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03 Dec 08

A New Twist on Hydropower - MIT Technology Review

Fascinating report on how a new mechanical device, which "mimics how fish harness energy from water flow," could contribute to the sustainable energy toolkit.

(Since the device is based on mimicking how fish do it, I'm adding the "biomimicry" tag to this article.)

www.technologyreview.com/...21749 - Preview

mit_techreview hydropower energy biomimicry vivace vortex_hydro_energy

VIVACE: Energy from Slow Currents - MIT Technology Review: Videos

Video demo of how VIVACE works (the device developed to mimic how fish harness energy from water currents).

www.technologyreview.com/video - Preview

mit_techreview vivace biomimicry hydropower video energy vortex_hydro_energy

20 Oct 08

Sun + Water = Fuel (MIT Technology Review)

Fascinating article about Daniel Nocera's work on biomimical process similar to photosynthesis, except in this case it's sunlight turning water into hydrogen. If the process can scale, it has revolutionary implications for energy supplies.

www.technologyreview.com/...21536 - Preview

biomimicry daniel_nocera photosynthesis energy hydrogen fuel

17 Sep 08

Technology Review: Synthetic Tree Hauls Water

Learning from nature (biomimicry & engineering)....

www.technologyreview.com/...21382 - Preview

biomimicry engineering

A tree can transport water an amazing distance--from its roots, through a trunk up to 85 meters tall, and finally to its leaves, where the water evaporates. Now, scientists at Cornell University have created a microfluidic system to mimic that process. Their "synthetic tree" opens up a new way to move liquids over long distances without using mechanical pumps.
created the synthetic tree out of a thin sheet of hydrogel, a material more commonly used to make contact lenses. They etched two networks of parallel channels into the hydrogel to represent the capillaries in a tree's root system as well as the ones in its leaves. They connected the two networks with a single channel representing the trunk of the tree.
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- In a real tree, evaporation from the leaves is what pulls water up through the plant--a process known as transpiration.
- Stroock and Wheeler found that their system accurately mimics this transpiration process, pulling water through at strengths several times greater than those inside a real tree.
- Furthermore, because the water in a tree is under negative pressure--as if it were being sucked up through a straw--the water is in a metastable state, meaning it is between a liquid and a vapor. So the synthetic tree could also serve as a model system for studying liquids in this state.
- "In the case of liquid under negative pressure, it would tend to boil and become a vapor to relieve the negative pressure. But trees have managed to handle water in a metastable state very efficiently, so that's why this work is so nice."
- Stroock envisions that the synthetic tree system could be used to move liquids passively without needing mechanical pumps. In heat-transfer applications, it could cool small devices, like laptop computers, or larger ones, like vehicles, or even buildings. It could also be part of an soil remediation system, Stroock says. Instead of needing to flood soil with water to flush out contaminants, a synthetic tree could pull the contaminated water out.

Technology Review: Synthetic Tree Hauls Water

Learning from nature (biomimicry & engineering)....

www.technologyreview.com/...21382 - Preview

biomimicry engineering

03 Jun 08

Nature's Photonic Crystal, by Kristina Grifantini (MIT Technology Review)

File this under "I HEART biomimicry!" Amazing piece about scientists discovering that a lowly Brazilian beetle manufactures --chemically! -- scales that essentially function as a photonic crystal structure for visible light. Now the scientists are not only making molds or copies of the beetles amazing crystal structure embedded in its scales, but are trying to mimic (figure out) the chemical processes by which the beetle creates them in the first place.

(Note: I'm highlighting the entire article to have in my Diigo archive, as I've noticed that some MIT Tech Review articles disappear after a while.)

