Biomimicry: Biologically Inspired Engineering

[Phronesis]

Locust wings built for the long haul
High-speed cameras capture how flexibility enhances efficiency

Lessons from a locustPatterns of air movement caused by a flying locust (middle and right columns) are similar to air patterns predicted by a computer simulation (left column). Air swirls beneath the locust’s wings as the wings move downward from the beginning of a stroke (top panels) to the end (bottom panels).Image courtesy of Science/AAAS​

A new study may inspire aeronautical engineers to be more flexible with their designs. That’s because the bends and twists in locusts’ flexible, flapping wings power the insects’ extraordinary long-distance flights, a Sept. 18 Science paper reveals.

Even though researchers have been studying how insects and other creatures fly for a long time, “we still don’t completely understand the aerodynamics and architectures of wings,” comments Tom Daniel of the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the new study. The new work, Daniel says, uncovers the flight signatures of flapping, flexible wings.

The research focuses on the flight of the pestilent locust, an insect renowned for its efficient flying style. If dragonflies are like fighter jets, then locusts are like continent-spanning 747s, says Adrian Thomas of the University of Oxford, coauthor of the new study. What locusts lack in agility, they make up for in distance: the four-winged insects are built to fly hundreds of miles at a time.

Thomas and colleagues used high-speed cameras to capture the details of how wings of the locust Schistocerca gregaria deform as they flap by bending and twisting. (A similar twist with an extended human arm would start with the thumb pointed slightly up at the top of the flap, then the arm would turn so the thumb is parallel to the ground in the middle of the flap and continue down until the thumb is pointed toward the ground at the end of the downstroke, Thomas says.)

Data from the high-resolution flight images allowed the researchers to create a near-perfect mathematical model of how the flexible, twisting wings propel the insect through the air. With the model in hand, Thomas and his team could predict the shapes of the air currents around the flying locusts. Tiny packets of smoke released near a flying locust showed air swirls similar to swirls predicted by the model. “We can check whether it really works, and it does,” Thomas says.

Next, the researchers tweaked their model to simulate stiffening the wings and, separately, to mimic straightening the wing’s curved shape, to see how those changes affected flight efficiency. In the model, when the locusts had rigid or straight wings, flight performance suffered, the team found.

Most earlier models of insect flight relied on stiff, straight wings, overlooking the important effects of flexibility and shape, says Thomas. “Engineers like these things simple,” he says. But this new study shows that wings with a little flop can actually get more air-pushing lift from each flap.

The study provides sound experimental evidence that flexible wings add to flight performance, comments Robin Wootton of the University of Exeter in England. “This is lovely work by the best team, in my view, currently working in this field,” he says.

Figuring out the details of how locusts and other insects fly may help researchers design tiny robotic fliers. “There is a growing interest in the exploration of micro air vehicles,” says Daniel. “Nature’s designs may be useful in creating synthetic ones.”

 

[rwenzori]

Please order us up some stuff for bio-inspired biodegradation of long boring quote-mining posts. TIA.

 

[Phronesis]

More ideas for our own creations from nature's design...

Worm-inspired superglue
Material may one day paste together bones in the body

WASHINGTON — A new glue may worm its way into the medical realm as a tool for pasting together pieces of fractured bone. Researchers have created the glue based on the adhesive that a marine worm uses to cement its shell. Because the glue can be injected underwater and can stick and harden in an aqueous environment, it may one day be used inside the body, researchers reported August 17 at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

“It literally glues skeletons together underwater, so we thought it would be a good model for wet surgery,” said Russell Stewart of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Sandcastle worms, Phragmatopoma californica, dwell in the intertidal zone where they construct a tubelike shell by gluing together bits of sand, broken shells and other mineral debris. The glue is secreted from a special gland and hardens in less than 30 seconds underwater, forming a leatherlike consistency over several hours. Aiming to mimic the glue, Stewart and his colleagues identified several of the key proteins involved and analyzed their structure. About half of the glue proteins are highly charged molecules, some negative and some positive, so the researchers created similarly charged proteins and mixed in calcium and magnesium, much like the worm does.

