Bird feather shafts are light, stiff and strong, but the fine details of how their structure, mechanics and function relate to one another remains poorly understood. The missing piece in our understanding may be the various fibrous layers that make up the shaft's cortex. Detailed imaging techniques are needed to enable us to capture, analyse and quantify these layers before we can begin to unravel the relationship between their structure, mechanics and function.

中文翻译：

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用于观察羽毛轴皮质层流几何形状的成像技术

鸟羽轴轻、硬且结实，但它们的结构、力学和功能如何相互关联的细节仍然知之甚少。在我们的理解中缺失的部分可能是构成轴皮质的各种纤维层。我们需要详细的成像技术来捕捉、分析和量化这些层，然后才能开始解开它们的结构、力学和功能之间的关系。