The Gecko’s Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature′s Book
Peter Forbes
A cutting-edge science book in the style of ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’ and ‘Chaos’ from an exciting and accessible voice in popular science writing.Bio-inspiration is a form of engineering but not in the conventional sense. Extending beyond our established and preconceived notions, scientists, architects and engineers are looking at imitating nature by manufacturing 'wet' materials such as spider silk or the surface of the gecko's foot.The amazing power of the gecko's foot has long been known – it can climb a vertical glass wall and even walk upside down on the ceiling – but no ideas could be harnessed from it because its mechanism could not be seen with the power of optical microscopes. Recently however the secret was solved by a team of scientists in Oregon who established that the mechanism really is dry, and that it does not involve suction, capillary action or anything else the lay person might imagine. Each foot has half a million bristles and each bristle ramifies into hundreds of finer spatula-shaped projections. The fine scale of the gecko's foot is beyond the capacity of conventional microengineering, but a team of nanotechnologists have already made a good initial approximation.The gecko's foot is just one of many examples of this new 'smart' science. We also discover, amongst other things, how George de Mestral's brush with the spiny fruits of the cocklebur inspired him to invent Velcro; how the shape of leaves opening from a bud has inspired the design of solar-powered satellites; and the parallels between cantilever bridges and the spines of large mammals such as the bison.The new 'smart' science of Bio-inspiration is going to produce a plethora of products over the next decades that will transform our lives, and force us to look at the world in a completely new way. It is science we will be reading about in our papers very soon; it is the science of tomorrow's world.
The Gecko’s Foot
How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature’s Book
Peter Forbes
In memory of my father
Leonard Harry Forbes (1916–1991)
Table of Contents
Cover Page (#u702d29c9-a6b0-5f61-b6a3-de6c171f9528)
Title Page (#ubb1e4a31-9697-5abb-9329-462a3a442c15)
CHAPTER ONE Something New Under the Sun (#u187855d5-7a37-5535-be56-71e60412f384)
CHAPTER TWO The Great Sacred Lotus Cleans Up (#ua976e0e0-5cf2-5e43-97ae-d8d976b81249)
CHAPTER THREE Nature’s Nylon (#ue2e1cffd-2e1c-505e-91af-284c834d33d5)
CHAPTER FOUR Clinging to the Ceiling (#ud97bbba4-a3c7-5b6b-a2f2-0ab86101b403)
CHAPTER FIVE The Gleam in Nature’s Eye (#u9a637aee-92e4-50a8-83ed-f88d3a6092f9)
CHAPTER SIX The Molecular Erector Set (#u6e3d55ec-22a3-548c-b813-5cd908672966)
CHAPTER SEVEN Insects Can’t Fly (#u90047bcf-853e-5216-9f6a-05932bdf1605)
CHAPTER EIGHT Origami for Engineers (#u8bf5ec47-8520-5353-aa8f-e7b2721ff870)
CHAPTER NINE The Push and Pull Building System (#u9a991c5a-ac2e-5143-8f76-bbc9a4a7e369)
CHAPTER TEN Designing the Future (Naturally) (#u41f13bc6-6f0f-5c2c-accf-e61ab57e252c)
NOTES (#u076c6a67-e813-5463-986b-713c1ee24812)
FURTHER READING (#uf1ed5aa2-66a2-54c4-ba34-91022552c17c)
INDEX (#u949add49-70c7-5750-a519-9d6daa6e7ddd)
Acknowledgments (#u2bc5a072-3b6c-5cda-b096-52309668a760)
About the Author (#u48f07f2b-b7fa-5be8-b7c6-3278363bb749)
Praise (#u27a71f1b-1e07-55b5-adbc-7607de9fa86a)
Copyright (#u284956b9-dda7-5cf3-ae95-d4291023f1f6)
About the Publisher (#u8d46cc0d-ba4e-5c0e-8e9d-8913945cc3c2)
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/peter-forbes/the-gecko-s-foot-how-scientists-are-taking-a-leaf-from-nature/) на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
Peter Forbes
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Зарубежная образовательная литература
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 18.04.2024
Отзывы: Пока нет Добавить отзыв
О книге: A cutting-edge science book in the style of ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’ and ‘Chaos’ from an exciting and accessible voice in popular science writing.Bio-inspiration is a form of engineering but not in the conventional sense. Extending beyond our established and preconceived notions, scientists, architects and engineers are looking at imitating nature by manufacturing ′wet′ materials such as spider silk or the surface of the gecko′s foot.The amazing power of the gecko′s foot has long been known – it can climb a vertical glass wall and even walk upside down on the ceiling – but no ideas could be harnessed from it because its mechanism could not be seen with the power of optical microscopes. Recently however the secret was solved by a team of scientists in Oregon who established that the mechanism really is dry, and that it does not involve suction, capillary action or anything else the lay person might imagine. Each foot has half a million bristles and each bristle ramifies into hundreds of finer spatula-shaped projections. The fine scale of the gecko′s foot is beyond the capacity of conventional microengineering, but a team of nanotechnologists have already made a good initial approximation.The gecko′s foot is just one of many examples of this new ′smart′ science. We also discover, amongst other things, how George de Mestral′s brush with the spiny fruits of the cocklebur inspired him to invent Velcro; how the shape of leaves opening from a bud has inspired the design of solar-powered satellites; and the parallels between cantilever bridges and the spines of large mammals such as the bison.The new ′smart′ science of Bio-inspiration is going to produce a plethora of products over the next decades that will transform our lives, and force us to look at the world in a completely new way. It is science we will be reading about in our papers very soon; it is the science of tomorrow′s world.