Tests conducted underwater revealed that the newly formed glue bonds to wet bone and sets at a neutral pH, suggesting it could work inside the body. The strength of the researchers’ glue is about twice that of the worm’s (possibly because some of the proteins in the researchers’ mixture had stronger charges). Preliminary tests with bone cells cultured in test tubes suggest the new adhesive isn’t toxic. Future work will investigate modifications that could lead to the glue’s gradual disintegration, which might be desirable if the glue is used to piece together bits of bone during surgery. Ideally, as the bone eventually heals and regrows, the synthetic glue would break down in the body, Stewart said.

Phillip Messersmith of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., says that the new work is very interesting and that mimicking nature is a useful approach.

 

[Phronesis]

Future space designs from nature...

Lotus-plant-inspired Dust-busting Shield To Protect Space Gear

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2009) — A plant that lives along muddy waterways in Asia has inspired a NASA team to develop a special coating to prevent dirt and even bacteria from sticking to and contaminating the surfaces of spaceflight gear.

Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are developing a transparent coating that prevents dirt from sticking in the same way a lotus plant sheds water — work begun through collaboration with Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems, Linthicum, Md., and nGimat Corporation, Atlanta, Ga. Although a lotus leaf appears smooth, under a microscope, its surface contains innumerable tiny spikes that greatly reduce the area on which water and dirt can attach.

"If you splash lotus leaves with water, it just beads up and rolls off, indicating they have a special hydrophobic or water-repelling ability," said Eve Wooldridge, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project Contamination and Coatings Lead at Goddard. "This ability also prevents dust from adhering to the leaves."

This special quality is what the NASA team is attempting to replicate to prevent dirt from accumulating on the surfaces of spacesuits, scientific instruments, robotic rovers, solar array panels and other hardware used to gather scientific data or carry out exploratory activities on other objects in the solar system.

The trick is developing a coating that can withstand the harsh space environment.

Originally Developed to Reduce Window Cleaning

The coating was originally developed to reduce the need for window cleaning. Made from silica, zinc oxide, and other oxides, its potential uses on Earth are limitless. It could be applied to car windshields, camera lenses, and eyeglasses — almost anywhere a need exists to repel dirt. Understanding the potential, Northrop Grumman teamed with nGimat to find more applications for the coating technology. The pair ultimately turned to Goddard for its expertise in making equipment ready to endure the harsh space environment.

"Indeed, the ability to replicate these properties could prove invaluable to NASA," said Wanda Peters, Principal Investigator for NASA's lotus coating research and Lead of Goddard’s Coatings Engineering Group. During the Apollo moonwalks, for example, such a technology could have prevented the highly abrasive lunar dust from adhering to astronauts’ spacesuits:

"I think one of the most aggravating, restricting facets of lunar surface exploration is the dust and its adherence to everything no matter what kind of material, whether it be skin, suit material, metal, no matter what it be and its restrictive, friction-like action to everything it gets on," said Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan during the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing.

"However, the coating as it was originally formulated will not be able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions found in space," Peters said.

The Goddard team has experimented with and tested different formulas to determine their suitability for spaceflight. "No one formula will meet all our needs," added Peters. "For example, the coating that's applied to spacesuits needs to stick to a flexible surface, while a coating developed to protect moving parts needs to be exceptionally durable to resist wear and tear."

The Goddard team has met with exploration systems engineers at NASA's Johnson Spaceflight Center, Houston, Texas, to demonstrate the modified coatings and get mission requirements. Besides spacesuits and moving parts, it could be applied to solar panels and radiators, where cleanliness keeps them operating at their maximum potential.

Addition of Bacteria-Killing Biocide

The team also is trying to partner with Northrop Grumman to add a biocide to the coating, which would kill bacteria that thrive and produce foul odors wherever people are confined to a small space for long periods, like the space station. NASA could apply the same biocide-infused coating on a planetary lander to prevent Earth-borne bacteria from adhering and potentially contaminating the surface of an extraterrestrial object. The team believes this version of the coating may have commercial interest to hospitals as well.

"We are modifying and testing the formula to ensure it can withstand all the challenges our hardware will encounter — extreme temperatures, ultraviolet radiation, solar wind, and electrostatic charging. Outgassing of the coating also must be addressed for use inside astronauts' habitation areas," Peters added. "We also are making sure it remains durable and cleanable in the space environment."

