Quoting Luis Gustavo Lira <[log in to unmask]>:
> Yes, I saw you reply, but only you reply my question,
> I want to know more opinions about What is
> Biomimetics?
OK - here's the introduction from a review article I'm writing at present:
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Otto Schmitt was a polymath whose doctoral research was an attempt to produce a
physical device that explicitly mimicked the electrical action of a nerve. He
had started this mix of disciplines much earlier, having helped his brother set
up experiments in biology when he was still at high school. By 1957, Schmitt had
come to perceive what he would later label "biomimetics" as a disregarded - but
highly significant - converse of the standard view of biophysics: "Biophysics
is not so much a subject matter as it is a point of view. It is an approach to
problems of biological science utilizing the theory and technology of the
physical sciences. Conversely, biophysics is also a biologist's approach to
problems of physical science and engineering, although this aspect has largely
been neglected." (Harkness, 2001). The word “bionics” was coined by Jack Steele
of the US Air Force in 1960 at a meeting at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in
Dayton, Ohio. He defined it as the science of systems which have some function
copied from nature, or which represent characteristics of natural systems or
their analogues. At another meeting at Dayton in 1963, Schmitt said "Let us
consider what bionics has come to mean operationally and what it or some word
like it (I prefer biomimetics) ought to mean in order to make good use of the
technical skills of scientists specializing, or rather, I should say,
despecializing into this area of research. Presumably our common interest is
in examining biological phenomenology in the hope of gaining insight and
inspiration for developing physical or composite bio-physical systems in the
image of life." Later, Schmitt used the word “biomimetics” in the title of a
paper (Schmitt, 1969). The word “biomimetics” made its first public appearance
in Webster's Dictionary in 1974, accompanied by the following definition: "the
study of the formation, structure, or function of biologically produced
substances and materials (as enzymes or silk) and biological mechanisms and
processes (as protein synthesis or photosynthesis) especially for the purpose
of synthesizing similar products by artificial mechanisms which mimic natural
ones." (Harkness, 2001).
Biomimetics (which we here mean to be synonymous with “biomimesis”,
“biomimicry”, “bionics”, “biognosis”, “biologically inspired design” and
similar words implying copying or adaptation or derivation from biology) is a
relatively young study embracing the use of mechanisms and functions of
biological science in engineering, design, chemistry, electronics, etc.
However, Man has looked to nature for inspiration for more than 3000 years
(when the Chinese tried to make an artificial silk). Here are a few examples:
• Leonardo da Vinci studied the flight of birds (ref) and applied them in
engineering contexts.
• In Swift’s satire of the Royal Society: “There was a most ingenious architect
who had contrived a new method for building houses, by beginning at the roof,
and working downwards to the foundation; which he justified to me by the like
practice of those two prudent insects the bee and the spider” (Swift, 1934).
• Henry Mitchell of the American Coast Survey invented a pile “so cut that the
lower portion of it, of a space of six or eight feet, presents the appearance
of a number of inverted frustrums of cones, placed one above the other.” When
this sways under the action of waves it sinks deeper into the sea bed, a design
“borrowed from nature . . . certain seed vessels, by virtue of their forms, bury
themselves in the earth when agitated by wind or water” (Anon 1859: this is from
Henry David Thoreau’s “Journal”; thanks to Prof Kalman Schulgasser for the
information).
• The stable wing planform designed by Ignaz and Igo Etrich in 1904, was derived
from the large (15 cm span) winged seed of Alsomitra macrocarpa, a liana which
grows on islands in the Pacific (Coineau and Kresling, 1987).
• Velcro is an invention derived from hooked seeds which caught in the coat of
the inventor’s dog (Velcro, 1955).
• George’s wood (Gordon and Jeronimidis, 1980)
• Lotusan paint for self-cleaning surfaces derived from leaf surfaces (Barthlott
and Neinhuis, 2000).
• dry adhesive tape derived from the adhesive mechanisms of gecko and fly feet
(Geim et al., 2003).
• micro-air-vehicle with oscillating wings derived (in part) from birds (Jones
and Platzer, 2002).
There is argument as to whether Joseph Paxton really did get his ideas for the
Crystal Palace from the leaves of a giant water lily: he used a leaf as an
illustration during a talk at the Royal Society of the Arts in London, showing
how to support a roof-like structure, and the myth grew out of
over-enthusiastic reportage (Vogel, 1998). There are stories that Eiffel’s
tower was based on the structure of trabeculae in the head of the femur, or the
taper of a tulip stem. The common comparison between helicopters and sycamore
seeds is spurious. The technical problems in getting a helicopter airborne,
and controlling it once it’s there, are almost entirely to do with control in
which biology could be of no help. But nature can still give us confidence in
the correctness of a result since computer techniques allow model structures to
be modified in response to changing loads, producing biomorphic shapes in the
process.
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Does that answer you??
Julian
--
Julian FV Vincent [log in to unmask]
Professor of Biomimetics office 01225 386596
Centre for Biomimetic & Natural Technologies mobile 07941 933901
Dept of Mechanical Engineering fax 01225 386928
The University
BATH BA2 7AY
http://www.bath.ac.uk/Departments/Eng/biomimetics/
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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