Natural lessons

摘要

THE use of biological forms as inspiration for human constructions has a long history: Velcro (burdock burrs), wind-turbine blades (whale fins) and the arches in Victorian greenhouses (giant water lily leaves) are just a few of the results. But the modern engineer who bioprospects for solutions often faces broader challenges at tinier scales than ever before. Enter Eugene Goldfield and Bioimpired Devices. The title might be slightly wooden, but the book is fact-packed and beautifully crafted. Goldfield is a developmental psychologist with a long career at Boston Children's Hospital, Massachusetts. He has also spent a decade working with Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering to improve patients' quality of life by copying nature's neurological assembly and repair processes.