Program Coordinator for Vanderbilt University’s Innovation Center
The Program Coordinator for Biomedical Innovation works in the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt University’s Innovation Center. The ideal candidate embodies a demonstrated commitment to, and interest in entrepreneurship and innovation in the biomedical life sciences. The Biomedical Innovation Program Coordinator will support the day-to-day and long-term management, implementation, evaluation, and growth of core programming for the Wond’ry’s […]
Fly brains can detect threatening drones
Bio-inspired defenses may help mitigate the threat of IED carrying drones in combat. The latest proof comes out of Australia, where researchers have mapped the visual systems of hovering insects as a means of detecting the acoustic signatures of drones up to 2.5 miles away. The hover fly, which can hover […]
Organization: BioTechnology, Global
Hi! BioTechnology provides reports and insights into biology related fields. I would like to share their BIO Industry Analytics Report with all of you!
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To test if a single gene could affect an entire ecosystem, a research team conducted a lab experiment with a plant and its associated ecosystem of insects. They found that plants with a mutation at a specific gene foster ecosystems with more insect species. The discovery of such a ‘keystone gene’ […]
News, Human Genome Complete DNA Genetics
This article talks about the completion of the human genome. 200 million DNA bases have been added, which accounts for 8% of the genome. Since it is a collection from multiple people, it is a “fake” genome. This creation will be beneficial for many more discoveries in science.
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Scientists have published the first complete, gapless sequence of a human genome, two decades after the Human Genome Project produced the first draft human genome sequence. According to researchers, having a complete, gap-free sequence of the roughly 3 billion bases (or ‘letters’) in our DNA is critical for understanding the full […]
Paper, Suction Feeding by Elephants
Despite having a trunk that weighs over 100 kg, elephants mainly feed on
lightweight vegetation. How do elephants manipulate such small items?
In this experimental and theoretical investigation, we filmed elephants at
Zoo Atlanta showing that they can use suction to grab food, performing […]
My graduate research explores some of evolution’s most impressive inventions, many of which can be found in birds. Specifically, I study bird flight behaviours and how relationships between body mass, wing sizes, species relatedness and other biological traits have evolved to generate the extravagant flight we see in many species.
Ancient sea creatures pioneered the gallop
Animals can move using a regular gait, or an irregular gait. A regular gait means that the steps (however one defines it) occur on a regular interval, however this is not true of irregular gaits. An example of irregular gait is horse galloping. Humans practice a regular gait walking or running. […]
Rapid advances in flexible and wearable smart textiles demand low-cost, high-energy/power-density fiber-shaped supercapacitors (FSCs). The performance of FSCs is determined by the fabrication and assembly of fiber-shaped electrodes (FSEs), where an active charge-storage material is always clad around flexible charge transmission current collectors. Inspired by the tissue structure of natural bamboo, wherein parenchyma cells (PCs) […]
This publication resonates with what we talked in BioMaterial lecture this week. Spider’s silk is known to be around five times stronger than that of steel!
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Abstract: Medical adhesives that are strong, easy to apply and biocompatible are promising alternatives to sutures and staples in a large variety of surgical and clinical procedures. Despite progress in the development and regulatory approval of adhesives for use in the clinic, adhesion […]
New findings describe a novel way to reduce the energy people spend to walk, as much as by half, which could have applications for therapy received by patients with impaired walking abilities. The metabolic rate of walking can be reduced by applying a constant forward force at the center of mass. […]
The potential for using marine microbes for biodiscovery is severely limited by the lack of laboratory
cultures. It is a long-standing observation that standard microbiological techniques only isolate a very
small proportion of the wide diversity of microbes
that are […]
New study is first anatomical evidence for how two major groups of bats use echolocation differently.
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This paper presents the re-creation of the bell deformation cycle of the Aequorea victoria jellyfish. It focuses on the design, fabrication, and characterization of the bio-inspired bell kinematics of an IPMC actuated robotic jellyfish. The shape and bell kinematics of this underwater vehicle are based on the Aequorea victoria jellyfish. This medusa is chosen as […]
This article gives insight into how researchers in different countries use bio-inspired robots in order to study animal behavior in their natural environment. For example, scientists from the US created a robot (B2) inspired by bats and their flight mechanism. B2 can do fast diving maneuvers and banking turns, and in […]
Paper, The Structure and Properties of Spider Silk
Silks from the spider’s orb-web are amongst the very best structural materials produced by nature: spiders can produce a large aerial filter from a minimal amount of material. By studying how the structure and properties of silks are matched to their mechanical function, we can increase our general understanding of structure-property relationships in fibrous polymers.
[…]
Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the University of Washington (UW) have been successful in engineering a nature-inspired molecule that can guide gold atoms to form faultless nanoscale stars.
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In what they call surprise findings, scientists report that — unlike fruit flies — mosquitoes’ odor sensing nerve cells shut down when those cells are forced to produce odor-related proteins, or receptors, on the surface of the cell. This ‘expression’ process apparently makes the bugs able to ignore common insect repellents.
