Who would have thought that frogs would inspire engineers to create new biofuels? Well, the Tungara frog, which resides in Central America, seems to have done just that.
The Tungara frog creates very long-lived foam nests for its newborn tadpoles. Engineers from University of Cincinnati, in yet another example of biomimicry, found the frogs’ design inspirational and helpful in constructing an innovative artificial photosynthetic foam.
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Ever dreamed of a 3D visualization system that doesn’t involve goofy goggles? Researchers at MIT might soon have you covered.
A new project at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab (the same folks who are working on the London Cloud) involves miniature LED-fitted helicopters that can be programmed to rearrange themselves into shapes and images while they hover in front of you.
Along with the beaver, the gecko, honey bees and snapping shrimp, the mole has been nominated as “nature’s best engineer” by the British Science Association. Lots of animals have evolved to be able to do extraordinary things, and the mole is no exception. Moles are expert burrowers, and can create vast underground networks despite being nearly blind. They are also deadly predators: the star-nosed mole can find, catch and eat food in less than 300 milliseconds (that’s faster than the human eye can detect!).
We all know Leonardo Da Vinci as the famous Italian Renaissance painter behind the Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile, but you may not know that he was also a prolific inventor and, by modern standards, an engineer. Da Vinci was constantly sketching and planning new contraptions, from parachutes and flying machines to musical instruments, many of which would not be realized for hundreds of years after his death.
Recently Discovery Channel News reported that Da Vinci had yet another unrealized masterpiece in his oeuvre: the flawless design of a colossal horse statue. For a long time historians and engineers thought that the horse had never been made because of technical difficulties, however recently researchers have discovered that this was not the case. Leonardo’s ingenious bronze casting system was perfect, and, had he had sufficient materials to make the statue, it would have likely succeeded.
