Eurasian Jay

During our walk in nature, I came across the Eurasian Jay; the most colorful of the crow family and a very adaptable and successful species that has spread throughout the greater parts of europe and asia. 

It has a couple very fascinating features, one of them being its ability to mimic sounds of all sorts. Upon being attacked it mimics the sound of its predator, spreading confusion, but it also alarms fellow members of predators. This is why the Eurasian Jay is sometimes called the "police man of the forrest".

This little bird also plays an important role in the regeneration of oak trees. One bird hides as many as 4500- 11,000 acorns per year. It rarely every hides more than one acorn per spot, and it can spread them up to distances of about 3km. Some of these acorns are lost or forgotten, which then leads to the regeneration of oak trees far away from the mother tree. It is estimated that the "work" done by this little bird, in Sweden alone, is worth many millions every year.  

by Mikaela Grassl

How to reflext UV light?

EMPERADOR PENGUINS have an answer!

The beaks of emperor penguins reflect UV light via a multilayer reflector photonic microstructure. 

This is the first time that the nature of the UV-reflecting microstructures has been characterized in beak tissue of any bird. The ultrastructure of the photonic microstructures found in the present study differs radically from that of those previously described in either bird feathers or skin. The regular multilayer membrane arrays found in the beak horn microstructures closely approximate to two dimensional crystal lattices, strongly suggesting that UV reflectance here is produced by interference between incident light and that reflected from successive folds in these microstructures (Prum & Torres 2003). (Dresp 2005:312)

That knowladge can be applied in UV light reflectors on windows to reduce bird kill; capture and transfer of UV light for photo voltaic applications; storage of information on UV sensitive array, etc.  

Posted by Berta Pérez Gumà

Ajiro Bamboo Bike

Today I want to bring another examples of the many uses that can be made of bamboo, because of its great stiffness and resilience : the Ajiro bamboo bike. A recyclable, human powered, zero emission vehicle.

I have been wondering whether this could be taken as an example of biomimicry or not before posting it here. 

Seeing this bike as the smart use of a natural resource - replacing artificial ones - to respond to a human need with a look to production process and embodied energy, makes it certainly belong to the category of Learning from Nature. That is, biomimicry.

“Consumption of raw materials has lasting implications – economically, socially and environmentally. This vehicle is about rethinking our approach to both design and ecological sustainability of the products we create and use,” said Vittouris. Instead of depending on the energy of factories to shape material into the form of a car, Vittouris’ design relies on nature for that energy.

Designed by Monash University student Alexander Vittouris, the Aijiro utilizes a production process that removes emissions instead of releasing them into the Earth’s atmosphere. That’s because the bamboo structure of this vehicle is grown straight out of the ground into a preformed mold. Vittouris envisions fields of bamboo gardens growing these human powered bicycles, which need only small modifications once mature to hit the streets.

The Ajiro is not only powered by the driver, but also has an energy storage system that allows for excess power to be stored and used at a later time. The Ajiro also provides a canopy of shelter for the driver and a reclining seat of woven bamboo stalks.

After the Ajiro is grown the skeletal structure that was used to form the base can be reused to grow future generations of this human-powered, low energy cycle.

From : The Ajiro Bamboo Bike is Grown From the Ground Up

by Brit Liggett 07/23/11 on Inhabitat - design will save th world http://inhabitat.com/the-ajiro-bamboo-bike-is-grown-straight-from-the ground/

// Sara

New York Company Use Mushrooms To Create Biodegradable Packaging

GREEN ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) — Turns out that mushrooms — great in soups and salads — also make decent packaging material.

Mushrooms are a key ingredient in the pale, soft blocks produced by the thousands in an upstate New York plant that are used to cushion products ranging from Dell Inc. servers to furniture for Crate and Barrel. More precisely, the packaging blocks are made with mycelium — the hidden "roots" of the mushroom that usually thread beneath dirt or wood. Two former mechanical engineering and design students, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, figured out how to grow those cottony filaments in a way that binds together seed husks or other agricultural byproducts into preset packaging shapes.

Their 5-year-old company, Ecovative Design, has a toe-hold in the increasingly lucrative market for eco-friendly alternatives to plastic foams — and their business is growing like shiitakes on a damp log. Bayer and McIntyre are already expanding their line for everything from footwear to car bumpers. "We want to be the Dow or DuPont of this century," Bayer said.