[…]
“Inspired by the functional microstructure of the ant nest, a humidity control material was prepared by the sintering of modified low-grade sepiolite. A hierarchical porous structure accelerates the diffusion of water vapor. Meanwhile, CaCl2 was applied subtly to enhance absorption/desorption of water vapor […]
Why Whales Flee From Sonar – Sometimes to their Death
When naval ships and other sea vessels use sonar, many whale species flee for their lives; some even strand themselves on beaches in a desperate attempt to escape. Now, scientists have discovered the most likely reason: The loud sounds trigger the same fear response as when the animals hear calls emitted […]
Paper, Tunable surface friction inspired by catfish
In the natural world, many animals have evolved characteristics that help them to survive, and these properties can inspire elegant solutions to scientific challenges. One such challenge has been designing materials with surface lubrication properties that can be rapidly switched depending on the requirements of the application. Now, writing in Nature […]
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with RWTH Aachen University (Aachen, Germany) have developed a concentrated solar power (CSP) design that reduces the amount of land required to build a CSP plant, while increasing the amount of sunlight its mirrors collect. By rearranging the mirrors, or heliostats, […]
Ecovative, Green Island, New York
Ecovative pioneered the science of mycelium to grow fully formed structures used in products that replace Styrofoam® and other plastics, leather, and animal agriculture. Today, our Mycelium Foundry has the most complete mycelium library in the world. Using precise systems and a deep […]
Chemoreception is essential for survival. Feeding, mating, and avoidance of predators depend on detection of sensory cues. Drosophila contains diverse families of chemoreceptors that detect odors, tastants, pheromones, and noxious stimuli, including receptors of the Or, Gr, IR, Ppk, and Trp families. We […]
Organization: IDEO, Global
IDEO is a global design consulting firm that uses human-centered design (HCD) thinking practices to approach problems related to digital media, education, health & wellness, and more. HCD is at the forefront of their work, as they follow the process of inspiration, ideation, […]
Taking inspiration from squid skin, researchers have invented an adaptive composite material that can insulate beverage cups, restaurant to-go bags, parcel boxes, and even shipping containers.
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Biological systems possess nanoarchitectures that have evolved for specific purposes and whose ability to modulate the flow of light creates an extraordinary diversity of natural photonic structures. In particular, the striking beauty of the structural colouration observed in nature has inspired technological innovation in many fields. Intense research has been devoted […]
Bat robots, peregrine falcon robots, rat robots, falcon robots, guppy robots, cockroach robots, and even bee and fish robots are being utilized across the world to examine how animals move and behave. This collection of bio-inspired robots are tasked with going undercover to get an up close and personal look at […]
People worldwide are living longer. According to WHO, one in six people in the world will be aged 60 years or over by 2030. However, aging increases vulnerability to a wide range of human disorders, including cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases. Roughly two-thirds of the 150,000 people who die […]
News, Biomimetic dental prosthesis
Material researchers are developing a procedure that allows them to mimic the complex fine structure of biological composite materials, such as teeth or seashells. They can thus create synthetic materials that are as hard and tough as their natural counterparts.
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To move efficiently, animals must continuously work out their x,y,z positions with respect to real-world objects, and many animals have a pair of eyes to achieve this. How photoreceptors actively sample the eyes’ optical image disparity is not understood because this fundamental information-limiting step has not been investigated in vivo over the eyes’ whole sampling […]
In the orb-weaving spider Larinioides sclopetarius, hearing is not constrained by the organism’s body but is extended through outsourcing hearing to its extended phenotype, the proteinaceous, self-manufactured orb web. We find that the wispy, wheel-shaped orb web acts as a hyperacute acoustic antenna to capture the sound-induced air particle movements that […]
Drawing inspiration from cephalopod skin, engineers at the University of California, Irvine invented an adaptive composite material that can insulate beverage cups, restaurant to-go bags, parcel boxes and even shipping containers.
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Researchers have shown a new compound delivered in a nasal spray is highly effective in preventing and treating COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant in mice. The researchers believe this is the first treatment of its kind proven to be effective against all COVID-19 variants of concern reported to date, including […]
Miraculous skin metamorphosis for beached amphibious fish
Taking those first steps on land after emerging from the primordial swamp required a lot more than simply changing the way the earliest pioneers moved and breathed. The ancient innovators must also have sealed their skins to prevent water loss in the relatively dry surroundings. They may even have repurposed their external layer to absorb […]
News, Ants Never Get Stuck in Traffic James. Here’s Why
Ants are much better than humans at organizing their collective traffic flow when foraging for food, but how they manage to do so isn’t fully understood.
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I imagine that the neurological circuits underlying these processes are governed by both 2d spacing maps with their brains as…
to reduce the impact of car accidents, it may be possible to study the force diverting physics of cockroaches to…
you see this type of head-bobbing stability in many avian creatures related to pigeons like chickens. the head ability to…
not like they taught horses how to run! this is an example of convergent evolution where both sea creatures and…
The brain functions in a similar way with neuronal connections. our brains are able to utilize the multiplicity of connections…