{"99801":{"#nid":"99801","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Back to Nature","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBy Neil B. McGahee\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnything we can do, Mother Nature seems to have done it first - and better. That\u0027s why researchers from Georgia Tech\u0027s Center for Biologically Inspired Design are turning to the natural world for solutions to real-world problems.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Natural systems must cope with environmental changes and innovations to survive,\u0022 Jeannette Yen, CBID director and professor of biology, says. \u0022Biologically inspired design or biomimetics allow us to take ideas from nature and incorporate them in modern technologies such as engineering, design and logistics.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe concept of biomimetics is very old - Leonardo da Vinci observed birds when building his unsuccessful flying machine in 1496 - but has gathered momentum recently due to advances in technologies.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Perhaps the best known result of biologically inspired design is the development of Velcro,\u0022 Yen says. \u0022In the 1940s, a Swiss scientist was removing burrs from his dog when he realized how the hooks of the burrs clung to the fur.\u0022 The discovery inspired him to create the unique two-sided fastener.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EYen and biology associate professor Marc Weissburg, co-director of CBID, had known each other for years through their mutual interest in marine biology. Weissburg was researching marine animals\u0027 ability to use their sense of smell to find food or a mate while Yen was studying plankton\u0027s ability to find a mate through similar olfactory location.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Our research naturally lends itself to working with engineers,\u0022 Weissburg says. \u0022That\u0027s why we\u0027re at Tech. I came here because I knew that engineers could help me understand biology in a better way. There\u0027s not enough time in my life for me to learn as much about fluid dynamics as they do or for them to learn as much about biology as I do. Given the natural connections, we decided to develop a center that would promote collaborations between engineers and biologists.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWeissburg, an associate biology professor, and Don Webster, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, are studying marine animals to understand how they use chemical signals to track objects - information that may be used to make robotic sensor systems for underwater vehicle navigation.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMechanical engineering professors Minami Yoda, a fluid dynamicist, and Peter H. Rogers, an acoustician, are researching the auditory retina, a concept based on motion sensors found in a fish\u0027s ear. Industrial and systems engineering professor Craig Tovey studied honeybees to find effective Web-hosting methods.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMaterials science and engineering professor Ken Sandhage and biochemistry professor Nils Kroger are studying diatoms to discover processes for building nanostructures. Polymer, textile and fiber engineering professor Mohan Srinivasarao studied the morpho and discovered the brilliant blue butterfly produced its shimmering shades of blue and green not with pigments but by light reflection.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHang Lu, an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, believes a worm may provide clues into the way memories are formed and retained in the human brain.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBiomimetics proponents say that recent discoveries are just the tip of an iceberg of knowledge to be gleaned from nature.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We have always looked at the Earth as an infinite resource where we take and discard, suffering huge losses of energy, whereas natural organisms coordinate input and output to create complete ecological functions,\u0022 Weissburg says. \u0022Organisms are a big book of design solutions.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u00a92007 Georgia Tech Alumni Association \u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Anything we can do, Mother Nature seems to have done it first - and better. That\u0027s why researchers from Georgia Tech\u0027s Center for Biologically Inspired Design are turning to the natural world for solutions to real-world problems.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Anything we can do, Mother Nature seems to have don"}],"uid":"27245","created_gmt":"2007-02-02 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2022-05-26 17:09:36","author":"Troy Hilley","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2007-02-02T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2007-02-02T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"99811":{"id":"99811","type":"image","title":"Marc Weissburg, left, and Don Webster are studying","body":null,"created":"1449178150","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:29:10","changed":"1475894715","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:15"}},"media_ids":["99811"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gtalumni.org\/Publications\/magazine\/win07\/article3.html","title":"Alumni Magazine"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/faculty\/jeannette-yen\/","title":"Jeannette Yen"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/faculty\/marc-weissburg\/","title":"Marc Weissburg"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.cbid.gatech.edu\/","title":"Center for Biologically Inspired Design at Georgia Tech"}],"groups":[{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETroy Hilley - School of Biology\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["troy.hilley@biology.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}