How a Tumbleweed can Destroy Landmines

Posted: January 26, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Beauty of Design | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Thanks to a friend, Paul Dowsett from Sustainable.TO for sending me this gem.

Massoud Hassani took inspiration from tumbleweeds as a child to create toys that raced across the desert. As an Industrial Designer he is making tumbleweeds that can bounce across desert landscapes filled with landmines, detonating them as they go. I hope this means that there is more space for them to play games. This is a lovely story of childhood curiosity leading to innovation.

Enjoy the movie below, it is gorgeous. And if you want to see images of the process and alternate prototoypes, Core 77 has an excellent article.

Flying Penguins and Mechanical Jellyfish to Change the World

Posted: July 27, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Biomimicry Methodology, Research Resources | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

image captured from the sublime you tube video - click on the image to enjoy the movie

These mesmerizing movies of flying silver penguins, floating jellyfish and metal telescopic arms are sublime and alarming. They are engineered science fiction as real, tangible, tested, explorations directly mimicking nature to learn new engineering and mechanical principles.

And did I say they were sublime? They are extraordinary. Here are the jellyfish:

Let me give you an overview and then dive into some of the ideas that are emerging from these discoveries.

Festo and the Bionic Learning Group

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