Biomimetics and Visualization

Biomimetics: its practice and theory.

Biomimetics, a name coined by Otto Schmitt in the 1950s for the transfer of ideas and analogues from biology to technology, has produced some significant and successful devices and concepts in the past 50 years, but is still empirical. We show that TRIZ, the Russian system of problem solving, can be adapted to illuminate and manipulate this process of transfer. Analysis using TRIZ shows that th...

Conference 8686 : Bioinspiration , Biomimetics , and

Planetary Exploration Using Biomimetics

The Mars environment, particularly the low atmospheric density, makes flight much more difficult than on Earth, requiring an aircraft to fly within a very low Reynolds number/high Mach number regime. A possible solution is the use of an entomopter, a mechanical flying machine utilizing insect flight characteristics. Their similar Reynolds number flight regime indicates air vehicle system potent...

Self-Assembly, Templation and Biomimetics

Self-assembly, templation and biomimetics are three important, overlapping areas in supramolecular chemistry. Some contributions to these three areas are introduced. Novel substituted trispyridylmethanol derived ligands were synthesized to mimic the active site of carbonic anhydrase. The key two-step process in constructing the trispyridylmethanol core structure is proven to be more efficient t...

Physiology, biomechanics, and biomimetics of hagfish slime.

Hagfishes thwart attacks by fish predators by producing liters of defensive slime. The slime is produced when slime gland exudate is released into the predator's mouth, where it deploys in a fraction of a second and clogs the gills. Slime exudate is composed mainly of secretory products from two cell types, gland mucous cells and gland thread cells, which produce the mucous and fibrous componen...