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“ Inspired by our body’s own cells, forward osmosis technology can clean the world’s most toxic waters.”
Via André Michel
“ Like all injection molding processes, HARBEC heats solid plastic until it liquefies, presses the molten plastic into the cavity of a mold, and waits for the part to cool before ejecting it. This series of steps—melt, press, cool, eject—is called a cycle. When thousands or even millions of parts are being manufactured for a customer, the duration of each cycle is critical, and HARBEC knew that the cooling step was adding up to significant time and energy costs. The project focused on the challenge of decreasing the time and energy spent during the cooling phase of the injection molding process. Turning to the many cooling systems in nature for inspiration, Terrapin worked with HARBEC’s engineering and manufacturing teams as well as topical experts from our network to innovate on current designs. After abstracting the underlying principles of the fluid-carrying channels in certain leaves, the project team combined these insights with the capabilities of additive manufacturing. The result is a design that reduces the time and energy used by more than 20% compared to conventional solutions. Read the case study for the full account of how we unlocked these significant energy and time savings! ”
Via Miguel Prazeres
“ Taking inspiration from a sea urchin spine with highly ordered nanoparticles in the biomineral mesocrystal, German researchers report a bioinspired route toward elastic concrete materials.”
Color-tunable photonic fibers mimic the fruit of the “bastard hogberry” plant. Since the evolution of the first eye on Earth more than 500 million years ago, the success of many organisms has relied upon the way they interact with light and color, making them useful models for the creation of new materials. For seeds and fruit in particular, bright color is thought to have evolved to attract the agents of seed dispersal, especially birds. The fruit of the South American tropical plant, Margaritaria nobilis, commonly called “bastard hogberry,” is an intriguing example of this adaptation. The ultra-bright blue fruit, which is low in nutritious content, mimics a more fleshy and nutritious competitor. Deceived birds eat the fruit and ultimately release its seeds over a wide geographic area. A team of materials scientists at Harvard University and the University of Exeter, UK, have invented a new fiber that changes color when stretched. Inspired by nature, the researchers identified and replicated the unique structural elements that create the bright iridescent blue color of a tropical plant’s fruit. The multilayered fiber, described today in the journal Advanced Materials, could lend itself to the creation of smart fabrics that visibly react to heat or pressure. “Our new fiber is based on a structure we found in nature, and through clever engineering we’ve taken its capabilities a step further,” says lead author Mathias Kolle, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). “The plant, of course, cannot change color. By combining its structure with an elastic material, however, we’ve created an artificial version that passes through a full rainbow of colors as it’s stretched.” The photonic fibers are made by wrapping multiple layers of polymer around a glass core, which is later etched away. The thickness of the layers determines the apparent color of the fiber, which can range across the entire visible spectrum of light (see image).
Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald
Magnesium alloys have attracted considerable interest as prospective biodegradable materials in cardiovascular stents because of their metal mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, fast degradation and slow endothelialization results in the premature disintegration of mechanical integrity and the restenosis of implanted Mg-based stents, which is the primary hurdle limiting their predicted clinical applicability. The development of bioinspired strategies is a burgeoning area in cardiovascular stents’ fields of research. Inspired by the unique features of lotus leaves, pitcher plants, healthy endothelial cells (ECs), marine mussels, and extracellular matrix, various bioinspired strategies have been developed to build innovative artificial materials with tremendous promise for medicinal applications. This perspective focuses on bioinspired strategies to provide innovative ideas for reducing corrosion resistance and accelerating endothelialization. The bioinspired strategies are envisaged to serve as a significant reference for future research on Mg-based medical devices.
Via Beeyond
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Rescooped by
Janine Benyus
from RMH
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The rich structures and hierarchical organizations in nature provide many sources of inspiration for advanced material designs. We wish to recapitulate properties such as high mechanical strength, color-changing ability, autonomous healing and antimicrobial efficacy in next-generation synthetic materials. Common in nature are non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, ionic interactions and hydrophobic effects, which are all useful motifs in tailor-made materials. Among these are biobased components, which are ubiquitously conceptualized in the space of recently developed bioinspired and biomimetic materials. In this regard, sustainable organic polymer chemistry enables us to tune the properties and functions of such materials that are essential for daily life. In this Review, we discuss recent progress in bioinspired and biomimetic polymers and provide insights into biobased materials through the evolution of chemical approaches, including networking/crosslinking, dynamic interactions and self-assembly. We focus on advances in biobased materials; namely polymeric mimics of resilin and spider silk, mechanically and optically adaptive materials, self-healing elastomers and hydrogels, and antimicrobial polymers.
