-absorbing metasurfaces opens the door to bioinspired, high-performance sound mitigation solutions.

Indexed as

acoustic metamaterialbioinspired metamaterialsbiological sound absorberdeep-subwavelength

Identifiers

PMID35756872
PMCPMC9199070
OpenAlexW4282935044

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.