Friday 27 January 2012

BIOMIMICRY

A recent article in Inhabitat, first published in TreeHugger, detailed the discoveries of a young boy of 7, not your average 7 year old discovery, but one that involved the discovery that solar cells positioned in a particular way, led to highter energy creation than the traditional flat panel approach. He observed that trees set out branches in a particular way, later discovering that they, like much of the natural world, followed the rule of fibonaci as the design factor. He then went ahead to build a solar tree.

Fascinating that we are still fascinated by the wonders of natural desigh, I continued reading, and following links within the article, which led me to another article about Biomimicry - a term I hadnt heard before, but was the essense of much that I had been personally reading and studying and researching for years, and would be the backbone for a new project I am developing around a sail around the UK.

I discovered Second Nature, a film about Biomimicry - a term coined by Janine Benyus - as can be discovered in her brilliant book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.

Kinetic energy (bio propulsion lab) is also a new energy becoming a major mover shaker in the green technology industry, and what better creature to observe than the propulsion methods of the elegant jellyfish. Given that popular belief is that jelly fish will be the only fish left in the sea in the years to come, we better start observing their behaviour.  Adaptive technology as detailed in a recent press release of research at Caltech is another area of interest, exploring the adaptive memory as a sensory experience.

And then there's the 'nice idea' but terrible design nominee: the carbon fibre hybrid boat tang! Ugly as all hell, but an interesting concept.

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