So i got my hands on a new journal (well, a year or so old, but new to me) called Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. Normally, whenever i see the word "bio" in anything, i run for the hills screaming. But it turns out that this journal (at least the one i read) has very little to do with biology per se. What it is about is the idea of copying technological ideas from biological organisms.
Now, we're probably all familiar with the classic analogies between biological organisms and technology. The heart is a pump and the vascular system is the pipe network, and so on. But this isn't about making analogies, it's about looking at biological systems as the source of inspiration for new technologies.
The example the journal gives is the flippers that swimmers use to swim faster, which were modelled after the webbed feet of various animals. (One such source animal, the frog, lent its name, too, so that divers are occasionally called "frogmen".) Of course, not every idea in nature is a great idea. Fixed-wing aircraft with separate propulsion are far better for long-distance and high speed than aircraft with wings that flap would be, and helicopters are far better for short distances and low speeds but high manoeuvrability. Simply copying a bird would be pointless. And the cheetah may be the fastest land animal at ~110 km/h, but we can build wheeled vehicles that can travel ten times that... so four legs might not be the best way to go for speed after all.
The thing that the journal says, though, is that we haven't gone nearly as far as we could when it comes to copying natural organisms. They mentioned the massive parallelization in the human brain and noted that we're only really beginning to parallelize our computer processors. And they went into great detail about artificial muscles. And i think they're right, but i'm going to go even further than they did.
Take self-healing, for example. Biological systems are cellular systems where each cell contains the blueprint for the whole organism. When the organism is damaged, nearby cells respond by replacing the damaged cells using the built-in pattern.
Now imagine what would happen if we could make a simple device that worked by the same principle. Say, a cell phone, just because. Let's imagine what a cell phone that's built with this technology could possibly be like.
First, how would it be made? Well, there would be no more factories and assembly lines. You could just take a cell from your master pattern phone, drop in a culture, wait a few hours, and presto - you've grown a new phone. No pollution, no nothing (any leftover biomatter from the growing process could easily be broken down and recycled).
Next, how would it work in normal use? Well, suppose you dropped your phone while walking down the street, and it bounced under the wheels of a passing car. A current phone would be destroyed. But this phone could be picked up, taken home, dropped in a solution to hasten healing, and in the morning it will be good as new.
In fact, imagine this. Think of lizards... the tail can be torn clean off, an it will grown a new one. So why couldn't the flip part of a flip phone, or the antenna, do the same? Let's take it even further... think of the earthworm... break it in half and you get two identical earthworms. So why couldn't you take your cell phone, tear it in half, and grow two?
What other ideas can be taken from nature to create new technologies?
Now, we're probably all familiar with the classic analogies between biological organisms and technology. The heart is a pump and the vascular system is the pipe network, and so on. But this isn't about making analogies, it's about looking at biological systems as the source of inspiration for new technologies.
The example the journal gives is the flippers that swimmers use to swim faster, which were modelled after the webbed feet of various animals. (One such source animal, the frog, lent its name, too, so that divers are occasionally called "frogmen".) Of course, not every idea in nature is a great idea. Fixed-wing aircraft with separate propulsion are far better for long-distance and high speed than aircraft with wings that flap would be, and helicopters are far better for short distances and low speeds but high manoeuvrability. Simply copying a bird would be pointless. And the cheetah may be the fastest land animal at ~110 km/h, but we can build wheeled vehicles that can travel ten times that... so four legs might not be the best way to go for speed after all.
The thing that the journal says, though, is that we haven't gone nearly as far as we could when it comes to copying natural organisms. They mentioned the massive parallelization in the human brain and noted that we're only really beginning to parallelize our computer processors. And they went into great detail about artificial muscles. And i think they're right, but i'm going to go even further than they did.
Take self-healing, for example. Biological systems are cellular systems where each cell contains the blueprint for the whole organism. When the organism is damaged, nearby cells respond by replacing the damaged cells using the built-in pattern.
Now imagine what would happen if we could make a simple device that worked by the same principle. Say, a cell phone, just because. Let's imagine what a cell phone that's built with this technology could possibly be like.
First, how would it be made? Well, there would be no more factories and assembly lines. You could just take a cell from your master pattern phone, drop in a culture, wait a few hours, and presto - you've grown a new phone. No pollution, no nothing (any leftover biomatter from the growing process could easily be broken down and recycled).
Next, how would it work in normal use? Well, suppose you dropped your phone while walking down the street, and it bounced under the wheels of a passing car. A current phone would be destroyed. But this phone could be picked up, taken home, dropped in a solution to hasten healing, and in the morning it will be good as new.
In fact, imagine this. Think of lizards... the tail can be torn clean off, an it will grown a new one. So why couldn't the flip part of a flip phone, or the antenna, do the same? Let's take it even further... think of the earthworm... break it in half and you get two identical earthworms. So why couldn't you take your cell phone, tear it in half, and grow two?
What other ideas can be taken from nature to create new technologies?
