Engineering Science and Materials Commons^™

Many applications require materials whose response can be tuned such as morphing wings for super maneuverable vehicles, soft robotics and space structures. Nature achieves this objective using external dermal features – skin, furs, tooth, feathers. These nonlinearities are generated using the geometry and topology of the scales. The scales provide distinct structural advantages such as protection and tailorable response from scales contact. Scales also aid in highly dynamic life functions – such as locomotion, anti anti-fouling, flapping flights, swimming. Material to structural correlations are highly nonlinear due to scale topology. We aim to reveal structure structure-propertyproperty-architecture correlations for automated 3D …

The structural and functional analysis of biological macromolecules has reached a level of resolution that allows mechanistic interpretations of molecular action, giving rise to the view of enzymes as molecular machines. This machine analogy is not merely metaphorical, as bio-analogous molecular machines actually are being used as motors in the fields of nanotechnology and robotics. As the borderline between molecular cell biology and technology blurs, developments in the engineering and material sciences become increasingly instructive sources of models and concepts for biologists. In this review, we provide a – necessarily selective – summary of recent progress in the usage of …