Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, October 31, 2005 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Steven Vogel

"Bear Bones vs. Ferrous Wheels: When Might Nature Be Worth Copying?"

ABSTRACT -- Bear Bones and Ferrous Wheels: When Might Nature be Worth Copying? Three points. (1) Ignore engineer-bashing claims that we humans have invented little. A remarkable number of our best bits of technology don't occur elsewhere in the living world. (2) Never mind assertions that we've often copied nature-few purported examples survive close scrutiny. Most cases of coincident designs just reflect basic physical imperatives. (3) Still, some cases of biomimetics have worked, the earthly contexts of human and natural technologies differ little, and we seem to be moving toward designs closer to nature's. So we might just get some useful guidance from the past as we look to organisms for adoptable technology.

SPEAKER -- Steven Vogel is James B. Duke Professor in the Department of Biology at Duke University. He joined the Duke faculty in 1966, after receiving his doctorate at Harvard. While a biologist by training and inclination, he looks at mechanical factors behind the designs of organisms, in particular at their fluid dynamic devices. He has, for instance, considered the aerodynamics of especially small insects, convective cooling of broad leaves in near-still air and at drag minimization of the same leaves in storm-level winds, ways in which organisms from sponges to burrowing rodents use velocity gradients to induce flows through themselves or their domiciles, and ways in which organisms such as squid and whales use flow-induced pressures to reexpand their mantle and oral cavities. In addition he has written articles for a variety of popular magazines as well as several books. The latter include a textbook on biological fluid dynamics ("Life in Moving Fluids"), a more general book on biomechanics ("Life's Devices"), and a less academic book on circulatory systems ("Vital Circuits"). Two books explore the intersections of biomechanics, human technology, and human culture-"Cats' Paws and Catapults" compares the mechanical technologies of humans and of nature, while "Prime Mover" looks at how the performance of muscle as an engine has shaped human history and prehistory. And he has recently published an undergraduate textbook, "Comparative Biomechanics".