Fascinating Sandcastle Worm Inspires Biocompatible Glue For Broken Bones

T Goodman — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:43:31 -0700

Let me introduce you to Phragmatopoma californica, the sandcastle worm, if you haven't already met. This incredibly self-contained worm, found on the southern coast of California, not only gathers its own materials to build its home, but uses its own bio-produced cement to superglue the materials together, creating its own permanent honeycomb housing - under water!

Sticky Feet Of Green Mussels Inspires New Adhesives

T Goodman — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:29:15 -0700

You've heard of 'sticky fingers?' Well, green mussels, aka Perna viridis, have sticky feet! And that is the secret -- just released by scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara's (UCSB) Marine Science Institute -- of their superior adhesive powers.

Chew On This: Aircraft That Biomimic The Architecture Of A Tooth

T Goodman — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:14:02 -0700

Looking for an inspiration to build more crash resistant aircraft, mechanical engineers are looking at the architecture of the tooth.

An Electronic Tongue That Knows Its Sweeteners!

T Goodman — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:14:02 -0700

It's a sweet tongue not a sweet tooth but, after all, it is the tongue and not the tooth that contains one's taste sensors. The new electronic tongue has taste buds that biomimic our own but, so far, it only tastes sweets. What a lucky tongue!

Gecko Grip Findings Will Advance Military, Space Applications

T Goodman — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:14:00 -0700

Despite popular belief, not all geckos are employed by Geico® to star in television commercials. Some of them are walking on glass in science labs while researchers try to figure out just what factors keep them from slipping off! Scientists at the University of Calgary and Clemson University have made that discovery!

Sweat Proof Fabrics Biomimic Reponse Of Pine Cone To Humidity

T Goodman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:29:10 -0700

Embarrassing underarm sweat stains on your clothing may soon be a thing of the past. And your comfort moving from arid to humid microclimates, as one does often in urban areas, may improve dramatically... and all with fabrics that biomimic the response of the pine cone to humidity. Read why the pine cone may be the biomimetic hero of the next generation of fabrics.

Electronic Nose Challenges The Dog As Most Sensitive To Human Smell

T Goodman — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:43:52 -0700

While dogs are being cloned for drug-sniffing jobs in South Korea, a kind of mechanical dog is being built in Spain to biomimic the dog's sensitivity to human skin vapors. The developers are calling it the "electronic nose."

Robot Layoffs Essential During Recessionary Times

T Goodman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:13:51 -0700

What are the robots supposed to do when they are out of work? They can't get unemployment. Most likely, they won't even get to Twitter their friends or check out porn sites, like humans often do when they're laid off.

Humpback Whale Inspires Best Wind Power Turbines: WhalePower Tubercle Technology

T Goodman — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:14:22 -0700

The average humpback whale weighs about 36 tons, yet it is one of the most graceful swimmers, divers, and jumpers in the sea. WhalePower's new wind turbine technology owes its performance to what it has learned from from studying just what makes the humpback whale so aerodynamic.

Does Your Car Have A Sexy Butt Or A Baby Face?

T Goodman — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:13:55 -0700

Are cars biomimetic, designed to look like people or animals, or have dominant or sweet personalities? The car in this picture was described as having "male lines" and "one of the sexiest butts around."

Chewing Robot Chomps Away At Summer Science Exhibition

T Goodman — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:58:27 -0700

If the human jaw was not so complex, perhaps a Chewing Robot would not be an asset to dental research. But the jaw lets us chew in so many different ways, that humans turn out to be not-so-efficient testers of dental materials.

Does This Lamp Have Balls, Or What?

T Goodman — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:29:25 -0700

Biomimicry is the celebration of nature in every sense -- a philosophy, a perspective, a practice... that recognizes nature knows best. Here is a perfect example from the field of interior design that really epitomizes man's love of nature. The lamp, by Russian designer Dima Loginoff, is called, simply, Male.

New Artificial Heart Biomimics The Heart Of A Cockroach

T Goodman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:28:17 -0700

Did you ever wonder what makes the cockroach so resilient? Maybe it's the cockroach heart that has as many as 13 pumping chambers, as opposed to human and animal hearts that only have four pumping chambers.

Wood Biomimics Bone For More Functional Prosthetics

T Goodman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:13:37 -0700

For the first time, inspired by a tree's hierarchial structure of growth, Italian scientists have created bone prostheses from wood.

What Can A Maple Seed Teach A Helicopter About Flying?

T Goodman — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:58:13 -0700

Perhaps you've never noticed this, or you don't live near maple trees, but the seeds of maple trees fall ever so slowly and, depending on the impact of the breeze or wind force, can be carried for miles before they land. A recently published study in the journal Science shows us why this happens and the significance it might have for future aerospace technology.

Man Made Trees Invite Natural Species To Return Home

T Goodman — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:13:40 -0700

Once an agricultural area, the commercial/industrial city of Leeds, England has displaced millions of birds, bats, and small animals and hundreds of individual species have disappeared completely from the urban landscape. But Leeds has decided to bring its wildlife back.

