biomimicry
3D Printed Photoresponsive Sunflower Could Have Applications in Soft Robotics and Biomedical Devices
It’s no secret that receiving flowers from someone can brighten your day – it’s nice to know that the other person is thinking of you, most flowers have a lovely…
Researchers Turn to 3D Printing and a Unique Flying Fish to Improve the Design of Tandem Wing Airplanes
Biomimicry, according to the Biomimicry Institute, is the search for sustainable solutions to human problems by mimicking solutions that are already found in nature. This practice has been coupled with…
Nature and Technology Come Together in Giant 3D Printed Bird’s Nest
When asked to picture a bird’s nest, most people will immediately go to the same image: a small, round structure, created from twigs, grass and other scavenged bits, with an…
Third Annual Benesch 3D Printing Conference Spotlights Biomimicry, Startups, and Legal Issues in Additive Manufacturing
Yesterday, the law firm of Benesch Attorneys at Law held its third annual 3D Printing Conference, an event geared towards keeping legal professionals up to date on 3D printing and the…
A Shiny Gold Bug Inspires MIT Researchers to 3D Print a Multimaterial Electronic Device
The golden tortoise beetle is a beautiful insect. I don’t often say that about many insects, but you can’t deny that the golden tortoise beetle, or goldbug, is a pretty,…
University of Surrey Replicates Butterfly Wing Structures Using 3D Printed Ceramics
Just about everyone loves butterflies, I think, even people who hate insects in general. It’s hard not to be amazed by their beauty and the incredible variety of colors they…
Researchers Optimize Robust, Lightweight, Bone-Inspired 3D Printing Infill
There’s so much more that goes into a 3D print than many people realize. To those unfamiliar with how the process works, it looks like simple magic – but there…
Meet the Bat Bot: Aerial Robotics and Biomimetics Research Result in Caltech’s New Autonomous Drone
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…Batman! In my humble opinion, this is how that phrase should really go; Superman has always been a little…
MIT Researchers Use 3D Printing to Create Soft, Nearly Invisible Hydrogel Robots
Soft robotics are becoming increasingly common as researchers and engineers develop new ways to fabricate robots from materials that range from flexible plastics to silicones. A team of engineers at MIT, however,…
Jilin University Researchers Use 3D Printing to Replicate Complex Structures Found in Nature
3D printing may be one of the newest methods of fabrication, but in many cases, it also takes cues from the oldest fabrication techniques in the world – older than…
A Parrotlet in 3D Printed Goggles Just Proved Researchers Wrong About the Aerodynamics of Bird Flight
Sometimes science can be really, really adorable – while teaching us important things, as well. While putting tiny goggles on a small parrot may seem to be good for nothing…
3D Printed Dog Nose is Helping to Enhance Electronic Scent-Detection Devices
My dogs go crazy when we bring Chinese food home, because they can smell the wontons my husband will eventually feed them. They won’t give him any peace until he…
Pleurobot the 3D Printed Salamander Yields Helpful Data for Researchers Hoping to Help Paraplegics & Amputees
It’s no secret that we often steal the magic of nature for our own purposes, whether that’s literally in taking animals for their fur and other parts, often tragically, or…
Researchers Developing Super-Strong Materials Thanks to a 3D Printer and the Mantis Shrimp
The rainbow-colored mantis shrimp is gorgeous to look at – to humans, anyway. To its fellow crustaceans, it’s a purple-eyed horror. The mantis shrimp is a brutal killer that dispatches its…
3D Printed Claw Device Takes Inspiration from Pacific Sea Urchins
As with most politically aware, socially conscious citizens of the world, you have probably caught yourself wondering: “I know that sea urchins are nice and all…but what have they done…
Stratasys and threeASFOUR Show Math-Inspired 3D Printed Dresses at New York Fashion Week
Nature in its infinite forms seems at first blush to be random and chaotic. There doesn’t seem to be an overriding logic to it all. And yet, looking closer we see…
Artist Jennifer Berry Creates Collaborative Art With Bees, Nature’s 3D Printers
“Bees are the world’s first 3D printers,” says Jennifer Berry. An ecologist, landscape designer, artist, teacher, Berry is the founder of Berry Design Ecology, her personal consulting practice. Her work…
Janine Benyus Issues Call to Green 3D Printing Sooner Rather than Later
If you are interested in the field of sustainability, you have most likely run across the work of Janine Benyus before. She is a natural science writer and author of…
3D Printed BioKnit Shoes Aimed at Simplifying Manufacturing and Recycling
Designer Ammo Liao moved from his home of 28 years in Tainan, Taiwan where the buildings and culture inspired him to develop his design skills, and he took those influences…
3D Printed Fish Scales Inspire Human Armor Development
Probably one of the first things that we learn about animals and insects is how adaptive they are to their environments. The animal that taught me this lesson well was…
Students Develop 6-Axis Robotic 3D Printer Inspired by Spiderwebs
Personally, I hate spiders. Even though they’re impressive, versatile creatures with a surprising amount of benefits to the environment and general circle of life, they’re just creepy. Walking into spiderwebs…
London Artist Combines the Organic and Hi-Tech with 3D Printed ‘Big Growth Table’
3D printing is by definition all about replicating ‘things.’ The technology is impacting the world due to its ability to work as a replacement for many required things from body…