"We have a great team," said Peters. "Goddard is the only NASA center researching this type of coating, and we believe continued research will deliver great benefits to NASA's exploration missions and will produce many positive applications outside NASA."

In addition to Peters and Wooldridge, the Goddard team includes Sharon Straka, Danielle Voce and Kristen McKittrick (wet chemistry development); Marcello Rodriguez (cleaning and durability testing); Craig Jones, Maryjane Stephenson and Scott Freese (characterization testing); Cory Blake Miller (qualification testing); Amani Ginyard (research); Mark Hasegawa and Jack Triolo (coatings formulation consultants); and Lon Kauder (space environmental testing).

This research is also supported by the Exploration Technology Development Program’s Dust Management Project, led and managed by NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, and is one of several technologies being assessed and developed by this project for application to space exploration missions.

 

[Kompete]

Buy shoes. Nike, Adidas, Puma best prices in China - http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/photos/spam_1.jpg

he he he

 

[Jenemesis]

yoh!
I can't wait to see the next fish suddenly walk out of the sea when its DNA suddenly gets the unction to change out of its own initiative for the sake of survival.
I am guessing again that this process requires the secret ingredient of millions of years in which case it could have lost the survival battle which is apparently the need to evolve in the first place?
Biology is fascinating and wonderful and amazing but to think that it all came about as if influenced by its own built-in intelligence for self-improvement is like believing in the tooth fairy

 

[Phronesis]

Maybe a bit of programming?

 

[rwenzori]

Looks like your long boring ID threads have suddenly found a supporter, TelePhroners. Ah well, there's one born every minute, they say.

 

[Phronesis]

Looks like your long boring ID threads have suddenly found a supporter, TelePhroners. Ah well, there's one born every minute, they say.

Biomimicry thread = ID thread? That would be a lie or ignorance.

 

[rwenzori]

Biomimicry thread = ID thread? That would be a lie or ignorance.

No, all your threads are ID threads.

 

[Phronesis]

No, all your threads are ID threads.

What a worthless generalization. No surprises though.
And you are still misrepresenting me in your quote-mined signature. No surprises there either.

 

[rwenzori]

What a worthless generalization. No surprises though.

As brilliantly articulated by Mefiante over at Skeptics:

* Junk DNA = Wow, god doesn’t add any useless stuff.
* Biomolecular Machines = Wow, god is just such a cool engineer.
* Preadaptations = Wow, god foresaw what was necessary for a species’ survival and blessed it with those facilities in advance.
* Quantum physics and consciousness = Wow, god lives in an indefinite state inside microtubules.

and

* Biomimicry = Wow, god made biology so cleverly that we now copy his best ideas.
* Programmed Evolution = Wow, god planned exactly how every species will evolve.
* Optimality of the Genetic Code = Wow, god made DNA a near-perfect information carrier.
* Genetic Toolkits and Multicellularity = Wow, god put all the basic requirements for multicellular organisms into simple life forms well before they were even needed.

 

[Phronesis]

As brilliantly articulated by Mefiante over at Skeptics:

Like pees in a pod making worthless "articulations" and generalizations. Funny though. But hey, you guys are all pro-science and whatnot right?

 

[Phronesis]

More engineering principles in bacteria that we can use for our own designs.

Understanding A Cell's Split Personality Aids Synthetic Circuits

DURHAM, N.C. -- As scientists work toward making genetically altered bacteria create living "circuits" to produce a myriad of useful proteins and chemicals, they have logically assumed that the single-celled
organisms would always respond to an external command in the same way.

Alas, some bacteria apparently have an individualistic streak that makes them zig when the others zag.

A new set of experiments by Duke University bioengineers has uncovered the existence of "bistability," in which an individual cell has the potential to live in either of two states, depending on which state it was in when stimulated.

Taking into account the effects of this phenomenon should greatly enhance the future efficiency of synthetic circuits, said biomedical engineer Lingchong You of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy.

In principle, re-programmed bacteria in a synthetic circuit can be useful for producing proteins, enzymes or chemicals in a coordinated way, or even delivering different types of drugs or selectively killing cancer cells, the scientists said.

