Nature // Current

Hacked E-Mails Fuel Climate Change Skeptics

"Hundreds of private e-mails and documents hacked from a computer server at a British... more

rodstradamus
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Country Road

I made all of these photos from my hometown in Harriman, Tennessee. I was born in... more

Rickharmon25
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The History of Autumn

The word autumn comes from the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French),... more

Rickharmon25
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awesome rock slide caught on tape

click on the link if it won't play....glad i wasn't on that road..what a traffic jam

cyman01
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1 day ago
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7 comments

Weekly Spiritual Infusion

This is the weekly feature of the Sustainable Agriculture group where we reflect on... more

JanforGore
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2 days ago
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1 comment

Non-Recyclable Disposable Single Cup Coffee Packaging. The K-Cup.

I'm starting to see these little empty non-recyclable, non-biodegradable... more

ninthstate
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4 days ago
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5 comments

Ultimate Predators - full film

They're ultimately predatorial! Scottish accent, the ultimate in narration! Ah, who... more

Jenime
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5 days ago
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Bird Cloud

Really cool. Birds create a sort of giant bird.

JaminDime
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5 days ago
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2 comments

Not all kayaks float

Let's be honest for a second folks, sooner or later you ARE going to flip your kayak.... more

willi_h2o
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6 days ago
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Kenny G Titanic

Success is not becoming the one who controls everyone or everything, but it is... more

Rickharmon25
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7 days ago
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We Love Our Balls: Ladderball

Ladderball is an alternative lawn sport where participants can drink and play with... more

cinemama24
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14 days ago
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Relatively untouched DMZ is home to a number of natural wonders

While mention of the DMZ conjures images of stone-faced soldiers, barbed-wire fences,... more

revolutioninamerica
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8 days ago
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The Beauty of Nature within the Prentice Cooper State Forest

Prentice Cooper State Forest is located in Marion County and covers approximately... more

Rickharmon25
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8 days ago
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If Today Was Your Last Day

Nickelback are a Grammy award nominated Canadian rock band from Hanna, Alberta, formed... more

Rickharmon25
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9 days ago
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"Part of Nature" (Watch Cartoon)

Excerpt: "We must stop viewing the environment as being separate to our... more

lookatmypix
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9 days ago
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Technology Review: Mimicking the Building Prowess of Nature

Joanna Aizenberg, a materials scientist at Harvard University, has scoured the natural world for clues to biological building codes. She aims to decipher some of Mother Nature’s unique designs, including dirt-resistant sea urchins and sea sponges made of super-strong light-conducting glass, to develop novel materials that, like these organisms, can self-assemble and sense and respond to their environment.

“We try to identify biological systems that have unusual and sophisticated properties, such as optical, structural, or magnetic properties, to make extremely sophisticated, efficient, and highly potent devices and materials,” says Aizenberg, who is also a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. “Then we take these principles and try to integrate them with what we already know in materials science--incorporating them into existing materials or fabricating a new generation of materials based on biological principles.” The work could result in better fiber optics, paint that changes color in response to temperature or light, and new ways of delivering drugs or clearing arterial plaques.

This collection of striking images explores some of Aizenberg’s new materials, as well as the organisms that inspired them.

Nanodreadlocks: “One specific feature that interests me more than anything else at the moment is how nature creates adaptive materials that optimize performance in response to changing environmental cues,” says Aizenberg. “The systems I am trying to replicate in my lab are the surfaces of sea urchins. They cover their bodies with an array of microflowers that constantly open and close, protecting the body from contamination.”

Taking inspiration from sea urchins, Aizenberg’s team has developed nanobristles that spontaneously curl into a precise array of helical bundles when immersed in an evaporating liquid. Aizenberg likens the phenomena to the way wet, curly hair clumps together and coils to form dreadlocks. The bristles shown here are made of an epoxy resin and are approximately 100 nanometers in diameter--about one-thousandth the width of a human hair.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23933/?nlid=2503Joanna Aizenberg, a materials scientist at Harvard University, has scoured the natural... more