Biomimicry
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Water Bear Inspires New Kind of Glass

Water Bear Inspires New Kind of Glass | Biomimicry | Scoop.it

"A really weird, really tiny animal — the microscopic tardigrade — is the inspiration behind a new material that could improve the efficiency of things like LED lights to solar cells. The material under investigation is glass, and tardigrades (sometimes known as "water bears" or "moss piglets") know a thing or two about glass. These water-dwelling critters, which look like tiny blimps with pudgy bodies and eight stubby legs, are capable of shedding almost all of the water in their cells when exposed to extreme conditions, such as heat, cold or even the vacuum of space."

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Examining How Nature Would Do "Green Chemistry"

Examining How Nature Would Do "Green Chemistry" | Biomimicry | Scoop.it
The conversation from the Biomimicry 3.8 Global Conference continues examining how green chemistry works without the artificiality of human interference
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New Material Gets Itself Into Shape

New Material Gets Itself Into Shape | Biomimicry | Scoop.it
Inspired by plant components that respond to external stimuli, material scientists have devised a new method for producing composite materials from a variety of materials that adopt a pre-programmed shape autonomously.
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Biomimetic Self-templating Supramolecular Structures

Biomimetic Self-templating Supramolecular Structures | Biomimicry | Scoop.it

A team consisting out of researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, has discovered a method to create artificial materials with desired properties by controlling the assembly of these complex structures. To achieve this effect, the researchers used bacteriophage as the building block which mimicked the ability of natural tissues to self-assemble from cellular proteins.

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Bacteria Could Grow Futuristic 'Self-Healing' Materials

Bacteria Could Grow Futuristic 'Self-Healing' Materials | Biomimicry | Scoop.it
Living materials produced by bacteria could lead to interactive structures programmed to self-assemble into specific patterns, such as those used on solar cells and diagnostic sensors, and even self-healing materials that could sense damage and repair it.
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Harvard Creates Beautiful, Self-Assembled Nanoflowers to Better Understand Nature

Harvard Creates Beautiful, Self-Assembled Nanoflowers to Better Understand Nature | Biomimicry | Scoop.it

"The beautiful flowers that you see above, and dotted throughout the rest of this story, are around 25 micrometers tall and 10 micrometers wide. Even more impressively, these flowers self-assembled from three fairly normal chemical compounds. Rather than just an exercise in aesthetics, though, scientists hope these nanoflowers can improve our scientific understanding of how immensely complex structures in nature, such as human embryos, self-assemble."

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Nature-Inspired Nano-material Builds a Better Electrode, Points to Greener Future

Nature-Inspired Nano-material Builds a Better Electrode, Points to Greener Future | Biomimicry | Scoop.it

From the apple falling on Newton\'s head to batteries made out of root extract, scientists have long turned to nature for ideas. Following that tradition, the brainiacs over at the University of Reading have developed a new nano-material electrode coating based on the cellular structure of plants.

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