If the aspiration sounds grandiose, consider that six years ago Bayer and McIntyre were Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students growing fungus under their beds for a class project. Today, the young entrepreneurs are more than doubling their production space and recently announced a deal with Sealed Air Corp., the packaging giant known for Bubble Wrap. Not bad for a product that grows itself.

Formulärets överkant

Formulärets nederkant

Workers at Ecovative inoculate mycelium into pasteurized bits of seed husks or plant stalks, then place the mix into clear plastic molds shaped like the desired packaging pieces, such as a cradle-shaped mold for a wine bottle. The mix is covered for about five days as millions of mycelium strands grow around and through the feedstock, acting as a kind of glue. The piece is heat dried to kill the fungus, insuring that mushrooms can't sprout from it. Since the mycelium is cloned, the product does not include spores, which can trigger allergies. "It's low-tech biotech," Bayer said.

Bayer noticed mycelium's "stretchy" properties as a kid growing up on a Vermont farm. As students, he and McIntyre started with mushroom-based insulation, but the pair switched to packaging material because it seemed a better business bet. They experimented with common varieties like the oyster mushrooms before hitting on just the right (secret) mix.

Bayer said Ecovative, with 42 employees, has attracted more than $10 million in grants and equity investment, as well as some big-name clients. Dell director of procurement Oliver Campbell said his company has a pilot program using the Ecovative product instead of polyethylene foam for shipping a high-end server. "To cushion $25,000 worth of servers with mushrooms, that's kind of a radical thought," Campbell said. But Campbell said the technology fits Dell's green initiative. It probably helped that Campbell was a mushroom guy who grew shiitake mushrooms for sale with his wife. Similarly, Crate and Barrel contracted with Ecovative as part of a push to reduce packaging and cut reliance on expanded polystyrene, a commonly used material. The home and furnishings company has a pilot program using the mushroom product for corner blocks for a large room divider with shelves.

Ecovative's products cost slightly more than expanded polystyrene, said Crate and Barrel executive Aaron Rose. But Dell's Campbell characterized the difference as negligible and said cost would decrease as production grew. Both executives stressed the product's environmental value.

While expanded polystyrene protects everything from dinner plates to flat-screen TVs, it has fallen out of favor with environmentally conscious consumers because it's made with toxic chemicals and breaks down slowly.In contrast, Ecovative's product breaks down in six to nine months and is OK to throw on a compost pile.

"It's very, very unique, very novel. And the really interesting aspect of is that it's completely biodegradable," said Anne Johnson, director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, which advocates for environmental packaging. There are other "green" packaging alternatives such as starch-based packing peanuts made from grains. But Johnson said sustainable packaging alternatives that depend on potential food crops are likely nonstarters.

"Just by changing the fungus — the raw material — and the growth condition we allot the organism, we can tune the performance," McIntyre said.

He explained that the hardness and other qualities of the molded pieces can be manipulated by altering the feedstock from, say, hemp core to cotton seed hulls, or by switching mycelium.

Essentially, if something is made of plastic, they believe there's a decent chance it can be made of mushrooms.

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/ecovative-design-new-york_n_1330090.html

Posted by Cecilia Rudström

Bionic Tower

This is a project from Cervera and Pioz Architects (Spain), is a Bionic Tower (1997 - 2000) not constructed yet. Biomimicry in architecture.


 Overpopulation:
In 1900 the world population was 1,250,000,000. By 2000, this had risen to six billion. The least optimistic forecast is that the figure will have reached 12 billion by the year 2050. Over the past 100 years, cities have transformed their shape, featuring large concentrations of skyscrapers and wide expanses of residential low-density areas. In environmental terms, the consequences of this evolution have been the progressive depletion of vegetation, the irrational waste of energy and the destruction of the environment.
A COMMUNITY OF 10 MILLION PEOPLE CANNOT LIVE UNDER THE SAME CONDITIONS AS ONE OF TENS OF THOUSANDS.
Shanghai, Overpopulated City.

Obsolete urban models :
20 th century planning models are proving ineffectual at dealing with the problems of urban growth in overpopulated areas. Even when applied to mid-sized populations, traditional models are beginning to seem obsolete. Worryingly, the current urban philosophy appears to be at odds with reality.

WE MUST SUBSTITUTE THE OVER-USED TERM ‘MINIMAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT' WITH ‘ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT' .

