Nature’s grand designs

Spiders, prunes, muscles, honeycomb, moths, flies, ants, eyes… what on earth are we going on about? When it comes to extraordinary invention, Mother Nature is pretty difficult to beat. Evolution News’ fascinating article this week has grouped together a collection of examples of some of nature’s most intricate and unlikely elements recently imitated by engineers, from the microscopic level of a fly-sized drone in Harvard, to scaffolding that mimics muscle support in Arkansas, who needs to be original? However, recently, Trinity College Dublin Professor David Taylor wrote on how biomimetics is only the beginning. The human element is crucial to convert this into new forms. What is the difference between an aeroplane and a bird? An Engineer…