Group items tagged

The "Education" in Scientific American has a lot of experiments that people can do at home with simple materials. The link I share is the science behind a magic show I've seen before. After the practice, they have some questions like "What is the slowest you can pull the loop away and still have the coin fall into the container? What happens when you use a bigger or smaller paper loop?"

Not cutting edge or new research, but yet to be brought forth from what I've seen. This article tells of robots built the size of roaches, not resembling them however, coated with a coattail of chemicals resembling that of real roaches. These robots where then accepted into the swarms and even more surprising were able to influence swarm decisions making. When scurrying for cover the robots ran to well light shelter, counter of nature roach behavior, and was able to get the swarm to follow them. More needs to be researched but this is the beginning of understanding the swarm!

In this TED talk Paul Wolpe discusses the current excels in bioengineering and whether there is a line that needs to be drawn. According to Paul, man has undergone three major waves of evolutions: Darwinian Evolution (passive), Civiliization (controlling the evolutionary environment), and Directed Evolution (design). For the first time in history man is intentionally designing and altering the physiological forms that inhabit our planet. In the speech, Paul posses the question of what are the "ground rules" for bioengineering and creating life by depicting the work we have done so far. The majority of food in the supermarket today already has genetically modified aspects of it without clear regulations or identification on the packages. Are the benefits that may come from genetically modifying organisms worth the manipulation of nature? Paul also talks of recent successfull experiments in which scientists have been able to control animals through computer technology. An "Organic Robot". What do you guys think? Is it right for us to modify animals in order to benefit ourselves? Where is the line drawn? This is no longer science fiction, but a reality.

This is a great article that was posted on Twitter by John McCann. Thank you! This relates to the material silk, which is a very useful naturally-made material. In my research, I came across a goat that was able to produce silk proteins in its milk thanks to science, but I never saw this. This article talks about how some researchers have been able to modify silkworms to produce a mix of silkworm/spider silk. This is much more sturdy than silk from a silkworm alone. It is better to be produced by a silkworm, because they are easier to raise and more efficient at producing silk. This is a great article to think about biomimicry.

Just some basic facts of science that are pretty intriguing

This article provides a nice entry point to the field of biomimicry or biological inspiration. It gives 15 well-know and/or cool examples of biomimicry. However, there are so many more examples and after this article has been up for a few years (cannot find the exact date it was published) it feels a little outdated.

After the discussion of extending life in class today I remembered reading about recent advancements and claims that have been made about extending the human life. After looking around I found this great article that tracks recent scientific findings and possible "cures". In the quest for longer life, scientists are trying to find the genes of longevity and bottle their benefits for all. However, the purpose of this research is not extreme life span but something they call "health span." Rather than getting certain diseases early in life such as heart disease and other age dependent illness, these illnesses will merely happen much later in life. Aging, after all, is not a disease but a natural process, the accumulation of defects that our bodies simply do not have the wherewithal to repair. A large portion of the article discusses the hypothesis that calorie restriction reduces the creation of toxic molecules called free radicals, which are considered crucial factors in the aging of cells and tissues. Another hypothesis is that calorie restriction decreases the secretion of certain hormones-in particular, insulin and insulin-like growth factor-that signal organisms to channel their resources into either growth and reproduction (when insulin and IGF levels are high) or maintenance and repair (when they are low). The article also discusses the work of Dr. Grey. Dr. Grey believes solving the fight against aging involves dismantling and hauling out the molecular trash while also delivering engineered gene and therapeutic cells to refurbish cells that have died out and gone unreplaced. He believes that other scientists' focus is too small, and it is easier to just clean up the mess rather than mess with pathways and mechanisms. Dr. Grey believes that the possibility of a shot to cure aging is a lot closer than we think.

Exellent review of the paper. And interesting view-point of this Dr. Grey.

I mean: Excellent review ;-)

Hey guys, I found this short little site that has a bunch of cool applications of nature to architecture. Definitely worth your time if you're looking for an interesting read. Enjoy!

This website is all devoted to the applications of shark skin. Great way to use the design in nature to solve the problems we have to use chemicals for. Linked to a solution for boats, but if you explore the website you'll find other ways that this could be used.

It's a pretty long article but very worth reading. It talks about several ideas about ideas of new smart fabrics. Some of the ideas are from the biomaterials we talked in class like silk and soft composites. I especially like the innovation of self-dealing fabrics which is inspired by skins and the one inspired by chameleon skin and fish scale. It's cool when you see some ideas you never thought about. Enjoy.

something wrong with the link. I shorten the link here. Hope it works. http://bit.ly/fEHAaH

In this TED talk, Ross Lovegrove presents some great points for using nature as inspiration for design. Compared to both Janine Benyus and Robert Full, Ross labels the process of inspiration as "DNA", or "Design, Nature, Art". During the talk, Lovegrove advocates a "fat-free" design process that involves the incorporation of nature's efficient design process into design. He is also very passionate about the organic shape that is found throughout nature and using that shape to build products, and thus use less resources to build it. Although Ross talks of a great way of thinking that needs to be adopted by the industry, the products that he shows in his talk are far from realistic. His water bottle design is far from efficient when compared to the current water bottles already in production and his other designs are extremely expensive. I still believe that his underlying teachings are necessary, but his direction for them is a little off. What do you guys think of him? Are his designs realistic or are they just a way to demonstrate the usefullness of Biomimicry?