Heliotropic Biomimicry: Solar Panels That Follow The Sun

T Goodman — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:43:23 -0700

Solar panels that track the sun currently involve the use of motors and electronic control systems to move them and convert the power to energy. But a team of engineering students at MIT, inspired by heliotropic plants that move in the direction of the sun all day (like a sunflower), have developed a new method of motivation for the photovoltaic cells to move. Their invention won first place in MIT's Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest (MADMEC) -- a $100,000 prize!

A Double Strand of DNA & The Art Of Origami Meet Nanotechnology

T Goodman — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:55:43 -0700

A new method of targeting drugs for delivery to cells is in development at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The new method combines the art of DNA origami with the science of nanotechnology and is expected to result in drug-carrying nanostructures that can weather the storms of intracellular "hurricanes."

Inspired By A Nocturnal Gecko: Possible Strange Visions!

T Goodman — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:07:48 -0700

A nocturnal gecko, the Helmeted gecko (or Tarentola chazaliae), that is native to the west coast of Africa, has caught the attention of Swedish researchers, who gazed into the eyes of the little lizard looking for the secret to his powerful and colorful night vision. What they found may help them to create better camera lenses as well as multi-optical contact lenses for human eyes.

Moss Can Be Used As 'Surrogate Mother' To Human Genes

T Goodman — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:28:09 -0700

Moss, that dark green, short, furry plant that seems to grow spontaneously in dark, moist spaces, has unexpectedly shown up as a kind of surrogate mother to human genes, able to read human genes and manufacture the proteins encoded on them! This finding, made by Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Chemical and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich and others at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, is a 450 million year old reversal of fortune!

Biofuels Or Bioelectricity? Miles Per Acre Are Compared In New Study

T Goodman — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:31:58 -0700

What is the most efficient way to use farmed crops to power our vehicles - biofuels or bioelectricity? Researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science, University of California, and Stanford University studied these issues as well as their relative impact on the environment. Guess which one fared miles better per acre than the other.

Inspired By Nature:The Pixel Carbon Neutral Prototype Office Building

T Goodman — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:52:53 -0700

Grocon, a third generation Australian development and construction company, is about to build the world's first carbon neutral office building, complete with fresh air, native grass filtration of rain water, natural daylight, and windows that open! Sounds revolutionary, doesn't it?

Biomimicry Of Pizza Tossing Leads To Physics Formula For Surgical Micro Robots

T Goodman — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:25:49 -0700

Scientists have been building swimming micro robots for years, but interestingly they all have different reasons for building them the same way. Now, researchers at Monach University in Australia have learned the physics of the micro motors, and they learned it by studying the perfect pizza toss!

Singapore Discovers How To Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Methanol!

T Goodman — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:56:57 -0700

The third smallest sovereign nation in the world has just made an enormous contribution to relieving the world's debt to the environment. Singapore researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have discovered how to turn carbon dioxide into methanol.... Double take: They have found a way to make greenhouse gas green. Triple take: They took the biggest contributor to the world's carbon footprint and converted it into a source of clean energy for the world. Astounding.

From Cradle To Cradle: Ecovative Design's Acorn™ Packaging

T Goodman — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:12:36 -0700

What happens to all the packaging inside of all the computer and printer and cell phone boxes? The preformed foam plastic, the peanuts, the bubble packaging, the sponge sheets... Waste in landfills, toxic waste.

Japanese Child Robot With Biomimetic Body Learns Social Skills

T Goodman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:50:51 -0700

Meet CB2, aka, Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body. He is watching your every facial expression, interpreting, assimilating. You touch him tenderly while you smile; he assimilates the combined expressions. He's a two-year old robot and he's doing almost everything a two-year-old child does.

"HUNT" Seeks Inspiration From Nature's Hunting & Swarming Behaviors

T Goodman — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:12:15 -0700

Animals, sea creatures, birds, and insects all have different kinds of hunting and swarming behaviors that they employ in groups whenever necessary. These behaviors are now being studied by a project called HUNT, sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. Wait until you see what HUNT stands for....

Bat Inspired UAFs: Biomimicry In Progress By U.S. Air Force

T Goodman — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:13:59 -0700

The Office of Scientific Research of the U.S. Air Force is studying bats... bats and birds and insects that can fly in all kinds of wind and weather and still maintain their balance, agility, and adaptability. Why? To mimic the characteristics of these supreme fliers in new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's).

Cactus, Skyscraper Size

T Goodman — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:33:37 -0700

A skyscraper in the shape of a cactus is planned for the new Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture in Qatar. Designed by Aesthetics Architects in Bangkok, the giant structure doesn't just look like a cactus. The shades around the building open and close in response to the heat, like cactus cells, making the cactus tower a true example of biomimicry.

Engineers Create Biocomposites That Can Curb Global Warming

T Goodman — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:12:01 -0700

What we can do when we put our minds to it! Well, not "we," but a group of environmental engineers at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment. They created an artificial wood, which is just as strong as the real thing, using biocomposites that are completely biodegradable. This faux wood has the potential of saving our forests, reducing green house gases, and actually shrinking landfills. Stay tuned... these researchers are on to their next big breakthrough.