Hello all,
Dean Veall here. Bit of an early one, but I need your help. We have an event coming up at the beginning of September with UCL’s and BBC’s Dr. Helen Czserski. Would you help promote it? Will happily reciprocate where/when I can
Animals and Engineers: Learning from Nature
Thursday 3
September
6.30pm-9pm
Darwin Lecture Theatre, Darwin Building, UCL, Malet Place,
WC1E 6XA
Have you ever wondered how a snake can see in the infrared? Or how a moth can follow an incredibly faint scent trail to its source? It’s not that their senses are just the same as ours, but better. They frequently use completely different
sensing mechanisms, capable of giving them information about their world that we’re oblivious to. And now humans are starting to learn from the animals. Engineers are being inspired by the structures that animals have built into their own bodies, and this
is leading to new materials and new solutions to long-standing problems.
Join UCL Engineering and the Grant Museum for this evening event celebrating the engineering solutions that animals have built into themselves, and what we can learn from them using some of the amazing specimens from the Grant Museum
of Zoology.
This event ties in with the upcoming BBC2 series “Super Senses: The secret power of animals”, presented by UCL research fellow Helen Czerski and biologist Patrick Ayree. Helen will talk about the process of filming this series, the science
she learned, and what it’s like for a physicist to have to wade into a swamp full of alligators. Then, UCL engineers will share some of their cutting-edge animal-inspired research projects followed by a discussion of where this might lead in the future.
The Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering is a new cross-disciplinary Centre at UCL, supported by an EPSRC “Frontier Engineering” Award. It is dedicated to solving challenging problems, such as those related to energy, sustainability,
health or scalable manufacturing, by learning from fundamental mechanisms behind desirable features in natural systems, and using lessons from nature to design innovative and effective solutions to these pressing problems. This is your chance to hear about
some of the projects they are working on
The event is followed by a free drinks reception in a private view of the Museum. This event is free, open to all, and there is no need to book.
Many thanks in advance
Dean Veall
Learning and Access Officer
Grant Museum of Zoology
UCL Public and Cultural Engagement
Rockefeller Building
University College London
21 University Street
London WC1E 6DE
Web: www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology
Blog: http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/
020 3108 2052
http://twitter.com/GrantMuseum
http://www.facebook.com/pages/UCL-Museums-and-Collections/352538109391