Via ?
“ A team at the University of Texas is set to create thousands of macro photographs showing the beauty and diversity of the smallest critters in the state of”
Via Elke B. Bachler
"If you ever find yourself watching hedgehog go about its day, you’ll notice that they tend to fall out of trees — a lot. Wild hedgehogs climb trees as high as 30 feet, looking for insects and food to eat. Sometimes they fall by accident, other times they fall on purpose to evade a predator or because falling is a lot faster than climbing down. As a hedgehog falls toward the ground, it keeps itself safe by rolling into a ball to surround itself with “spines” that absorb the impact. (Hedgehog spines are colloquially referred to as “quills,” which is the official term for what porcupines have. Hedgehog spines function differently, however, than porcupine quills.) It’s an effective method of protection — and one that humans want to steal."
Via Miguel Prazeres, Elke B. Bachler
“ Scientists have developed a new prototype battery inspired by the anatomy of the human intestine, and the biologically informed approach could pave the way for much more powerful energy sources for our digital devices. The prototype – which offers up to five times the energy density of the lithium-ion batteries we use in smartphones and laptops – uses a lithium-sulphur cell instead, and its intestine-mimicking design could finally make these energy-dense batteries long-lasting enough for commercial use. ”
Via Miguel Prazeres, Elke B. Bachler
“ In June 2018, the person behind the landing page Biognosis Blog starts a crowdfunding campaign to finance a product idea she's been having for many years. The card set Biognosis deploys the approach of the Trigger Picture Analysis.”
Via Elke B. Bachler
“ The way polar bear paws help them walk safely on ice could lead to better traction for shoes, tires, and other products.”
Via Elke B. Bachler
“ Flying robots inspired by tree snakes may sound ridiculous, but they're closer than you might think to becoming a reality.”
Via Elke B. Bachler
“🦋In a new example of biomimetics, a "barcode" integrated into smart textiles and inspired by butterfly wings has been developed.”
Via Elke B. Bachler
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“ Like all injection molding processes, HARBEC heats solid plastic until it liquefies, presses the molten plastic into the cavity of a mold, and waits for the part to cool before ejecting it. This series of steps—melt, press, cool, eject—is called a cycle. When thousands or even millions of parts are being manufactured for a customer, the duration of each cycle is critical, and HARBEC knew that the cooling step was adding up to significant time and energy costs. The project focused on the challenge of decreasing the time and energy spent during the cooling phase of the injection molding process. Turning to the many cooling systems in nature for inspiration, Terrapin worked with HARBEC’s engineering and manufacturing teams as well as topical experts from our network to innovate on current designs. After abstracting the underlying principles of the fluid-carrying channels in certain leaves, the project team combined these insights with the capabilities of additive manufacturing. The result is a design that reduces the time and energy used by more than 20% compared to conventional solutions. Read the case study for the full account of how we unlocked these significant energy and time savings! ”
Via Miguel Prazeres
“Plants use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen. The process starts in a cluster of manganese, calcium and oxygen atoms at the heart of a protein complex called photosystem II, which splits water to form oxygen gas, protons and electrons.”
Via Grant W. Graves
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Rescooped by
Janine Benyus
from RMH
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Human population growth, soil degradation, and agrochemical misuse are significant challenges that agriculture must face in the upcoming decades as it pertains to global food production. Seed enhancement technologies will play a pivotal role in supporting food security by enabling germination of seeds in degraded envi- ronments, reducing seed germination time, and boosting crop yields. So far, a great effort has been pursued in designing plants that can adapt to different environments and germinate in the presence of abiotic stressors, such as soil salinity, heat, and drought. The technology proposed here seeks a different goal: To engineer the microenvironment of seeds by encapsulation, preservation, and precise delivery of biofertilizers that can boost seed germination and mitigate abiotic stressors. In particular, we developed a biomaterial based on silk fibroin (S) and trehalose that can be mixed with rhizobacteria and applied on the surface of seeds, retrofitting currently used techniques for seed coating, i.e., dip coating or spray drying. A micrometer thick transparent robust coating is formed by material assembly. The combination of a polymorphic protein as S and of a disaccharide used by living systems to tolerate abiotic stressors provides a beneficial environment for the survival of nonspore forming rhizobacteria outside the soil and in anhydrous conditions. Using Rhizobium tropici CIAT 899 and Phaseolus vulgaris as working models, we demonstrated that rhizobacteria delivered in the soil after coating dissolution infect seedlings’ roots, form root nodules, enhance yield, boost germination, and mitigate soil salinity.