www.technologyreview.com/...20840 - Preview

biomimicry nature science photonic_crystal_structure nanotechnology

Researchers have discovered a species of Brazilian beetle that has the unusual trait of reflecting iridescent green from almost any angle. By examining the structure of the beetle's scales, scientists at the University of Utah found an ideal photonic-crystal structure for visible light--a type of material that optical scientists have been seeking for years.
Three-dimensional periodic structures called photonic crystals are potentially valuable materials for controlling photons; scientists could use photonic crystals operating at visible wavelengths to develop more-efficient solar cells, telecommunications, sensors, and even optical computer chips. A diamond-based structure, in particular, is thought to be the most effective three-dimensional photonic crystal for visible light, because it can reflect a wide band of colors and has high reflectivity. Less light escaping means researchers can better control and manipulate the photons.
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- Photonic crystals that control visible light have been challenging for scientists to fabricate from appropriate materials, because of how small the periodicity in the structure must be to manipulate wavelengths that short. One- and two-dimensional photonic crystals for visible light have been created, as well as a three-dimensional diamond structure for the longer wavelengths of infrared. A diamond structure that can reflect visible light over all angles for all polarizations has not yet been made. But studying this beetle's scales may provide new insights into how to construct such a three-dimensional photonic crystal for visible light.
- Michael Bartl, a professor at the University of Utah, graduate student Jeremy Galusha, and their colleagues used a very thin slicing technique to discover and model the scales of the Lamprocyphus augustus. Inside each scale, which is about 100 micrometers across and 15 to 20 micrometers thick, is a three-dimensional photonic structure. The structure resembles how carbon atoms arrange in a diamond, and it consists of a crystal lattice with a repeating periodic unit structure of about 300 nanometers, says Bartl. Within a scale, the diamond lattice is positioned at different orientations, giving the beetle its green sheen from almost any angle.
  - ...amazing... - on 2008-06-03
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- The diamond-structured photonic crystals are among the most difficult to fabricate, says Georgia Tech professor Zhong Lin Wang. "Using biology as a template, this paper shows the possibility of fabricating man-made diamond photonic crystals with well-designed optical performance," he says.
- The beetle's scales themselves can't be used for any practical application, because the chitin material is too fragile and not conductive. The group is in the process of molding the beetle scales out of a semiconductor. "We're making good progress," says Bartl. Besides using the beetle structure as a mold, he and his colleagues are also studying how the beetle fabricates the structure, in hopes of mimicking the process to create artificial diamond photonic structures.
- Applications using photonic crystals "have been more or less restricted to the near infrared spectrum," says Ayman Abouraddy, a research scientist at MIT. "We already know [that the diamond structure] will be useful; we just don't know how to make it efficiently. The fact that a beetle--with a down-and-dirty chemical synthesis approach--is able to create quite a clean structure like this is surprising."

23 May 08

Transmaterial 2: To Redefine Our Physical Environment - PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things”

PingMag interview with Blaine Brownell, architect and sustainable materials researcher, whose focus is on green building.

"From repurposed materials that act as surrogates, to recombinant ones that fuse several materials into a hybrid, making them stronger and more effective — Blaine points us to products that might shape our physical environment in the future."

Materials discussed include self-healing polymers inspired by biological systems, which can automatically heal cracks in buildings, for example.

The article includes many other photographs / examples with descriptions of weird and wonderful bioneered and sustainable building materials.

pingmag.jp/...sform-our-physical-environment - Preview

pingmag transmaterial bioneering biomimicry architecture technology blaine_brownell sustainable_materials

I studied architecture and practised in the field for over a decade, and I believe this experience has been essential because of my exposure to the exploding number of innovative building materials. During my early years of practice, I had a chance to research materials for a prominent project and was impressed by the challenges as well as opportunities associated with this task. I immediately saw a need to share this — which typically gets archived when a project is completed — with a larger audience of architects, designers, contractors, etc. I began an electronic journal and database, which quickly became popular with a growing audience of material enthusiasts who have given generous feedback. Over time, I have been able to appreciate the critical trajectories of material development as a result.
Although Europe and Japan are largely ahead of the curve, the United States has struggled with the development of sustainable building practices since the softening of the 1970s oil crisis that initiated much of the initial interest in green architecture in this country. I think the primary challenge to sustainable design is the fact that it has been viewed primarily as a long-term intellectual proposition without immediate economic benefit, and the relatively cheap cost of petroleum has made it nearly impossible to convince industries to consider other alternatives.
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- Very true! Alex Steffen speaks in his Worldchanging — A User’s Guide to the 21st Century of the world’s natural resources as our ecological capital, saying that the ultimate bankruptcy will not land us in a state-run old people’s home ― it’ll land us in a world of deserts, hunger and freaky weather. Can the employment of sustainable materials and energy conservation methods save us from such a harsh reality?
  
  I believe Alex’s prediction is correct at certain scales.
  - - useful qualification: "at certain scales." - on 2008-05-23
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- we have to face the discouraging truth about accelerating environmental degradation and act quickly to prevent it. Since buildings comprise roughly half of the problem in terms of energy use and emissions, vastly improved materials, construction methods and energy use should help significantly.
- The title is a conflation of the words transformational materiality, and the book is the second volume of materials that have significant potential in shaping the physical environment through design innovation.
- Ultraperforming materials attempt to push conventional performance boundaries; multidimensional materials enhance structural depth in order to maximise resources; repurposed materials are surrogates for more precious, conventional resources; recombinant materials are hybrids in which the sum exhibits superior characteristics to individual components; intelligent materials employ creative structural and formal ideas for enhanced environments; transformational materials undergo change based on environmental stimuli; and interfacial materials explore digital processes and fabrication.
- The term often used is disruptive technologies — a title that suggests radical departures as opposed to incremental developments. One focus is materials whose behaviour conflicts with our traditional understanding — such as bendable concrete, transparent ceramics, or exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets. Another focus considers materials imbued with biomimetic qualities, like self-healing polymers, strong enviroboard, and active protection system. Another focus considers environmentally remediating materials such as Italcementi, Superabsorber, and Reben. Yet another focus relates to digital fabrication innovations, such as the Ombrae system, intaglio composites, and Erwin Hauer Continua.
- You speak of materials and products that have unique phenomenological effects. Explain, please!
  
  What I mean here concerns materials that generate unconventional responses when interacted with — such as the light-bending properties of Sensitile or the colour and pattern-changing qualities of Living Surfaces.

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