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Plant and animal biomimicry: the man who copies nature

published: 26/03/11, 08:45
by Christophe
The idea of ​​copying good ideas from nature is as old (at least) as Leonardo da Vinci ... because there was Icarus before him : Cheesy:

Biomimicry has come back in force in recent years:

Doc released last night to review for 7 days:
http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/biomime ... 83548.html
it will be rebroadcast this morning at 10 a.m.

Biomimicry, the genius of nature

How can nature manage without cleaning products? How do insects and geckos stick to vertical walls? Where do the wonderful colors that plant and animal come from? Overview of ongoing research around the world.

(Germany, 2010, 52mn)
BR

Date of first broadcast: Yesterday, 23:12 p.m.

Replay date (s): Today at 10:00 am


Very very interesting!

published: 30/03/11, 09:52
by Steeve_Osteen
the designers (of which I am a part) finally understand that nature is far more ahead of us and that copying allows us to advance much faster ...

industrialists still have to learn to have as little impact as nature on itself. : Cheesy:

published: 30/03/11, 11:20
by Christophe
Uh, didn't understand the end of your second sentence!

In fact this documentary is part of a more complete series:

http://www.arte.tv/fr/Comprendre-le-mon ... 30346.html

Unfortunately the other episodes are no longer available on Arte + 7 but there are already extracts and summaries:

The art of moving and building efficiently should be of particular interest to econologists:

http://www.arte.tv/fr/Comprendre-le-mon ... 30350.html

The movements and modes of progression of many species can change transport techniques. Bird watching thus makes it possible to design new types of aircraft; thanks to the spiders, one can imagine vehicles moving without hindrance on the sand; with lizards, the field of amphibious robots is concerned; as for water bugs or trout, they make you think about the principles of hydrodynamics.


http://www.arte.tv/fr/Comprendre-le-mon ... 30376.html

In architecture and building, biomimicry is also on the rise. Janine Benyus was inspired by nature to design her house in Montana, heated by geothermal energy. Much further south, his colleagues are studying a Saharan plant that would improve cooling techniques.

While for other scientists, bamboo is an ideal model of skyscrapers, because of its adaptability to the wind. Some, finally, swear by dragonfly wings to solve ventilation problems or by corals to filter polluted air.


I have understood for a while (but not at school) that nature does "things" (builds, moves ...) according to the principle of minimum energy ... there is no mess in nature!

published: 30/03/11, 11:54
by sherkanner
Principle of minimum energy.
Principle applied to nature and all "good" engineers (do as little as possible, and have the most quality work)

published: 30/03/11, 13:35
by Christophe
:D :D

About engineers, Desertec is mentioned in the episode available on Arte +7, the fabrics of the future about a coating inspired by a lizard skin "self-cleaning anti-friction sand".

All extracts including here: http://www.arte.tv/fr/Comprendre-le-mon ... 44154.html

published: 30/03/11, 13:56
by sen-no-sen
The military have understood all this for a long time:

The big dog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_2-n3t4rJE

Robotic snake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOSK4lVRTFw&feature=fvwrel

published: 30/03/11, 18:22
by Christophe
Yes and in space too I think.

For bionics, this is probably explained in detail in the episode on transport.

Nevertheless, except on the bacterial scale, the wheels are rare in nature (there are some displacement by sphere) ... we had an interesting subject on this subject here: https://www.econologie.com/forums/la-roue-bi ... 10038.html

Isn't the wheel energetically an interesting means of movement?

The episode on the coverings is more subtle, because it allows applications that we don't expect ... not just copies of cutscenes.

published: 30/03/11, 20:06
by cortejuan
Hi,

interesting discussion, in my youth, I proposed to develop a multi-lens telescope by taking inspiration from the pupil of the African gecko that I had studied there. Its closed pupil is actually formed by 4 small aligned openings replacing the slit of the cat's eye.

I also studied the dress of the zebra which is paradoxically a super camouflage. Difficult here to explain without equation but nature is really perfect. Snakes with their rings also fixed the problem. We copied stupidly by creating camouflage paintings of tanks and trucks (without understanding too much, moreover).

How it works ? In fact the light diffracts on the objects before reaching our eye or our camera. The more details (such as well contrasted lines) the more the light is diffracted in all directions. As the opening of the eye is limited a good part will be lost and from a distance, the sensor (retina or cell) will not perceive anything.

It's a bit like trying to receive a jet of water from a sprinkler in a bucket (our eye), if you set it as a jet, all the water is received in the bucket, if on the contrary, you set the sprinkler to misting, the water goes in all directions and you only get a few drops in the bucket. The diffraction on the dresses of animals does the same, a uniform dress does not disturb the light too much, so it can be seen from a distance. A motley coat strongly diffracts it and the eye of the predator (if the animal is far away) does not capture enough photons to distinguish the prey.

Isn't that great?

cordially

published: 02/09/14, 20:02
by Christophe
An association that promotes biomimicry: http://www.biomimicry.eu/

published: 04/01/16, 15:12
by Christophe
In your opinion what is the propulsive yield of these kinetics?

https://www.facebook.com/OceanReality/v ... 819305879/