Via ?
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Rescooped by
Janine Benyus
from RMH
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The exceptional underwater adhesive properties displayed by aquatic organisms, such as mussels (Mytilus spp.) and barnacles (Cirripedia spp.) have long inspired new approaches to adhesives with a superior performance both in wet and dry environments. Herein, a bioinspired adhesive composite that combines both adhesion mechanisms of mussels and barnacles through a blend of silk, polydopamine, and Fe3+ ions in an entirely organic, nontoxic water-based formulation is presented. This approach seeks to recapitulate the two distinct mechanisms that underpin the adhesion properties of the Mytilus and Cirripedia, with the former secreting sticky proteinaceous filaments called byssus while the latter produces a strong proteic cement to ensure anchoring. The composite shows remarkable adhesive properties both in dry and wet conditions, favorably comparing to synthetic commercial glues and other adhesives based on natural polymers, with performance comparable to the best underwater adhesives with the additional advantage of having an entirely biological composition that requires no synthetic procedures or processing.
Via ?
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Rescooped by
Janine Benyus
from RMH
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Deserts are the driest places in the world, desert creatures have evolved special adaptations to survive in this extreme water shortage environment. The collection and transport of condensed water have been of particular interest regarding the potential transfer of the underlying mechanisms to technical applications. In this review, the mechanisms of water capture and transport were first summarized. Secondly, an introduction of four typical desert creatures including cactus, desert beetles, lizards, and snakes which have special adaptations to manage water was elaborated. Thirdly, the recent progress of biomimetic water-collecting structures including cactus, desert beetles, and lizards inspired designs and the influence of overflow on water collection was demonstrated. Finally, the conclusions were drawn, and future issues were pointed out. The present study will further promote research on bioinspired water management strategies.
Via ?
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Rescooped by
Janine Benyus
from RMH
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Natural biological materials provide a rich source of inspiration for building high-performance materials with extensive applications. By mimicking their chemical compositions and hierarchical architectures, the past decades have witnessed the rapid development of bioinspired materials. As a very promising biosourced raw material, silk is drawing increasing attention due to excellent mechanical properties, favorable versatility, and good biocompatibility. In this review, we provide an overview of the recent progress in silk-based bioinspired structural and functional materials. We first give a brief introduction of silk, covering its sources, features, extraction, and forms. We then summarize the preparation and application of silk-based materials mimicking four typical biological materials including bone, nacre, skin, and polar bear hair. Finally, we discuss the current challenges and future prospects of this field.
Via ?
"If you wanted to see in the dark, you could do worse than follow the example of moths, which have of course made something of a specialty of it. That, at least, is what NASA researchers did when designing a powerful new camera that will capture the faintest features in the galaxy."
Via Miguel Prazeres, Elke B. Bachler
"Many species of owl are able to hunt in effective silence by suppressing their noise at sound frequencies above 1.6 kilohertz (kHz) - over the range that can be heard by humans. A team of researchers studying the acoustics of owl flight—including Justin W. Jaworski, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Lehigh University—is working to pinpoint the mechanisms that accomplish this virtual silence in order to improve the aerodynamic design of wind turbines, aircraft, naval ships and even automobiles. Now, the team has succeeded—through physical experiments and theoretical modeling—in using the downy canopy of owl feathers as a model to inspire the design of a 3D-printed, wing attachment that reduces wind turbine noise by 10 decibels without impacting aerodynamics."
Via Miguel Prazeres, Elke B. Bachler
“ Nature has a lot to teach us about well-adapted and responsive designs. With millennia of evolutionary trial and error, the solutions produced by the natural world have been tested by the most powerful of forces, nature itself. We can be inspired by and learn from the designs nature has developed and apply them to our …”
Via Elke B. Bachler
“ Learn how nature is inspiring engineers to design new 3D printing materials and to find solutions for everyday problems with biomimicry!”
Via Elke B. Bachler
“ These are the top 10 Biomimicry examples of 2022. Each nature-inspired innovative business was selected by the Biomimicry Institute for the Ray of Hope Prize.”
Via Elke B. Bachler
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