Lab+8

Lab 8 __ Avian Elements: __ Japan’s 500 Series Shainkansen bullet train reaches a top speed of 200km/h making it one of the fastest in the world! The design was inspired by nature, as the designer looked at the beak formation of a Kingfisher bird and the feather formation of owls. The aerodynamics are inspired by the Kingfishes ability to dive from air to water with minimal resistance while the owl feather have the ability to reduce noise pollution. __ Echolocation: __ The normal way for visually impaired individuals to get around was by a walking stick or cane. A small company in England has discovered a revolutionary way of helping the visually impaired. Sound Foresight has come up with a product called the “UltraCane”. This is like a usual cane, but implements the use of sonar to prevent the user from colliding with objects and to better navigate in public. This is another new technology that has been inspired by nature, the UltraCane uses the same navigation tools as bat. __ Skeleton Key __ Joris Laarman, a Netherlands artist has recently created a set of furniture that mimics the structure of human bones. Although it is hollow, the formation of the structure still allows it to be strong and sturdy. This design process also copy’s mother natures and how our bones grow and strengthen overtime. This technology has been endorsed by General Motors, which has creates a series of car parts with the same concept. __ Sticking, Naturally __ Being a wood company, Columbia Forest Products naturally manufactures wood products. These range form furniture, to flooring and even cabinetry. Like any wood product company, the use of strong adhesives is extremely important. This company has created a natural, non-toxic glue that mimics the fluids used by mussels to stick to rough surfaces under extreme conditions underwater. Janine Benyus, a nature enthusiast, dreams of a world where nature and technology can be linked in every aspect of life. She teachers and inspires her concepts of bio-mimicry to scientists, architects, engineers and designers. Her work helps link everyday life with science, nature and technology. Janine talks about her interactions with nature and how we can incorporate the ways of nature in out modern society. She talks about the concept of domestication, which is learning ideas from on organism. We use the old technology of mother nature to help solve modern problems. She was approached with a problem that consisted with the mineral build up in pipelines. The normal approach to clean the pipes was to use harmful and toxic chemicals, which flush the pipes. She resolved this issue by looking at seashells. Seashells are composed of the same material that the pipeline buildup was, calcium carbonate. Seashells use a natural occurring chemical to stop their growth. This same concept was engineered and is now used in the cleaning of our pipes. Overall, we must realizes that mother nature has already solved problems that we spend out entire career looking for, we just need to look harder to find the solution.
 * Look over examples of her biomimetic principles applied to products in the slideshow located at **[|**http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/02/0209_green_biomimic/index_01.htm**]** and write a short, one paragraph synopsis for each of your four favourite product designs. (4 paragraphs) **
 * Write three paragraphs defining how, according to Janine Benyus, "the simple, elegant mechanics developed by nature often make sense in a human context, too". (3 paragraphs) **