Displaying 1 - 22 of 22
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Article
Could animal fats and other natural ingredients help detox cleaning substances?
by Tom McKeag
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Article
From gripping an object on an assembly line to navigation modeled off of animals' built-in sonar, nature offers an array of enviable features for robotics researchers.
by Tom McKeag
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Article
Plastic is everywhere — and its environmental footprint is getting larger. But bioplastics could hold the key to a cleaner future.
by Tom McKeag
4
Article
It’s time for the sixth annual Tommies, a salute to the best of bio-inspired designs of the year just passed.
by Tom McKeag
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Article
Vehicle makers cut costs — and the fuel needed to move a plane or car's mass — with software that uses biomimicry principles.
by Tom McKeag
6
Article
Recent milestones bring the much anticipated application of a universal dry and tunable adhesive closer to our everyday use.
by Tom McKeag
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Article
Issus coleoptratus is an unlikely hero, but one whose jumping prowess could revolutionize ballistics and spring-loaded machines.
by Tom McKeag
8
Article
Structures common in hair and bones have important implications for the future of biomedical devices, building design and beyond.
by Tom McKeag
9
Article
Companies including Google and Amazon are eyeing robots of the future inspired by dogs, bees, ants and more.
by Tom McKeag
10
Article
From an arthropod to a virus, here are 10 of the most impressive bioinspired developments from the past year.
by Tom McKeag
11
Article
Designers and city planners who want to build resilience can look to natural systems.
by Tom McKeag
12
Article
A brilliant, bio-inspired technical innovation has not been enough to ensure that Qualcomm's e-reader technology would gain a market foothold.
by Tom McKeag
13
Article
Creating products from bio-inspired ideas isn't easy, but three groups have found ways to bridge the development gap.
by Tom McKeag
15
Article
A high-speed rail operator needed its trains to be faster and quieter. Its manager turned to owls and kingfishers for inspiration.
by Tom McKeag
16
Article
It's time for the third annual Tommies, Tom McKeag's pick of the top 10 bio-inspired innovations of 2011 -- and a look at the lessons that Namib desert beetles, crickets, Mantis Shrimp and more can teach us about sustainability.
by Tom McKeag
17
Article
Self-cleaning paint inspired by the Lotus Effect is one of the standout stories of bio-inspired design. Read on for a look at how it came to be, and what it takes for a product inspired by nature to be successful.<br />
by Tom McKeag
18
Article
While I do not think that we can design our way out of our current problems of climate change, innovation comes in many forms, including the political and cultural. Let's hope for good news from Copenhagen, while we celebrate the design and business achievements of companies like Envirofit, which has made a highly-efficient stove to replace traditional indoor cookstoves in India. <br />
by Tom McKeag
19
Article
One of the great opportunities of our time is to do more with less, and therefore to provide a better life for more people. We now have an informational advantage though increased computation and an increased understanding of the principles that govern our physical and biological world. Nowhere has this informational advantage been so elegantly demonstrated than in the building of thin shell structures.
by Tom McKeag
20
Article
The ostrich egg is a study in contradictions solved. It needs to move easily, and then stay put. It needs to resist breaking, and then break easily. It needs to seal some things out, but allow others in. It needs to keep some things in, but allow others out, and do so much more.
by Tom McKeag
21
Article
If we're going to effectively look to nature as a “model, measure and mentor,” then we might want to have a framework for that search. This framework ought to be complete, useful, instructive and provocative. My solution is the Bio Design Cube, meant to provide a “search frame” for designers to organize their bio-design inquiry.
by Tom McKeag
22
Article
Solutions in nature that require the least effort and least material are fertile grounds for builders' research. Least-material solutions often mean least-energy solutions, and these savings may mean the difference between survival and oblivion for organisms. Similar solutions applied to, or avoided by, businesses can bring a variety of benefits or costs.
by Tom McKeag