Biomimicry News And Research

Studying butterfly flight to help build bug-size flying robots

Monday, February 06, 2012 00:00 MST

By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, researchers hope to help build small airborne robots that can mimic those maneuvers.

A spider web's strength lies in more than its silk

Sunday, February 05, 2012 00:00 MST

A study that combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations has shown that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously varying stresses.

Scorpions inspire scientists in making tougher surfaces for machinery

Saturday, January 28, 2012 00:00 MST

Taking inspiration from the yellow fattail scorpion, which uses a bionic shield to protect itself against scratches from desert sandstorms, scientists have developed a new way to protect the moving parts of machinery from wear and tear. A report on the research appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.

Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 00:00 MST

Existing search-and-rescue robots can climb and move over existing terrain, but the majority require large amounts of energy and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine by studying the locomotion of a certain type of flexible, efficient animal: snakes.

Why do dew drops do what they do on leaves?

Friday, January 13, 2012 00:00 MST

Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote, "Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf." Now, a new study is finally offering an explanation for why small dew drops do as Tagore advised and form on the tips, rather than the flat surfaces, of leaves. It appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.

A new sunflower-inspired pattern increases concentrated solar efficiency

Thursday, January 12, 2012 00:00 MST

A new sunflower-inspired pattern increases concentrated solar efficiency.

Leaping lizards and dinosaurs inspire robot design

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 00:00 MST

A UC Berkeley study of how lizards use their tails when leaping through the trees shows that they swing the tail upward to avoid pitching forward after a stumble. Theropod dinosaurs ? the ancestors of birds - may have done the same. A robot model confirms the value of an actively controlled tail, demonstrating that adding a tail can stabilize robots on uneven terrain and after unexpected falls ? critical to successful search and rescue operations.

Do you see what I see?

Monday, December 26, 2011 00:00 MST

A question confronting neuroscientists and computer vision researchers alike is how objects can be identified by simply "looking" at an image. But teaching a computer to "know" what it's looking at is far harder. In research in the Public Library of Science Computational Biology journal, a team from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Chatham University, and Emory University modeled human brain structure to develop better programming approaches for computer object identification.

An unmanned aerial vehicle that uses wind power like a bird -- pure genius

Friday, December 16, 2011 00:00 MST

Queensland University of Technology Ph.D. student Wesam Al Sabban is a genius and has the medal to prove it!The engineering student received the accolade for his work on the design of an unmanned aerial vehicle that would be powered by the sun and wind.

Inspired by insect cuticle, material that's tough and strong

Thursday, December 15, 2011 00:00 MST

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed "Shrilk," a new material that replicates the exceptional strength, toughness, and versatility of one of nature's more extraordinary substances -- insect cuticle.

Supercomputer seeks way to mimic mollusk shell

Saturday, December 03, 2011 00:00 MST

One of the first tasks for Warwick's new �1.3 million super computer is to use its monster megabytes to analyze the natural properties of the tiny mollusk shell.

Insect cyborgs may become first responders

Sunday, November 27, 2011 00:00 MST

Research conducted at the University of Michigan College of Engineering may lead to the use of insects to monitor hazardous situations before sending in humans.

Robojelly gets an upgrade

Friday, November 25, 2011 00:00 MST

Engineers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have developed a robot that mimics the graceful motions of jellyfish so precisely that it has been named Robojelly. Developed for the Office of Naval Research in 2009, this vehicle was designed to conduct ocean underwater surveillance, enabling it potentially to detect chemical spills, monitor the presence of ships and submarines, and observe the migration of schools of fish.

Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface

Thursday, November 24, 2011 00:00 MST

Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Bats, dolphins, and mole rats inspire advances in ultrasound technology

Friday, November 18, 2011 00:00 MST

Professor Nathan Intrator of Tel Aviv University is using a unique method to interpret and manipulate the pings and echoes that these animals use for learning about their environments and capturing their prey. With this knowledge, he's created mathematical models that may significantly improve the accuracy of existing medical and navigational technologies.