EX-Z3
ƒ/2.6
5.8 mm
1/320

“Nature manages to craft materials of a complexity and functionality that we can only envy. The inner shell of abalone is twice as tough as our high tech ceramics. Spider silk, ounce for ounce, is five time stronger than steel. Mussel adhesive works underwater and sticks to anything, even without a primer. Rhino horn manages to repair itself, though it contains no living cells.

Nature has at least four tricks of the trade when it comes to manufacturing materials:
1) Life-friendly manufacturing processes
2) An ordered hierarchy of structures
3) Self-assembly
4) Templating of crystals with proteins.” (p.97)

23 responses to “Nature Reading”

  1. Ross Mayfield Avatar
    Ross Mayfield

    Now all I need to do is get bit by a radioactive Rhino.

    Reply
  2. jhritz Avatar
    jhritz

    I really enjoyed this book. I particulary like that all of this is done at one atmosphere of pressure and within a dozen or so degrees of room temperature. Cool stuff and nice shot.

    Reply
  3. OldCola Avatar
    OldCola

    One of the problem with natural production processes is that they don’t fit to any previously available specification.

    And most of them do whatever is possible to produce different individuals rather then calibrated products.

    And, the best part is non-self assembly, isn’t it?

    Reply
  4. alfarman Avatar
    alfarman

    wonderful stuff,what do you think of the string theory.

    Reply
  5. caterina Avatar
    caterina

    She’s great. I had breakfast with her in Amsterdam once. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t read the book yet (!).

    Reply
  6. txkimmers Avatar
    txkimmers

    Don’t know why, but this reminds me of Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan

    Reply
  7. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Wow. Thanks everyone. Some great stuff… especially in the dynamic tension of directed design vs. evolved discovery.

    Some more quotes from the book:
    Eppie:
    “society spends ten kilocalories of hydrocarbons to produce one kilocalorie of food. That means each of us eats the equivalent of thirteen barrels of oil a year.” (p.19)

    PepsiVieux:
    “Having enough springs (weak bonds) to accept change is the protein’s secret to success… Proteins can graciously accept incremental mutational change without falling apart. It means they can improve over time. Life experiments like a child at play… When small changes are permitted without a fuss, helpful effects gradually accumulate and evolution pounces to a new level. In the age of Silicon, we feel powerful, but what we have really done is trade our power for control.” (p.200)

    Reply
  8. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    We are like immature kids: we try to pass through the wall instead of using the door. Needless to say which is which (Nature – Technology) in this alegory.

    I hope that one day we grow up, and that it won´t be too late.

    Shall Nanotechnology be, if not the way to the door, a wonderful window.

    Reply
  9. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    Btw, this shot, the one of the nude Casio and various others are calling my attention… You should think seriously about dedicating to advertising photography!!!

    You´ve got skills for standing out the commercial face of the things you point at.

    …er mm… well, I think we knew this about you already, didn´t we? ;-D

    Reply
  10. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Do you mean the kcal of oil used? That is because of the cycle of fertilizer and pesticides that we have adopted. Even traditional agricultural societies would use less.

    Another side effect:
    "In Iowa, up to six bushels of soil are washed out to sea for every bushel of corn produced."

    Reply
  11. knautia Avatar
    knautia

    I’ve just started a group for photos of seeds:

    http://www.flickr.com/groups/seeds/

    Would you like to join? I think this photo would fit really well.

    Reply
  12. my soul Avatar
    my soul

    Bioneers- a series on f.s. tv has been fantastic. nature is pretty smart

    Reply
  13. Vanita Avatar
    Vanita

    Nature, you’ve got to give it a round of applause.

    Reply
  14. JeffSech Avatar
    JeffSech

    Chaos theory, ba-bee! Nature knows best!

    But I’m not keen on going back to the days of my parents, when there were no antibiotics, and polio was a killer. Science has made our live unimaginably better than that of our grandparents. Shame on us for forgetting our history.

    And those days when malaria killed 3 million children a year…oh, wait, those are current figures. The United States National Academy of Sciences estimated that DDT saved 500 million lives before it was banned.

    Bad old DDT.

    Three. Million. Children.

    Reply
  15. my soul Avatar
    my soul

    cxjeff- this is a new way of discovery to improve the science app in our lives. look it up!
    ( there is a new term on the block- it’s called sustainability, maybe you should look that one up too.)

    Reply
  16. JeffSech Avatar
    JeffSech

    Sorry if I was too pedantic–dashing off a post on the way to bed can be dangerous!

    my soul: I think you’re right on both counts. We’ve learned but a fraction of what nature has to teach us.

    It’ll be fascinating to see what the study of biomimicry can teach us about sustainability. We need all the help we can get in that department.

    Reply
  17. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    Maybe it is about natural sustainability that 3mill children die of malaria -among other diseases- per year.

    Mother nature, I guess, was not expecting that humans would live 3 times more of what they are prepared to, would drastically change the enviromental conditions, and would have children indiscriminately without proper conditions of care, shelter and food.

    Sorry for my unusual hardness, but we should see the broader picture about what nature is teaching us. But seems to be quite taboo.

    Reply
  18. my soul Avatar
    my soul

    i’m so proud of flickrers-
    so many people who are really trying so hard to SEE!
    cxjeff- thanks- in this crazy world i need know who’s who! ps- monsanto really has me worried- but in my heart, i know the true farmers will fuckin kick their greedy asses!
    oh- and gisela- nice to see you’re back!

    Reply
  19. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Alieness: interesting point. I can see why you became a spacefaring culture.

    Viruses rebalance concentration gradients.

    For a nomadic and sparse population, the virus host co-evolutionary balance finds an optima where the virus does not kill off the host too quickly since it would terminate its own propagation in a natural quarantine zone.

    When the concentration of hosts becomes high enough, the hyper-lethal strains can propagate, as we are seeing with avian flu.

    Given the growing concentration of super-cities, epidemiologists conclude that we are entering the golden age of viruses.

    Consider the pox viruses. Each species that crosses a population concentration threshold has its own pox virus (ant, chicken, mouse, seal, toad, mosquito, locust, cow, human, etc.).

    Human smallpox killed a billion people last time around, becoming a deity in the religious pantheons of China and India (with temples to Shitala Ma all over India). Blog on this

    Richard Preston concludes: “Viruses keep herds and swarms of living things in check, preventing them from growing into large and overwhelming populations. Viruses are an essential part of nature. If all the viruses on the planet were to disappear, a global catastrophe would ensue, and the natural ecosystems of the world would collapse in a spectacular crash under burgeoning populations of insects.”

    Reply
  20. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    "burgeoning populations of insects" means…

    burgeoning populations of insects?

    Reply
  21. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Yes! and swarms of locusts. real wrath of God-type stuff.

    Reply
  22. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    See that I just read this quote and thought of this photo and conversation below so here I am to share it with you:

    ""Human subtlety will never devise an invention more
    beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature,
    because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is
    superfluous."
    – Leonardo DaVinci

    Reply
  23. AsiaIsGreen Avatar
    AsiaIsGreen

    Thanks for sharing the photo. I’m using it for my website and credited to you at http://www.asiaisgreen.com/2007/09/12/ted-talk-12-sustainable-de....

    Reply

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