Oooh, sticky!

Nature apparently admires adherence—I say this because there are so many different types of natural adhesives.  From gecko’s feet, and their use of van der Waals forces to attach themselves to walls and ceilings, to the amazing mussel adhesive proteins (or MAPs) that have fascinated scientists and led to the development of MAP adhesive products for scientific products, medical applications—even […]

By |May 28th, 2013|Animals, Biomimicry in Action, Shark Bites|Comments Off on Oooh, sticky!

Wild about Spirals

I’m not bashful about my fascination with equiangular spirals. My book has more than 75 references to spiraling geometries. Whirlpools.  Shells.  The spiraling of the heart muscle, and of the human skin pore.  The cochlea in all mammels.  Even DNA has been described […]

By |May 20th, 2013|Shark Bites|Comments Off on Wild about Spirals

A bit buggy?

This article in the Yakama Herald about new bug’s eye-inspired technology caught my eye (pun very much intended). Ant-eyed endoscopes? Apparently John Rogers, a professor […]

By |May 13th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Insects, Shark Bites|Comments Off on A bit buggy?

Paint drops …

Okay, it’s nearly May and things are heating up!  The Shark’s Paintbrush will be published in June and there’s already an early review! If you haven’t visited our Facebook page, it’s here.

Here’s a bit from the book to whet your appetite:

Zoopharmacognosy is the long- winded scientific label for studying animal self- medication. You may have seen your […]

By |April 29th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Flowers and plants, Shark Bites|Comments Off on Paint drops …

Flipperbot!

As a person who’s spent a fair bit of time in the sea, I’ve had a number of sea turtle encounters. Obviously, my colleagues at Georgia Tech have as well. Their turtle-inspired Flipperbot helps them learn more the locomotion of turtle, seals, and mudskippers over complex granular surfaces, such as sand.

In an article in The Engineer, […]

By |April 24th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Shark Bites|Comments Off on Flipperbot!

Birds of Paradise

Isn’t it amazing what we continue to learn about the many creatures with whom we share this planet? All 39 species of the remarkable and distinctive birds of paradise show in this video are only found deep in the rainforests of New Guinea. It has taken years to track these birds and study their unique behaviors—and plumage—all so we can learn more about Nature’s […]

By |February 28th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Birds, Shark Bites|Comments Off on Birds of Paradise