I find something more about solar energy. Scientists begin to search better way to use solar energy on much smaller things like bacteria. I'm thinking, mostly, we would like to focus on animals, plants or other species are "big" enough to observe. Actually, there are even more things we can learn from those tiny things.

I found this amazing TED talk by aircraft designer and environmentalist Paul MacCready given way back in 1998. While this talk was given over a decade ago, he talks about the problems that we are facing today. MacCready discusses humans' great advancements in technology and about what we all can do to preserve nature's delicate balance. Here's a great excerpt from the talk that provides a great overview of the topics: "Over billions of years on a unique sphere, chance has painted a thin covering of life: complex, improbable, wonderful and fragile. Suddenly, we humans, a recently arrived species, no longer subject to the checks and balances inherent in nature, have grown in population, technology and intelligence to a position of terrible power. We now wield the paintbrush, and that's serious. We're not very bright. We're short on wisdom; we're high on technology. Where's it going to lead?" - Paul MacCready During his talk he promotes the great potential and future in solar planes, superefficient gliders and the electric car. Its amazing to watch this video and see that we have had this technology for over a decade and it is still not utilized to its full potential. Other than the great information and points made, the presentation of the talk was very entertaining and includes a variety of videos and demonstrations ranging from mini RC aircrafts to ultra light rubberband powered active flyers. Discussing the future of the Earth Paul has a great quote: "I personally think the surviving intelligent life form on earth is not going to be carbon-based; it's going to be silicon-based."

Remember those wheel rolling caterpillars? Well now they are the focus of an robot which they have inspired. The problem is that soft body robots are slow, so for a solution scientist look to nature and found that these caterpillars have amazing speed yet are remarkably quite squishy. By mimicking them they have made advancements to help overcome this problem.

Didn't stop there found articles about the featured robots: Salamander: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11338-salamander-robot-uses-spinal-cord-to-move.html Water-Strider: http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterstrider/ M-tran: http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/26/m-tran-self-reconfigurable-modular-robot/ (personal favorite, make sure to check out the video!)

This short article discribes the accomplishements in robotics made by Mirko Kovac, a robotics engineer. It goes into detail about his break-through in the "perching" methods that stemmed from his grasshopper-inspired robots. There is also a brief video clip that essentially describes the "perching" process of his robot. I was really amazed to find that these robots are actually programed to run into whatever object they are looking for without being harmed!

Be it that we are nearing the end of the class, I found this video to be a very good summary of what we have covered in the class and what we can take away from it. The video is based upon the new movement of finding design inspiration from nature (Biomimicry). For this specific interview, they focus on an interview with Robert Full to educate the viewer about engineering inspiration from nature. If you remember, Robert Full believes that evolution doesn't necessarily design the perfect mechanism, but rather the mechanism that allows the animal to survive. Therefore, we as humans are able to learn from the abilities of animals gained from evolution and further refine the specific ability to be more efficient and applicable to our needs. The video covers a bunch of the innvoations we have discussed during our time in class including the gecko robot and the running robot RHex. I think this would be a nother great video to show in the beginning of the class for next semester. It presents the general idea of BioInspiration, provides examples of research and application, and also discusses the great importance it will play in the future; building more efficient and useful technology.

Helps how to put the nano meter in context and further into the nano world

This study has shown that some primates are possible more self-aware than we are giving them credit for. We knew from before they were able to distinguish themselves in a mirror; by putting paint on them and upon seeing themselves in a mirror attempting to whip it off. However now using different forms of testing we can see that they are very accurate in distinguishing their own actions from what was not their actions. Using a track-pad, a screen and rewards the primates were shown to have around 90% accuracy distinguishing their actions. Possibly understanding other species of self-awareness will help make our robots truly one day self-autonomous, if we so chose.

This a great talk on Solar Energy and a new innovative way to improve on our current notion of solar energy. According to Bill Gross, current solar panels that rely on silicon and other materials are still not cost effective enough to be practical. I most cases, it takes more energy to make a solar cell, than it will give out in its entire life. This led to the challenge of finding other ways of making cost-effective solar energy for use in our society. The talk covers Gross's solution of collecting the sun using reflectors to concentrate the energy to a small converter, how to design these reflectors, and what converter would be used to turn this solar energy into usable energy. In order to solve the problem of finding the most effective way of capturing/reflecting the rays of the Sun Gross used Genetic Algorithms. The use of Genetic Algorithms is a powerful way of solving intractable problems using "natural selection". You take a problem that you can't solve with a pure mathematical answer, you build an evolutionary system to try multiple tries at guessing, you add sex - where you take half of one solution and half of another and then make new mutations - and you use natural selection to kill off not as good solutions. This process ultimately led them to some great ideas for reflectors. In order to capture this heat from the solar rays Gross utilizes an advanced Sterling Engine mechanism. In summary, I highly suggest that everyone watch this video and see these alternative methods of capturing and converting solar energy.