Researchers in this new field of synthetic biology "program" populations of genetically altered bacteria to direct their actions in much the same way that a computer program directs a computer. In this analogy, the genetic alteration is the software, the cell the computer. The Duke researchers found that not only does the software drive the computer's actions, but the computer in turn influences the running of the software.

"In the past, synthetic biologists have often assumed that the components of the circuit would act in a predictable fashion every time and that the cells carrying the circuit would just serve as a passive reactor," You said. "In essence, they have taken a circuit-centric view for the design and optimization process. This notion is helpful in making the design process more convenient."

But it's not that simple, say You and his graduate student Cheemeng Tan, who published the results of their latest experiments early online in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

"We found that there can be unintended consequences that haven't been appreciated before," said You. "In a population of identical cells, some can act one way while others act in another. However, this process appears to occur in a predictable manner, which allows us to take into account this effect when we design circuits."

Bistability is not unique to biology. In electrical engineering, for example, bistability describes the functioning of a toggle switch, a hinged switch that can assume either one of two positions – on or off.

"The prevailing wisdom underestimated the complexity of these synthetic circuits by assuming that the genetic changes would not affect the operation of the cell itself, as if the cell were a passive chassis," said Tan. "The expression of the genetic alteration can drastically impact the cell, and therefore the circuit.

"We now know that when the circuit is activated, it affects the cell, which in turn acts as an additional feedback loop influencing the circuit," Tan said. "The consequences of this interplay have been theorized but not demonstrated experimentally."

The scientists conducted their experiments using a genetically altered colony of the bacteria Escherichia coli (E.coli) in a simple synthetic circuit. When the colony of bacteria was stimulated by external cues, some of the cells went to the "on" position and grew more slowly, while the rest went to the "off" position and grew faster.

"It is as if the colony received the command not to expand too fast when the circuit is on," Tan explained. "Now that we know that this occurs, we used computer modeling to predict how many of the cells will go to the 'on' or 'off' state, which turns out to be consistent with experimental measurements"

###

The experiments were supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and a David and Lucille Packard Fellowship. Duke's Philippe Marguet was also a member of the research team.

In this colony, the bacteria lighting up in green are those being "turned on," while those in red remain "off."​

Nice video.

 

[Phronesis]

Hey look, a journal that caters for biologically inspired engineering:
Journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics

This bioinspired engineering feat can lead to new and exciting energy solutions like better solar panel.

Nanometric Butterfly Wings Created

ScienceDaily (Oct. 9, 2009) — A team of researchers from the State University of Pennsylvania (USA) and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) has developed a technique to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, on a nano scale. The resulting biomaterial could be used to make optically active structures, such as optical diffusers for solar panels.

A section of a butterfly wing under a microscope. (Credit: The Pennsylvania State University / SINC)​

Insects' colours and their iridescence (the ability to change colours depending on the angle) or their ability to appear metallic are determined by tiny nano-sized photonic structures (1 nanometre = 10-9 m) which can be found in their cuticle. Scientists have focused on these biostructures to develop devices with light emitting properties that they have just presented in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.

"This technique was developed at the Materials Research Institute of the State University of Pennsylvania and it enables replicas of biological structures to be made on a nanometric scale", Raúl J. Martín-Palma, lecturer at the Department of Applied Physics of the UAM and co-author of the study explains.

The researchers have created "free-standing replicas of fragile, laminar, chitinous biotemplates", that is, copies of the nano structures of butterfly wings. The appearance of these appendices usually depends more on their periodical nanometric structure (which determines the "physical" colour) than on the pigments in the wings (which establish the "chemical" colour).

In order to create new biomaterial, the team used compounds based on Germanium, Selenium and Stibium (GeSeSb) and employed a technique called Conformal-Evaporated-Film-by-Rotation (CEFR), which combines thermal evaporation and substrate rotation in a low pressure chamber. They also used immersion in an aqueous orthophosphoric acid solution to dissolve the chitin (substance typically found in the exoskeleton of insects and other arthropods).

The methods used to date to replicate bio structures are very limited when it comes to obtaining effective copies on a nanometric scale and they often damage the original biostructure because they are used in corrosive atmospheres or at high temperatures. The new technique "totally" overcomes these problems, as it is employed at room temperature and does not require the use of toxic substances.

