Can I suggest that a good case study would be the bombardier beetle whose spray-producing mechanism has been modelled in a research project supervised by Andy Macintosh of Leeds University, and devloped into a fuel injector, a fire extinguisher, a medical inhaler and a number of other applications, all patented and being developed for customers worldwide. The advantages of the different technology are real (e.g. the fuel injector doesn't need a pump) and the performance is superior (e.g. the droplet size of the spray and its trajectory can be closely controlled). Admittedly nothing is on the market yet (as far as I know) but plans are that products will start to roll out next year. Although I haven't seen the patents they will be available on the usual databases. The company is Swedish Biomimetics 3000 Ltd.
Julian
On 31 Aug 2012, at 15:38, Norbert Hoeller wrote:
> Fil, I agree that "setting up some good case studies will require a lot of work" and that the right approach would be to secure proper research funding. I think it is possible to develop a few good case studies 'on the cheap' and use them to develop the necessary funding justification.
>
> The challenges are agreeing on what defines a 'good' case study, identifying suitable candidates, finding someone who can interview the key people and then getting people with the right expertise to review the outcome. My sense is that all of these are doable given the expertise on this mailing list. Although Tom McKeag's article on the Shinkansen in the second issue of Zygote Quarterly lacked the last step, his direct access to Mr. Nakatsu revealed insights and subtleties that I had not heard before.
> Thanks, Norbert
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