Articles/Talks
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
June 15, 2012 Mary Beckman , PNNL, (509) 375-3688 Ongoing saga of building a better fuel cell catalyst goes holistic RICHLAND, Wash. – The design of a nature-inspired material that can make energy-storing hydrogen gas has gone holistic.
News - Ionic liquid improves speed and efficiency of hydrogen-producing catalyst
Taking inspiration from the yellow fattail scorpion, which uses a bionic shield to protect itself against scratches from desert sandstorms, scientists have developed a new way to protect the moving parts of machinery from wear and tear. A report on the research appears in ACS' journal Langmuir . Zhiwu Han, Junqiu Zhang, Wen Li and colleagues explain that "solid particle erosion" is one of the important reasons for material damage or equipment failure. It causes millions of dollars of damage each year to helicopter rotors, rocket motor nozzles, turbine blades, pipes and other mechanical parts. The damage occurs when particles of dirt, grit and other hard material in the air, water or other fluids strike the surfaces of those parts.
Scorpions inspire scientists in making tougher surfaces for machinery (1/28/2012)
Man-made pores mimic important features of natural pores (7/19/2012)
Inspired by nature, an international research team has created synthetic pores that mimic the activity of cellular ion channels, which play a vital role in human health by severely restricting the types of materials allowed to enter cells. The pores the scientists built are permeable to potassium ions and water, but not to other ions such as sodium and lithium ions. This kind of extreme selectivity, while prominent in nature, is unprecedented for a synthetic structure, said University at Buffalo chemistry professor Bing Gong, PhD, who led the study. The project's success lays the foundation for an array of exciting new technologies. In the future, scientists could use such highly discerning pores to purify water, kill tumors, or otherwise treat disease by regulating the substances inside of cells. "The idea for this research originated from the biological world, from our hope to mimic biological structures, and we were thrilled by the results," Gong said.
Energie & Environnement Stockage de l'énergie renouvelable : une cathode à partir de liqueur noire http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/69772.htm Entre les avancées dans l'efficacité des cellules photovoltaïques et les investissements majeurs dans l'éolien, la production d'énergie renouvelable devient performante et c'est maintenant le problème du stockage de cette énergie qu'il faut résoudre.
04/19 > BE Suède 29 > Stockage de l'énergie renouvelable : une cathode à partir de liqueur noire
Meghalaya’s Living Bridge: Naturally Constructed Architecture «
Computing
We are the global leader in biomimicry innovation consulting, professional training, and educational program and curricula development. Our mission is to train, equip, and connect engineers, educators, architects, designers, business leaders, and other innovators to sustainably emulate nature's 3.8 billion years of brilliant designs and strategies. Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with.