Martín-Palma points out that the structures resulting from replicating the biotemplate of butterfly wings could be used to make various optically active structures, such as optical diffusers or coverings that maximise solar cell light absorption, or other types of devices. "Furthermore, the technique can be used to replicate other biological structures, such as beetle shells or the compound eyes of flies, bees and wasps," the researcher says.

The compound eyes of certain insects are sound candidates for a large number of applications as they provide great angular vision. "The development of miniature cameras and optical sensors based on these organs would make it possible for them to be installed in small spaces in cars, mobile telephones and displays, apart from having uses in areas such as medicine (the development of endoscopes) and security (surveillance)", Martín-Palma says.

 

[Phronesis]

Spider Web Glue Spins Society Toward New Biobased Adhesives

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2009) — With would-be goblins and ghosts set to drape those huge fake spider webs over doorways and trees for Halloween, scientists in Wyoming are reporting on a long-standing mystery about real spider webs: It is the secret of spider web glue. The findings are an advance toward a new generation of biobased adhesives and glues -- "green" glues that replace existing petroleum-based products for a range of uses.

A sticky substance in spider webs may lead to the development of a new generation of biobased adhesives and glues that could replace some petroleum-based products. (Credit: Randolph Femmer, National Biological Information Infrastructure)​

A report on the study is in the October issue of ACS' Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal.

Omer Choresh and colleagues note that much research has been done on spider web silk, which rivals steel in its strength. However, scientists know comparatively little about web glue, which coats the silk threads and is among the world's strongest biological glues. Past studies revealed that spiders make web glue from glycoproteins, or proteins bits of sugar attached.

The scientists analyzed web glue from the golden orb weaving spider, noted for spinning intricate webs. They identified two new glycoproteins in the glue and showed that domains of these proteins were produced from opposite strands of the same DNA. "Once the cloned genes are over expressed in systems such as insect or bacterial cell cultures, large-scale production of the glycoprotein can be used to develop a new biobased glue for a variety of purposes," the report notes.

 

[NoLimit]

yoh!
I can't wait to see the next fish suddenly walk out of the sea when its DNA suddenly gets the unction to change out of its own initiative for the sake of survival.
I am guessing again that this process requires the secret ingredient of millions of years in which case it could have lost the survival battle which is apparently the need to evolve in the first place?
Biology is fascinating and wonderful and amazing but to think that it all came about as if influenced by its own built-in intelligence for self-improvement is like believing in the tooth fairy

You are clearly quite adept at cynically picking out the flaws. Your credibility now rests on whether you can apply yourself similarly to the creationists, and expose their equally far-fetched musings.

 

[Phronesis]

Nature "handles" processes. We can now design more optimal designs by looking at these "handled" processes .

Mimicking Nature, Scientists Can Now Extend Redox Potentials

ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2009) — New insight into how nature handles some fundamental processes is guiding researchers in the design of tailor-made proteins for applications such as artificial photosynthetic centers, long-range electron transfers, and fuel-cell catalysts for energy conversion.

Tuning redox potentials of a protein for energy conversions. A combination of water-repelling hydrophobicity (shown in red sphere) and hydrogen bonding interactions (shown in dotted orange lines) can fine-tune the redox potential of copper ion (shown in blue) in azurin in a wide range. (Credit: Graphic courtesy of Yi Lu)​

From rusting iron to forest fires to the beating of a human heart, oxidation-reduction reactions, which transfer electrons from one atom to another, are at the heart of many chemical and biological processes. Each process requires a particular redox potential, just as different electronic devices can require their own special battery.

How nature fine-tunes these potentials over a broad range with little change to the protein's electron-transfer properties or efficiency has largely remained a mystery.

Now, a team led by University of Illinois chemistry professor Yi Lu has unearthed nature's secret, and has utilized it to their advantage. The researchers describe their work in a paper to appear in the Nov. 5 issue of the journal Nature. "We show that two important interactions, hydrophobicity (water repelling) and hydrogen bonding, are capable of fine-tuning the reduction potential of a particular class of copper-containing proteins called cupredoxins," Lu said. "We extended the range both above and below what had previously been found in nature."

