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Honeybees are taking emergency measures to protect their hives from pesticides, in an extraordinary example of the natural world adapting swiftly to our depredations, according to a prominent bee expert. Scientists have found numerous examples of a new phenomenon – bees "entombing" or sealing up hive cells full of pollen to put them out of use, and protect the rest of the hive from their contents. The pollen stored in the sealed-up cells has been found to contain dramatically higher levels of pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals than the pollen stored in neighbouring cells, which is used to feed growing young bees.
Inspired by eyes found in arthropods, an interdisciplinary and international team of researchers has created a digital camera with designs that mimic the ocular systems found in dragonflies, bees, praying mantises and other insects. The device could be used in surveillance devices, tools for endoscopy, and other applications where these insect-inspired designs provide unique capabilities. Eyes in arthropods use compound designs, in which arrays of smaller eyes act together to provide image perception. Each small eye, known as an ommatidium, consists of a corneal lens, a crystalline cone, and a light sensitive organ at the base. The entire system is configured to provide exceptional properties in imaging, many of which lie beyond the reach of existing man-made cameras.
There is mounting evidence that the ability of germs to resist antibiotic treatment is growing in the U.S., with certain "nightmare bacteria" on the rise. But two antibiotic strategies from nature that have been explored by a few companies may offer alternate approaches to the problem.
Carpal Skin is a glove designed by Assistant Professor Neri Oxman of the MIT Media Lab and was developed to aid the pain of those plagued by Carpal Tunnel Syndrome which is caused by the median nerve being compressed at the wrist leading to paresthesia, numbness, and pain. Night-time wrist splinting is the recommended treatment for most patients before going into carpal tunnel release surgery. Carpal Skin is a process by which to map the pain-profile of a particular patient—its intensity and duration—and to distribute hard and soft materials to fit the patient’s anatomical and physiological requirements, limiting movement in a customized fashion. The form-generation process is inspired by animal coating patterns in the control of stiffness variation. Though Oxman does not claim the texture is based on any particular natural pattern one cannot help but identify some of the same formal logic in that of brain coral which is part of the family Faviidae.
"The woodpecker’s beak...is a specialized chisel effective in cutting into a tree; unlike a human-made chisel, the beak is self-sharpening...; the beak, made of elastic material, is relatively large compared to the body. This endoskeletal feature prevents incident mechanical excitations [i.e., the impact] of drumming from directly reaching the brain. [Another shock-absorbing] feature is a hyoid which rigidly supports the tongue. This musculotendinous tissue serves as an attachment site for the muscles around the throat and tongue...[and] encompasses the head...This feature, not seen in other birds, aids the woodpecker in extending its tongue in order to evenly distribute [the impact] from drumming and to reinforce the head—in other words, the hyoid bypasses the vibrations generated from drumming. Article http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/6/1/016003/
Monarch Power is an interesting company that wasn’t on my map until today. It has produced some very interesting solar flowers, or “Lotus Mobile” units. As you can see via the images on this page, the solar panels in this units fold out like petals on a flower, and then they can fold up again for easy transport/relocation. I’m not sure how security works with these, but I assume something is built in or recommended to make sure they stay in place when that is desired.
A new model gives scientists guidelines to develop ‘smart’ composite materials with wrinkled microstructures.
Via Miguel Prazeres
Super slow-motion footage of a moth in flight has revealed how the insects use their bodies to hover. The moth moves its body by pivoting its abdomen up and down to fine-tune the effect of the forces that keep the insect airborne. The researchers are studying insect flight to "distil the biological principles of flight control". This, they say, will help them to accurately engineer flying robots that use these same principles.
The thesis investigation started in 2010 as a M.ARCH research was posted at The Open Shed, a website of the School of Architecture of the University of Puerto Rico that recognizes relevant projects for Puerto Rico from local architects and architecture students. This research proposal is the first biomimicry-based project being developed in Puerto Rico in order to address the Caribbean seismic vulnerability.“Buildings of the future will have skeletal structures able to respond to nature’s hazards”
From the shiny, strong nacre that gives abalone shells an unbreakable, opaline sheen, to the goopy mix of proteins fired by a velvet worm that solidify and snare prey upon impact, nature is packed with inspiration for scientists designing new...
Achieving significant adhesion to soft tissues while minimizing tissue damage poses a considerable clinical challenge. Chemical-based adhesives require tissue-specific reactive chemistry, typically inducing a significant inflammatory response. Staples are fraught with limitations including high-localized tissue stress and increased risk of infection, and nerve and blood vessel damage. Here inspired by the endoparasite Pomphorhynchus laevis, which swells its proboscis to attach to its host’s intestinal wall, we have developed a biphasic microneedle array that mechanically interlocks with tissue through swellable microneedle tips, achieving ~3.5-fold increase in adhesion strength compared with staples in skin graft fixation, and removal force of ~4.5 N cm−2 from intestinal mucosal tissue. Comprising a poly(styrene)-block-poly(acrylic acid) swellable tip and non-swellable polystyrene core, conical microneedles penetrate tissue with minimal insertion force and depth, yet high adhesion strength in their swollen state. Uniquely, this design provides universal soft tissue adhesion with minimal damage, less traumatic removal, reduced risk of infection and delivery of bioactive therapeutics.
Et si l’économie collaborative n’était-t-elle pas au fond inspirée de la Nature ? C'est l'avis de Gaëtan Dartevelle, co-fondateur de Biomimicry Europa et directeur de Greenloop.
