Julian, I think the Virtual Centre would be a great idea. Aside from
helping to support specific initiatives and building bridges between
different disciplines, it would be a good home for higher level analysis and
research about the field of biomimetics.
Although new materials is an important driver for technological advancement,
I hope the Centre can also explore other levels of biomimetic design, such
as practical methods and tools to help designers deal with the often complex
systems implications of solutions inspired by nature.
Pending formation of the Centre, I would like to use the Biomimetics
listserver to explore some of the issues raised earlier. Anyone can raise a
topic, we can judge interest by the level of discussion, and I can help
summarise the results at the end. Depending on the depth and breadth of
the discussion, I can either publish the best summaries in the quarterly
newsletter (currently going to over 3200 subscribers) or work with the
discussion leader on a more in-depth article.
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