Biomimicry News And Research - August 2007 Archives

Now it's not just Spiderman that can scale the Empire State Building (8/30/2007)

Physicists have found the formula for a Spiderman suit. Only recently has man come to understand how spiders and geckos effortlessly scuttle up walls and hang from ceilings but it was doubted that this natural form of adhesion would ever be strong enough to hold the weight of real life Peter Parkers. ...> Full Article

Restoring Sight, One Pixel At A Time (8/29/2007)

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) are developing a tiny camera for prosthetic systems that can be implanted directly into the human eye and connected to the retina, the part of the eye that converts visual information into electric signals that travel to the brain. Such an implantable camera would represent an important milestone in the ultimate goal of providing limited vision to those rendered blind by certain diseases, via a fully implantable retinal prosthetic device. ...> Full Article

Aggressive bees may track future of flying robots (8/26/2007)

Angry bees that fly like mini-missiles could map the futures of unmanned aircraft and planetary explorer robots, thanks to new University of Queensland research backed by the Queensland Government. ...> Full Article

Cow-Powered Fuel Cells Grow Smaller, Mightier (8/25/2007)

Cows could one day help to meet the rise in demand for alternative energy sources, say Ohio State University researchers that used microbe-rich fluid from a cow to generate electricity in a small fuel cell. ...> Full Article

Professor helps design new Speedo swimsuit that's breaking world records (8/24/2007)

Rick Sharp was once a competitive swimmer and still swims daily. And so the professor of exercise physiology in Iowa State University 's Kinesiology Department is getting great satisfaction out of being part of a design team that created Speedo's new Fastskin FS-Pro swimsuit, which is being credited with helping world class swimmers break dozens of national and international records in the six months since its release. ...> Full Article

'Clutter Detector' could cut confusion (8/22/2007)

The danger of clutter--especially on a visual screen--is that it causes confusion that affects how well we perform tasks. To that end, visual clutter is a challenge for fighter pilots picking out a target, for people seeking important information in a user interface, and for web site and map designers, among others. ...> Full Article

Engineers design robot capable of climbing walls (8/21/2007)

Robotic research at the University of Canterbury has climbed new heights with the development of a wall-climbing robot. ...> Full Article

Life Source to Help Develop New Technologies (8/18/2007)

The blueprint of life- DNA- could be used to enhance technologies in electronics and information storage following innovative and cutting edge science at the University of Leicester. ...> Full Article

Researchers Evolve Artificial Enzymes in the Laboratory (8/17/2007)

Living cells are not the only place where enzymes can help speed along chemical reactions. Industrial applications also employ enzymes to accelerate reactions of many kinds, from making antibiotics to removing grease from clothing. For the first time, scientists have created a completely new enzyme entirely in vitro, suggesting that industrial applications may one day no longer be limited to enzymes that can be derived from natural biological sources. ...> Full Article

Researchers Develop Programmable Mini-Bacteria (8/8/2007)

Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig have now launched a project to reduce the bacterial genome of Pseudomonas putida to its essentials and, at the same time, insert additional genetic circuits. ...> Full Article

Team Building Robotic Fin For Submarines (8/1/2007)

Inspired by the efficient swimming motion of the bluegill sunfish, MIT researchers are building a mechanical fin that could one day propel robotic submarines. ...> Full Article