Biomimetics: lessons from nature–an overview

Biological adhesives: from biology to biomimetics

Lessons on Deception from Animal Biology Overview: Drawing Lessons from Nature

[I]t is no exaggeration to say that the modification of outward appearance by visual characteristics, directed towards a seeing public, and serving either to facilitate recognition or to frustrate it, has been one of the main results attained in the evolution of higher animals; and such characteristics comprise some of the most outstanding examples of adaptation in the whole field of biology. (...

Lessons from the Income Maintenance Experiments: An Overview

The United States public welfare system has been a source of discontent for many years. The system has been characterized as one that discourages work, undermines the family, and perpetuates dependence. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many experts believed that the negative income tax represented a simple and desirable alternative to the existing programs. The complex set of cash and in-kind...

Biomimetics: Determining engineering opportunities from nature

The biomimetic approach seeks to incorporate designs based on biological organisms into engineered technologies. Biomimetics can be used to engineer machines that emulate the performance of organisms, particularly in instances where the organism’s performance exceeds current mechanical technology or provides new directions to solve existing problems. For biologists, an adaptationist program has...

Nerve agents: Lessons from the Iranian experiences

On September 22, 1980 Iraqis attacked Iran's air bases and simultaneously entered Iran with six army divisions on three fronts and occupied a vast part of Iranian territories. At that time, Iraqis did not have chemical warfare. But in time, they began to develop an intensive research program to produce and store chemical weapons and used the war fields to test and perfect their chemical warfare...