Urban Bio- ecology:
Solutions to the urban problems of the future must assume the new reality of mega cities. The inevitable technological progress must find a balance with the ‘bio-ecological' recovery of the natural environment. Bionic science is an alternative to the philosophical thinking and scientific development of mankind's urban models.

BIONICS AND BIO-ECOLOGY, ARE TWO INNOVATOR CONCEPTS OF URBAN FILOSOPHY.

Returning land to nature:
Under conventional models of ‘horizontal' and ‘low-density' town planning, 100,000 inhabitants can occupy a space nearly 4km in diameter, with the consequent impact on the environment. By contrast, the Vertical City Bionic Tower can accommodate 100,000 inhabitants using an area only 1km in diameter, allowing the unoccupied land to be returned to nature.

The 500m limit:
If we accept, while applying the logic of rational use of energy, that in view of the non-stop expansion of the population the alternative is the conquest of vertical space, the present model of skyscraper is shown to be unsuitable, both because of its dehumanizing nature and its technological limits. From the Empire State Building (1931), which is 380m high, to today's Petronas Towers at 450m, such structures have only been able to increase their height by 70m despite the great quantity and quality of the techno-structural models developed explicitly for high-rise construction, showing clearly that this technology has a limit.

THE BIONIC THEORY OF GIANTS STATES THAT IN ORDER TO EXCEED THE LIMITS OF HEIGHT, CONCEPTUAL CHANGES IN MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTIVE TECHNIQUES ARE ESSENTIAL.

New philosophy of community life :
The challenge taken on by the vertical conquest of space is not to beat height records but to redefine dignified life in large communities. Authentic social commitment lies in developing an innovative model of vertical construction that unites revolutionary technological concepts capable of exceeding the 500m height limit and the new ‘bio-ecological' models of town planning and architecture in a new philosophy of life.

IN MASSIVE NUCLEI AND WHERE LAND IS SCARCE, ‘VERTICAL CITIES' ALLOW THE ECOLOGICAL EXPANSION OF THE CITY.

Bionics:
Based on the bio-technological axiom that ‘nature did it first and better', Bionics first emerged in Russia in the mid 20 th century as a combination of natural, engineering and technical sciences. Bionics aims to be a field of study that bridges biology and industrial technology. It studies the structures and processes in biological phenomena in order to apply this knowledge to the development, improvement and humanization of mankind's technological environment.

NATURAL LIFE BRINGS TOGETHER ILLUSTRIOUS ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS .

 Bionic Architecture:
This could be defined as an eco-philosophical synthesis of the common principles of biology, engineering and architecture, applied to the future development of human habitats in harmony with both progress and nature.
THE BIONIC FILOSOPHY SEEKS THE COMMON SPACE FOR MAN AND THE SCIENCES.

Vertical Garden City: Bionic Tower
This is the first existing model of a bio-ecological urban structure. Based on flexibility principles and biological structures, its height, capacity and use can be adapted to the different economic, environmental and social conditions of the cities where it is built. The figures shown indicate the maximum limits of growth potential.

ANY CITY IN THE WORLD, REGARDLESS OF ITS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT LEVEL, COULD START BUILDING THE VERTICAL CITY , ADAPTING ITS GROWTH, HEIGHT AND SIZE TO ITS FUTURE URBAN EVOLUTION

CAN WE ALLOW THE PLANET TO BE ASPHALTED OVER?

High, light, and flexible:
The Vertical City has been inspired by nature: the lightness and resistance of the bones of birds; the flexibility of plant structures and the capacity of natural species to adapt.

NO TWO TREES OF THE SAME SPECIES ARE THE SAME .

Growth of a tree structure and conducting vessels of a tree structure

Two unified Bionic complexes :
The Vertical City Bionic Tower is designed to integrated two bio-ecological urban complexes, one a vertical and the other a horizontal development. The first, the ‘ Bionic Tower ', is composed of 12 vertical neighborhoods each averaging 80m in height, built independently of each other in security sections to facilitate both the techno-economy of the construction phases and removal in case of emergency. Each level has two groups of buildings, interior and exterior, elevated around large vertical gardens and reservoirs. The second complex, the ‘Island Base', forms an assembly of 1km diameter on which buildings of average height are distributed along with extensive gardens, interior lakes and communications. The foreseeable use of each complex is various: Hotels, Offices, Residential, Commerce, Sports, Cultural Activities and Leisure .

