A great list of collaborators and sponsors for the 2009 Biomimicry Symposium – mark your calendar! From : “Helen Cheng” <HCheng@sandiegozoo.org> The San Diego Zoo and the Biomimicry Institute are pleased to announce the 2009 Biomimicry Symposium in San Diego, presented by mirasol®, a display innovation by Qualcomm. The symposium will be held Oct. 1-2 […]
Category Archives: Greenr
Energy Scavenging Synthetic Leaf
The Maharbiz Group at UC Berkeley has a long-term vision is to engineer devices and materials directly from living precursors – in other words biomimicry. First published a few years ago, the work has now found its way into NewScientist. Inspired by the transport of water in plants, we resently presented a synthetic, microfabricated ‘leaf’ […]
Prince Charles Talks Up Biomimicry
In a lecture broadcast on the UK’s BBC, the Prince of Wales issued a stark warning about impending environmental catastrophe, telling an audience: “If we fail the Earth, we fail humanity.” Giving the 33rd Richard Dimbleby lecture, The Prince set out his vision for tackling what he said were the pressing problems of the “environmental […]
Biomimicry Workshops
There are two biomimicry workshops coming up soon. Check them out at:Â http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/education/training/
Extracting Energy From Water Currents
Today I was fortunate to attend a presentation by Janine Benyus at Google’s head office. Here is just one of dozens of new bio-inspired products she featured: Our VIVACE technology uses the extensively studied phenomenon of vortex induced vibrations to extract useful energy from ocean, river, tidal and other water currents. Continued at http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/
Biomimicry in the Bathroom
I enjoyed a full day board meeting with the Biomimicry Institute today and was reminded of two biomimetic products I’ve considered in my house remodel: The first, pictured above is the Vesi Chanel faucet by Brizo: Seeking to capture the appearance, feel and sound of a babbling brook, the channel design remains functional while creating […]
10 Monitoring Tools Bringing Smart Energy Home
A cornerstone of the house renovation is our energy strategy and key to that will be monitoring whats usage. So I read this with interest: A half-dozen companies are launching their first energy dashboards this year, and a few others are starting to gain traction with already available online tools. One of the biggest differences […]
Fresh Ideas from Janine Benyus on How We Can Learn from Nature
Sarah Kuck over at World Changing interviews Janine Benyus: Smart Materials JB: One of my favorite ideas is embedding our materials with sensors so they can sense when they are damaged, and perhaps can heal themselves. It’s a new way toward durability, which, when appropriate, is sustainability. Continued at World Changing…
WSJ: The Green House of the Future
The Wall Street Journal asks four leading architects for their vision of a near-term, buildable ‘green house of the future”. What will the energy-efficient house of the future look like? It could have gardens on its walls or a pond stocked with fish for dinner. It might mimic a tree, turning sunlight into energy and […]
My New Car
Its been two years since Aptera – a new electric car company based in southern California – came onto my radar and 18 months since I placed my deposit. And this week I got to see one up close and personal during their visit to Palo Alto. Clearly this car is not for the shy, […]