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Designs on nature
Biomimicry studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes
to solve problems in a sustainable manner. Here are some examples of how nature has
inspired man. By Sakinah Manaff
The study of biosonar in bats
has been adapted to develop a
cane for the visually-impaired
called UltraCane. Like the
bat, the UltraCane uses
In 2004, scientists from Penn State University designed “morphing
ultrasonic echoes (signals
aircraft wings” which change shape according to the speed and
that bounce off objects in the
duration of flight. The morphing wings were inspired by bird species
vicinity) to detect how big
that have differently shaped wings according to the speed at which
and far ahead obstacles are,
they fly. In order to change the shape and underlying structure of the
and transfers this information
aircraft wings, the researchers covered them with fish-inspired scales
into vibrating buttons in
that could slide over each other.
its handle.
Velcro was inspired by the
way burrs stuck to the fur of
after years of research, Mercedes Benz unveiled the Bionic concept car,
a dog – the scratchy side of
modelled after the boxfish. although it has a boxy, cube-shaped body,
Velcro acts like burrs while
the car, like the tropical fish, is in fact outstandingly streamlined and
the soft side acts like fur. In
aerodynamic to minimise drag. the Bionic car is a great example of the
1948, Swiss engineer, George
potential of bionics for automobile development.
de Mestral, was cleaning the
burrs off his dog when he
observed how the hooks of
the burrs clung to the fur.
in 1935, Percy shaw invented
cat’s eye reflectors after
studying the mechanism of
cats’ eyes. He had found that
cats had a visual system of
reflecting cells, known as
“tapetum lucidum”, which was
capable of reflecting the tiniest
bit of light.
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