URBAN AREAS MUST HARMONIZE THE DIFFERENT NEEDS OF RESIDENT AND ‘FLOATING' POPULATIONS.

The principles of flexibility and resistance in biological structures :
The research carried out by the CERVERA & PIOZ scientific team since 1992 has allowed the development of a new theory of Bionics based on the structural principles of flexibility and resistance in certain biological species. The structural model has been inspired mainly by the scientific analysis of the structural transformations that are produced in plant species to exceed height limits.

NATURE DOES NOT BUILD WITH COLUMNS AND BEAMS, BUT WITH LAWS OF GROWTH. ITS CONSTRUCTIVE LOGIC IS THE SAVING OF ENERGY, ADAPTABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY .

Fractal Bio-structure:
Under the title ‘FRACTAL BIO-STRUCTURE' revolutionary structural and technological elevations are developing based on a common idea: the fractal micro-fragmentation of complex dynamic systems.

CONVENTIONAL CONSTRUCTION IS BASED MAINLY ON THE SIMPLE DEVELOPMENT OF SYSTEMS: THE COLUMN, THE BEAM, THE CONDUIT….
NATURE IS BASED MAINLY ON THE STABLE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS: THE LAWS OF DYNAMICS AND GROWTH.

“Container of container system"
Inspired in the isolation and resistance qualities of the ‘container of container systems' that exist in most plant species, the primary structural and vertical communications systems among the various vertical neighborhoods is organized in three rings of 92 technological column-streets that will carry people, water, different fluids and required energy. The structure of these column-streets is hollow, formed by a fine folded membrane encapsulated in High Applications Concrete. Folds offer a great capacity of resistance to the complex, and are highly adaptable to the various chaotic demands of wind strength .

THE SYSTEM OF ENCAPSULATION PROVIDES A MAJOR SAVING OF OCCUPIED VOLUME AND ENERGY FOR PLANT SPECIES.

Interior micro-climate:
The tower's exterior membrane, inspired by the qualities of transpiration and resistance in nature, allows the controlled passage of natural air and light to the interior complex, creating a micro-climate and contributing efficiently to the general flexibility and stability of the complex. The exterior fractal structure also helps to reduce wind push.

CYPRESS CAN BE SO SLENDER AND RESISTANT BECAUSE THE AIR PASSES THROUGH THEM.

"Floating Foundations' and ‘Anti-seismic' Systems :
These complex systems are inspired by the flexible and isolated characteristics of the root networks in large tree structures. In simple terms, we can say that the trees ‘float' in the center of a chaotic structure formed by millions of roots, enabling the tree to fragment the wind energy into the soil and the moveable protection against seismic movements.

THE VERTICAL FOUNDATION SYSTEM IS NOT SUITABLE PROTECTION AGAINST WIND AND EARTHQUAKES IN LARGE VERTICAL STRUCTURES OVER 500 METERS HIGH.

Twelve Vertical Neighborhoods:
Adult trees have a system of concentric rings of fluid conduits that not only show an enormous resistance to flexion, but also behave like ‘air mattresses', providing defense against fire and stopping fire from destroying the entire tree. Inspired by the logic of this system, the Vertical City is distributed in twelve vertical neighborhoods separated by watertight areas 15m high that behave in the same way, and would allow a controlled evacuation in an emergency.

IN THE CASE OF FIRE IN A NEIGHBORHOOD, EACH INHABITANT WOULD BE IN RANGE OF A WATERTIGHT SECURITY AREA IN LESS THAN 40M OF VERTICAL DISTANCE.

Habitation during construction:
The vertical neighborhood construction model allows successive levels to be raised above completed and inhabited levels.

NATURE HAS ALL THE ANSWERS; IN TIME MAN WILL LEARN ALL THE QUESTIONS.

DATA OF INTEREST

Maximum height: 1,228 meters. Equivalent to 300 floors
Maximum capacity: 100,000 inhabitants
Total Surface Area : 2,000,000 m2
Dimension of Bionic Tower: Elliptic plant of variable dimension (max. 166 x 133 m diameter)
Communications: 368 elevators with horizontal and vertical movement
Maximum speed : 15 m/second.
Maximun sway: 2,45 m of total lateral displacement

source: http://www.cerveraandpioz.com/bionic_megacities_v.htm

by: Jaume Torras Andrés