Biomimetics: Design by Nature

"What has fins like a whale, skin like a lizard, and eyes like a moth? The future of engineering."

This article was sent to me from Nick Beck, friend and fellow Biologist at the Design Table (BaDT- pronounced BAT). National Geographic's Tom Mueller follows acclaimed evolutionary biologist Andrew Parker as he scours the globe looking for nature's solutions to some of our most pressing problems. We start out in the deserts of Australia, studying a tiny lizard that absorbs water through its skin and funnels it into its mouth at a stunning rate. Marvels such as this give engineers a clue as to how to solve the issue of clean drinking water where that resource is scarce.
He is but one of many biologists who practice Biomimicry, myself included. Researchers in Biomimicry have made cell phone screens easier to read, improved solar panels, revolutionized industries such as carpetting, made buildings that cool themselves, and changed the way engineers think about transportation. And that's just the beginning.

For the entire article, link here

Animals Can Smell CO2

There are folks out there who swear that ticks are some of the most fascinating creature on the planet in terms of their specialized adaptations and cool body gadgets, but I'm starting to have a real appreciation for mice these days.
This article in today from Nature features a group of scientists who have discovered that mice can smell Carbon Dioxide as keenly as humans smell sulpher gas. In experiments where mice could make choices on where to run, they chose those areas with lower concentrations of CO2, and when exposed to extreme levels, actually exhibited distressed and aggressive behavior as a result.
Though the article doesn't say exactly why mice detect CO2, they do say that the sensitivity is great enough to be able to detect the carbon in human exhalation. I imagine these stealthy little creatures actually seeking out the dwellings of people in search of food.
There aren't any plans in the making yet for using the CO2 mouse detection in any practical application, but this is nonetheless an important discovery.
For the original article in Nature (get it while it's still available!)

Nature Knows What to Do with Carbon Dioxide

Two articles caught my eye recently, and both have to do with carbon levels in the atmosphere. Forgive me if this seems a little redundant, but I must say again that carbon is the basic building block of life on earth. Many plants and animals depend on atmospheric carbon for their survival. Today's article features two champions of this sequestration: Boreal Forests and Phytoplankton.
The first is an article from Nature describing the effects of humans on the ability of a boreal forests to sequester carbon. Scientists have known for many years that plants gather carbon from the atmosphere and combine it with nitrogen to make plant tissues. What they didn't know was how nitrogen levels effect the ability of plants to gather that carbon. This information is key to understanding human effects on the forest through nitrogen runoff from nearby farms and human activity. What they found was that our inadvertent fertilizing increase the ability of plants to absorb atmospheric carbon.
"Through our forests, fertilization by nitrogen deposition is to some degree offsetting our carbon dioxide emissions - at least right now," said Beverly Law, Professor of Forest Science at Oregon State University, co-author of the study and director of the AmeriFlux monitoring network.
The second article is about the phytoplankton Phaeocystis globosa. It appears this tiny marvel is able to change from a single celled organism to a colony and vice-versa in response to pressure from predators. When encountering predators such as the shrimp-like copepods that can eat colonies, the Phaeocystis take on the single cell, free-swimming form. When predators of the single celled forms are detected, the Phaeocystis form into colonies. They do this through chemical detection. This information is quite valuable to science in that these Phaeocystis absorb enormous amounts of atmospheric carbon, and when eaten by larger animals, that carbon sinks to the bottom of the ocean in the from of fecal matter. That means if scientists can induce more colonial forms of the organism, more carbon can be sequestered.
Nature knows what to do with Carbon Dioxide, and it's just a matter of time before we figure it out for ourselves.
for Boreal Forest Article in TerraDaily
for the article on Phytoplankton at ScienceDaily

Researchers Look to Nature to Improve the Healing Properties of Artificial Surfaces

Scientists at the University of Illinois have developed a polymer skin that heals itself when damaged. Their model for the technique: Mother Nature.
Nancy Sottos tells Nature Materials, 'Healing in biological systems is accomplished by a pervasive vascular network that supplies the necessary biochemical components. A cut in the skin triggers blood flow from the capillary network in the dermal layer to the wound site rapidly forming a clot... minor damage to the same area can be healed repeatedly.'
This sort of self-healing has been seen before in artificial membranes, but what differs with this new technology is that damaged areas can heal more than once. Previous systems healed because they contained unreacted polymer capsules that when broken reacted to form a seal. But this technology takes healing one step further.
'After damage occurs at the coating, healing agent wicks from the microchannels into the crack(s) through capillary action,' the researchers report in Nature Materials. 'Once in the crack plane the healing agent interacts with the catalyst particles in the coating to initiate polymerisation, rebonding the crack faces autonomically. After a sufficient time period the cracks are healed and the structural integrity of the coating restored. As cracks reopen under subsequent loading the healing cycle is repeated.'
This new system will be invaluable to materials science, and its possibilities will be endless.
While the technology of self healing polymers mimics natural systems, one thing it lacks is its ability to break down to be reused in the system. Let's hope in the future we look to nature to figure out how to create polymers that last so long as we need them, and as the flower that has been pollinated returns to the soil to provide future resources, our products will also return to futher the cycle.
for the article in RSC
My friend Robyn at Biomimicry Institute found this video of the polymer healing