Title: Sharks, sand, and sticky fish – prospecting for biomaterials in the sea
Abstract: The living things around us routinely solve complex engineering and physics problems. Finding practical, man-made analogs to these solution sets is the goal of bioinspired design. Before progress can be made in theory or experimentally it is first necessary to fully understand the biological model, its context, limitations and requirements. This is a dense way of saying that before you can throw engineers at a problem first a solution has to be perceived by natural historians. The keen observer of nature plays the foundational role in biomimetics and bioinspired design, and without constant input from the natural world these fields will stagnate. Fortunately, in these early days of bioinspired design there is low hanging fruit aplenty. I will talk about new materials from shark skeletons, solutions to burrowing problems that rely on surfaces, and new ways of sticking to irregular substrates. In each case we have only scratched the surface of the engineering and have either a poor understanding or none at all when it comes to theoretical underpinnings. Ideally, you will gain an appreciation for looking hard at animals, speaking with seriousness to poets, and being open to the world of mathematics, engineering and physics. It is through the synergy of these disciplines that the advantages of the academic research environment are most keenly felt.