Lu, graduate student and lead author Nicholas M. Marshall, and their collaborators also show that the effects of hydrophobicity and hydrogen bonding are additive, which offers additional control and extends the range of redox (short for oxidation-reduction reaction) potentials beyond what nature, by itself, provides.

Previously, to cover a wide potential range, scientists had to use several different redox agents in conjunction. This made it difficult, if not impossible, to tune the redox potentials without changing other electron transfer properties or the efficiency.

Also, stable, water-soluble redox agents are rare, Lu said, and those that are available have a limited potential range. "Consequently, there is a huge demand for efficient, water-soluble redox agents with a wide potential range for environmentally friendly aqueous or biochemical studies," he said.

To unlock nature's secret, Lu's team studied the behavior of the cupredoxin, azurin. Cupredoxins are redox-active copper proteins that play crucial roles in many important processes, such as photosynthesis and cell signaling. Cupredoxins use a single redox-active center, whose reduction potential is tunable without compromising the structure and electron transfer properties of the protein.

The researchers found that two interactions -- hydrophobicity and hydrogen bonding -- can selectively raise or lower azurin's redox potential. The interactions occur not in the metalloprotein's innermost, primary core, but in a secondary sphere that surrounds the primary core.

Increasing the hydrophobicity in the secondary sphere can significantly increase the redox potential, the researchers report. The more this secondary region repels water, the more the overall charge on the copper ion becomes destabilized and the higher the potential becomes.

The effect of the hydrogen bonding interaction is subtler than the effect of hydrophobicity, Lu said. Hydrogen bonding can either increase or decrease electron densities around a residue that binds the copper ion in azurin, making the copper ion either easier or harder to reduce and thus slightly changing the redox potential.

"This was nature's secret," Lu said. "That by adjusting the hydrophobicity and the hydrogen bonding, we can raise or lower the redox potential, without changing the protein's electron-transfer properties or decreasing the protein's efficiency."

The result is a tailor-made redox agent that can be set with a very high potential, a very low potential, or with a potential somewhere in between.

"This unprecedented level of control over an electron-transfer protein was achieved by mapping out the major interactions," Lu said, "an approach that may apply to other redox proteins of interest, as well."

Lu is affiliated with the university's Beckman Institute, the departments of biochemistry, bioengineering, and materials science and engineering, the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, and the Center of Biophysics and Computational Biology. The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health funded the work.

 

[Jenemesis]

The facts of Nature is evidence of Devine Design at its best

You are clearly quite adept at cynically picking out the flaws. Your credibility now rests on whether you can apply yourself similarly to the creationists, and expose their equally far-fetched musings.

Let Nature speak for itself and this thread is not a religious one either.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Nature is also fascinating, the more we know of the intricacies, the more we realise how precious Life really is and just how little we really know!

This is Appreciation of Divine Design at its Best and I am just starting to get into it.

 

[Jenemesis]

Some more interesting examples of the perfection in Nature which can only be mimicked as quoted from
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091111111259.htm

Insects are incredible nanotechnologists. The surfaces of many insect wings have properties and materials scientists only dream of for their creations. For instance, some wings are superhydrophobic, due to a clever combination of natural chemistry and their detailed structure at the nanoscopic scale. This means that the wing cannot become wet, the tiniest droplet of water is instantly repelled. Likewise, other insect wing surfaces are almost frictionless, so that any tiny dust particles that might stick are sloughed away with minimal force.

The universities of Queensland, and Oxford, are hoping to mimic these properties by using the surface of insect wings as a template for producing plastics, or polymeric, materials with novel surface properties.

If they are successful, they might then develop self-cleaning, water-resistant, and friction-free coatings for a wide range of machine components, construction materials, and other applications, including nano- and micro-electromechanical systems (NEMS and MEMS) and lab-on-a-chip devices for medical diagnostics and environmental sensing.

A bee's sting viewed under a microscope is far smoother than any man-made needle!
A spider's web is far stronger than any cable ever manufactured.
and by the way, those shoes advertised as spam inthis thread are obviously not original trademarks.
Nothing can compare to the original trademarks in Nature, no amount of mimicking can improve on Devine Design, yet many passify their denial with the fallacy that it "made itself by pure chance with huge dollops of time as the main ingredient! What are they really denying though? Accountability? I wonder...