Recent research revealed that the whiskers on an elephant's trunk are remarkable sensing instruments, which is why the trunk is capable of such remarkable capabilities.
"To try to figure out why [why the trunk hairs have a stiffness gradient], Schulz worked with colleagues at MPI-IS to 3D print a scaled-up whisker with a stiff, dark base and a soft, transparent tip. Having this physical "whisker wand" prototype helped the researchers develop their intuition for what an elephant trunk feels through its whiskers.
Schulz left the wand with his mentor after a meeting, and a few days later…Eureka! Kuchenbecker carried the wand in her hand as she walked through the halls of the Institute, gently hitting the columns and railings. She recounted, "I noticed that tapping the railing with different parts of the whisker wand felt distinct—soft and gentle at the tip, and sharp and strong at the base. I didn't need to look to know where the contact was happening; I could just feel it."
This figure describes the research schematically.
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