Biomimicry News And Research - January 2012 Archives
 | 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. ...> Full Article |
 | 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. ...> Full Article |
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.
...> Full Article
A new sunflower-inspired pattern increases concentrated solar efficiency.
...> Full Article
 | 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. ...> Full Article |
| 
Subscribe
Tiny water creepy crawlies from South Korea and the Russian Far East
NASA satellite data helps pinpoint glaciers' role in sea level rise
Weather on the outer planets only goes so deep
Shattering the endurance record for small electric UAV
But what does it do?
Artificial forest for solar water-splitting
Sea level influenced tropical climate during the last ice age
World's smallest droplets
Using clay to grow bone
Grammar errors? The brain detects them even when you are unaware
Principles of locomotion in confined spaces could help robot teams work underground
Researchers perform fastest measurements ever made of ion channel proteins
Ultraresponsive magnetic nanoscavengers for next generation water purification
Do potatoes grow on vines? A review of the wild relatives of some favorite food plants
New discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emerged
Carnivorous plant throws out 'junk' DNA
Untangling the tree of life
More effective, cheaper concrete manufactured with ash from olive residue biomass
New quantitative analysis for open source software projects
High-volume Bitcoin exchanges less likely to fail, but more likely breached, says study
Computer scientists develop video game that teaches how to program in Java
Do palm trees hold the key to immortality?
Researchers show how we can do math problems unconsciously
Keep moving and have fun
New strategy for fingerprint visualization developed at Hebrew University
Children's bicycle helmets shown to be effective in impact and crush tests
How Usain Bolt can run faster -- effortlessly
Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality
Moth-inspired nanostructures take the color out of thin films
Robotic insects make first controlled flight
Seahorse's armor gives engineers insight into robotics designs
Insect-inspired camera captures wide field of view with no distortion, according to CU-Boulder study
Bed of needles
Not slippery when wet: Geckos adhere to surfaces submerged underwater
Cry me a river of possibility: Scientists design new adaptive material inspired by tears
Robot ants successfully mimic real colony behavior
Researchers unveil large robotic jellyfish that one day could patrol oceans
Sometimes, the rubber meets the road when you don't want it to