IB 199 BioInspiration Spring 2011

This is a pretty interesting article about how sharks navigate and can detect prey using electroreception. However, I would recommend reading just the first three paragraphs, because after that I think it gets a bit repetitive. Basically, hair cells in sharks can sense electric changes (caused by crossing geomagnetic lines or movement of prey) which travel through ions in seawater and then relay this information to the brain.

Personal robots may soon be as cheap and customizable as personal computers.

I remember when mentioned how Bacteria works in past lectures. There is a recent research about that. Bacteria swap genes with their neighbors more frequently than researchers have realized.

This article talks about some really interesting possible bio-inspired sensors on future robots. They're very likely to achieve according to the current technical development.

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."

This is an interesting bit on how penguins and seals use their feathers/fur to create traction when sliding on antarctic ice, and scientists are trying to imitate it mechanically.

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!

This is an article about a tiny animal called the water bear. They're not actually bears, and they are only 0.1-0.5 mm in length. However, they live just about everywhere on earth and can survive even the most extreme conditions (really high temperatures, really low temperatures, really high pressure, etc. They can live up to 120 years without any water and can even survive in space! They are able to this by entering a state of suspended animation; they dehydrate their bodies, which are normally 85% water, down to 2% water and replacing this water with a sugar which keeps its cell membranes intact. This concept could be used to preserve antibiotics without using refrigeration so that they could reach patients without spoiling.

This is quite a lengthy article, but if you like dense math and physics, then this is the article for you. Usually, when one thinks about bees, you think of CCD, or bees' dance. This time, scientists are interested in their vision. Using an interesting mix of mirrors and a video camera, we are actually able to somewhat recreate what a bee sees. Obviously, it's not perfect, but it's pretty close.  The central aim was to build a light-weight system that can be used as an intuitive tool for assessing the visual world from the bees' perspective by reconstructing their visual input. This system may also serve as an insect-inspired system for mobile robots, especially for small flying vehicles.

Kate, this is a very interesting article and it points out that simple systems can be just complex enough for us to learn from. Nice annotation - this type of annotation will help you in the future - I mean why read a dense paper (full of math and physics) again if it was no good in the first place.

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.

This is a short scholarly article that is definitely worth reading. It expands on the Student Teach Presentation for the Stiff Composites group, specifically the resilin aspects. I was really interested in the resilin's applications in dragonfly wings and its "rubber-like" properties, and this article was perfect for further information on it.

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

This is a really interesting find. This article talks about how scientists are developing a coating similar to that found in mussels that could really allow us to do more with cells.

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 ;-)

An article about how the future will be defined in terms of the development of Biology aspect. Without nature, our life would be less convenient.

Hou In, next time add a little bit more to your annotation. What are the drawbacks of this technology? What types of applications do you envision?