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a 'nanosponge' capable of safely removing a broad class of dangerous toxins from the bloodstream – including toxins produced by MRSA, E.
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One inspiration for future generations of agile robots is coming from an unlikely source: the tails of seahorses. The marine creature’s prehensile appendage—capable of curling more than 360 degrees in on itself and gripping vegetation—displays unique mechanical properties that engineers at the University of California, San Diego, think could be the key to flexible, agile robots. “The seahorse is an intriguing creature,” says Michael Porter, a UC San Diego materials science doctoral student who is leading the research. “We’re looking at this animal for both biological study and the engineering of materials.”
The greater wax moth has the best hearing of any animal in the world – a discovery which has the potential to revolutionise microphone technology in everything from mobile phones to hearing aids.
In the not too distant future the world is going to be abuzz with quadrotors flying about making deliveries, monitoring traffic and spying on everyone: a skill this gecko-like craft is particularly adept at. Thanks to a special dry adhesive it’s able to stick and unstick from surfaces, letting it land and perch almost anywhere. Developed as a joint research project between Stanford and the University of Maryland, the quadrotor is an impressive example of biomimicry, where scientists attempt to recreate features and capabilities of living things. At the moment the quadrotor sticks best to smooth acrylic surfaces, but eventually, like a gecko, it should be able to cling anywhere letting it watch and listen like the proverbial fly on the wall. [YouTube via Popular Science]
As 17-year cicadas wriggle out of the ground all over the northeastern U.S. this spring, they'll be reemerging into a world that understands them a little better. Researchers now find the design of their wings can cause filth to jump right off of them with the aid of dew, findings that might help lead to better artificial self-cleaning materials. Scientists had known that cicada wings are super-water-repellent, or super-hydrophobic. This is different from a great many substances that are simply water-repellent, or hydrophobic — for instance, oil and water famously do not mix. But a number of surfaces such as lotus leaves can make themselves even more water-repellent by covering themselves with microscopic bumps, so water drops can float on top much as mystics can lie on beds of nails. For example, cicada wings are covered in rows of waxy cones about 200 nanometers or billionths of a meter high. In comparison, the average human hair is roughly 100 microns or millionths of a meter wide.
As neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Sandy begin drafting plans for reconstruction, some progressive architects and urban planners are arguing that the emerging science of biomimicry offers a way forward. The notion is that the next generation of waterfront designs could draw inspiration from the intricate ways that plants and animals have adapted to their situations over hundreds of millions of years. Kapok trees, honeycombs and mangroves are just a few of the naturally occurring features or processes that have informed the designs of buildings from Haiti to South Korea to New York City in recent years.
Une vidéo d'e-Talents, le magazine numérique de l'Ecole des Mines de Nantes où quand la robotique s'expose à la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie à Paris jusqu'au 18 août.
To better understand how the sea turtles' flippers work on land, researchers at Daniel Goldman's CRAB Lab (Complex Rheology and Biomechanics) at Georgia Tech studied the movements of just-hatched sea turtles on the beach of Jekyll Island, a coastal island of Georgia.
Inspired by a fish parasitic worm, a group of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) devised a way to close surgical wounds that appears better than anything currently available for clinical use. Once perfected, the invention could be used as replacement for staples and sutures used in the operating room, as well as to deliver therapeutics and lower the chances of inflammation and infection. Led by Jeffrey Karp, PhD, BWH Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, the team observed Pomphorhynchus laevis, a spiny-headed worm that lives in the intestines of fish. The worm securely attaches to the host’s intestinal wall by penetrating, and then plumping up its elongated, cactus-like head into the intestinal tissue.
It has been said that architecture has a mimicry complex. Dave Brown, on his blog URB, describes architects' tendency to mimic not only forms and systems found outside of architecture, but also, well, each other. In search of sustainable methods, innovative ideas, and novel forms, many architects look to nature for inspiration. This practice, termed biomimicry, has been the subject of several of my recent posts. Moving beyond biology to something much larger, Brown discusses another environmentally-motivated imitative trend: Geo-Mimicry.
By: Tanya Lewis, LiveScience Staff Writer Published: 04/16/2013 11:12 AM EDT on LiveScience A parasitic worm that latches onto the intestines of its hosts has inspired the development of a new surgical technique for skin grafts.
A few weeks ago, a teaser from Renault suggested that the car would be based on biomimicry--which made some wonder if there was a new, sustainable aspect to the design. That’s not exactly the case, unless you count the fact that the electric car gets great mileage. Lovegrove’s team focused solely on the bodywork and interiors, all borrowing from natural patterns and forms. The iridescent blue body (inspired by Yves Klein, according to Lovegrove) is coated in green LED lighting. A stippled grille maximizes the flow of air through the car. The headlight casings mimic a human iris. A layered LED roofscape “hoods passengers in a technological envelope that bathes them in a light which responds to the energy and pulse of Twin’Z,” explains Lovegrove. “Mechanical ‘hard’ aesthetics are making way for the biological principles of ‘soft’ aesthetics.”
Plant components that bend, roll or twist in response to external stimuli such as temperature or moisture are fairly commonplace in nature and often play a role in the dispersal of seeds. Pine cones, for instance, close their scales when wet and open them again once they have dried out Seed pods such as pine cones were the inspiration behind this novel composite material comprising different layers that are able to change shape to varying degrees (photo: Prof. André Studart, ETH Zurich / flickr.com) André Studart, a professor of complex materials at ETH Zurich's Department of Materials, and his group have now applied the knowledge of how these movements come about to produce synthetically a composite material with comparable properties.
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