Biomimicry

Biomimicry or biomimetics is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems.[1] The terms biomimicry and biomimetics come from the Greek words bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate. A closely related field is bionics.[2] Over the last 3.6 billion years,[3] nature has gone through a process of trial and error to refine the living organisms, processes, and materials on Earth. History[edit] One of the early examples of biomimicry was the study of birds to enable human flight. In 1960, the term bionics was coined by psychiatrist and engineer Jack Steele to mean "the science of systems which have some function copied from nature".[2] Bionics entered the Webster dictionary in 1960 as "a science concerned with the application of data about the functioning of biological systems to the solution of engineering problems". Nanobiomimicry[edit] Fabrication[edit] Biologically inspired engineering[edit] Biomedicine[edit]

The Best Tools for Visualization Visualization is a technique to graphically represent sets of data. When data is large or abstract, visualization can help make the data easier to read or understand. There are visualization tools for search, music, networks, online communities, and almost anything else you can think of. Visualize Social Networks Last.Forward: Thanks to Last.fm's new widget gallery, you can now explore a wide selection of extras to extend your Last.fm experience. Last Forward Friends Sociomap: Friends Sociomap is another Last.fm tools that generates a map of the music compatibility between you and your Last.fm friends. Fidg't: Fidg't is a desktop application that gives you a way to view your networks tagging habits. Fidg't The Digg Tools: Digg.com has some of the best web-based visualization tools on the net, so they're a must for any visualization list. One more: Digg Radar. YouTube: You can discover related videos using YouTube's visualizations. Visualize Music Musicovery Last.fm music visual tools: Amazon Data

Conveying GE Machine Usage Data: Balancing Art and Visualization Ben Fry's Fathom Information Design has released the video documentation of 2 interactive visualization installations that are meant to appear on large touch screens in the lobby of GE's headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Due to its intended physical setting, the visualization had to work from a distance as well as close by, balancing artistic quality with the fact that the animations were informed by real data, generated by machines in the real world. Accordingly, order, shape, size, direction, and color all have some meaning, and emerging patterns can often be interpreted or evoke thoughts of the actual events and actions that the data signifies. The "Powering" visualization is based on the data containing the location and power output from 713 unique gas turbines during 15 successive days. The "Curing" visualization is based on about 125,530 distinct CT and MR scans that were conducted using GE equipment during a 24-hour period.

Online Diagramming and Flowcharting Tool