SCIENCE MUSEUM LONDON MARCH 23ND

Went to Science Museum in Kensington on Sat and found a few fishy things inspired by biomimicry.

An OCTOPUS  has inspired a 'SEA ROBOT' that finds things on the sea bed by using numerous arms and legs!

 Posted By Cara

 

Starfish Inspiration

Sea stars can regenerate a lost arm.

© Blue Ocean Society

Amazingly, sea stars can regenerate lost arms. This is useful if the sea star is threatened by a predator - it can drop an arm, get away and grow a new arm. Sea stars house most of their vital organs in their arms, so some can even regenerate an entirely new sea star from just one arm and a portion of the star's central disc. It won't happen too quickly, though. It takes about a year for an arm to grow back.

Sea stars are protected by armor.

© Blue Ocean Society

Depending on the species, a sea star's skin may feel leathery, or slightly prickly. Sea stars have a tough covering on their upper side, which is made up of plates of calcium carbonate with tiny spines on their surface. A sea star's spines are used for protection from predators, which include birds, fish and sea otters.

http://marinelife.about.com/od/invertebrates/tp/seastarfacts.htm

HAVE A LOOK AT THESE  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7cXeWxxfD4#!

                                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5dOSyaKWTQ

Its a video in California about star fish limb regeneration!

This is an interesting site, about an exhibition with textile artists that have used the idea of regrowth and the science of it all in their pieces.

On Growth and Form: textiles and the engineering of naturehttp://textilemuseum.ca/apps/index.cfm?page=exhibition.detail&exhId=151&language=eng

A definition of regeneration in biology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology)

In biology, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems resilientto natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans.

Worm regeneration: research done in the regrowth of cells in mammals :

'To better understand how this regeneration happens, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research removed the heads from planarians and watched as the creatures regrew the missing body part, including tubular structures of the excretory system. Among other findings, they learned that interfering with the expression of one gene kept the tubules and pores from branching off a precursor structure and from re-forming. This suggests the gene plays a critical role in regeneration. Studying similar genes in mammals could shed light on how we maintain our kidneys — and might grow new ones.'http://www.livescience.com/24791-worm-regeneration-research-nsf-ria.html