Thanks, Julian, for the excellent example of a rope. Typically it is
not only hirarchically organized, but the very fibers have biological
origin! So a rope is natural and artificial at the same time. (Ropes
made of metal or synthetic materials are obviously further from
nature...)
Nikolay
Quoting Julian Vincent <[log in to unmask]>:
> I agree entirely about taking biologicl concepts and putting them into
> an engineering context. A fair amount of the advantage is lost. One
> answer is to take a cue from biology at a deeper level. You don't need
> to get organisms to make things for you, but perhaps use the idea of
> assembling components rather than synthesising them. At present rope
> is one of the few materials we have which is assembled hierarchically.
> This embodies quite a few attributes of biological systems. There are
> as many levels of hierarchy in a single hair as in an aircraft sitting
> on the tarmac in an airport. There are other advantages in assembly
> such as control of fracture behaviour. Have a look at Vincent, J.F.V.,
> Biomimetic materials. Journal of Materials Research, 2008. 23: p.
> 3140-3147 for a more complete exposition.
>
> Julian
> ------------------------------------------------
> MA, PhD, DSc, FRES, MIMMM, CEng, FIMechE
> Laburnum Cottage
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>
>
>
>
> On 18 Mar 2009, at 22:13, Samuel Bautista Lazo wrote:
>
>> Hi all!
>>
>> In the design for sustainable products I was wondering why most of
>> the Biomimetic efforts are aimed at mimicking nature to improve the
>> functionality of products but at the end the improved products are
>> still made out of synthetic materials (the geko tape, or the Spedo
>> fastskin swimming suit, lotusan paint)
>>
>> What are the challenges for using biological processes and
>> metabolisms to sustainabilly produce the materials we need to
>> obtain the functionality for everyday products?
>>
>> Using those materials can we design biological manufacturing
>> proceses to make the products we need for a sustainable future?
>>
>> If we can may be that would reduce the burden on the environment
>> and the consumption of non renewable resources or even more may be
>> that could contribute to restorative production/consumption systems.
>>
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>> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 4:19 PM, Manfred Drack
>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> In my PhD thesis I came to the conclusion that energy efficiency is
>> not the main issue when it comes to material use in organisms (cf.
>> Ref. below). Why certain materials are used seems to be a result
>> of certain constraints. Perhaps there were more materials "at
>> hand" at the beginning of evolution, but some turned out to be
>> better adapted than others. Once certain materials were utilized
>> there was no way back. There may be similarities to form and
>> structure constraints. An example is our spine, a
>> torpedo-bridge-tower-construction, i.e. in fish it serves a shape
>> adopted to swimming, in quadrupeds the construction was bridge
>> like, and in humans (bipeds) tower like.
>>
>> Title: Bionics and Ecodesign: how are materials used in nature, and
>> what can thus be applied to sustainable product design?
>> Author(s): Drack, M
>> Conference Information: 1st International Conference on Design and
>> Nature, Date: 2002 UDINE ITALY
>> Source: DESIGN AND NATURE: COMPARING DESIGN IN NATURE WITH SCIENCE
>> AND ENGINEERING Volume: 3 Pages: 369-378 Published: 2002
>>
>> Yours,
>> Manfred
>>
>>
>>
>> Timothy McGee schrieb:
>> **Julian,
>>
>> I have also wondered the same thing, and even taking it a step more
>> detailed- why these particular Amino Acids?
>>
>> Nikolay's and Steven's comments reminded me of a quote:
>> *
>> "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to
>> everything else in the Universe." - John Muir
>>
>> *A study by Greg Engle
>> (http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/PBD-quantum-secrets.html),
>> gave me an idea. The key challenge to any organization of matter is
>> energy...in whatever framework you wish to use, entropy,
>> thermodynamics, etc... but it appears that the quantum interactions
>> of these particular 21 Amino Acids allow the capture and transfer
>> of light to chemically stored energy...this in itself might explain
>> the 'history' of these particular amino acids for the polymers of
>> life- or at least could be part of the story.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Tim
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Samuel Bautista Lazo
>>
>> UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
>> PhD Research Student
>> Design for Sustainability: Industrial Methods
>> Cellphone: +44 753 856 0787
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> skype: samuel.bautista.lazo
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>>
>> messenger: [log in to unmask]
>>
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