An Interview with Industrial Designer Ivan Luccion

Pooja Kashyap

Ivan Luccion is an industrial designer from Madison, Wisconsin Area. He has been recipient of the General Motors Fund Scholarship in Industrial Design from 2005 to 2007. As a child, he observed fondness to cars and their designs, which later in his life inspired him to go into the world of designing. Ivan’s current work includes designing cycling helmets and other cycling accessories for the Bontrager brand. He enjoys sketching as he feels it’s one of the most easiest and quickest medium to communicate an original idea. We asked him…

Read More

10 Festo Robots Based on Their Biological Models: Biomimicry

Pooja Kashyap

Festo, a Germany based industrial control and automation company has been into research and development of bionics since more than two decades. It collaborated with renowned universities, institutes, development companies and private inventors across the globe and launched the Bionic Learning Network during 2006. And since then it has been delving into the subject and bringing about the best of biomimicry. Every time their new project gets into air, they prove how they are able to merge industrial automation, and combining electronics with pneumatics in new and efficient ways. Here…

Read More

Everyday Health Monitoring Gets Easy with Stick on Electronic Patches

Neha Shukla

After biomedical engineers from South Korea, who designed a dermal patch that monitor patient’s health and release drug under the skin, scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University have come up with another revolutionary dermal, electronic patch that looks like a tattoo. 

Read More

Antibacterial Soaps Proves Ineffective at Homes but not at Hospitals

Neha Shukla

Every other soap or hand wash available in the market, targets the consumers by emphasizing on its anti bacterial quality. Bacteria are the culprits that cause several diseases and infection. Sadly, these microscopic bacteria are present all around us. The easiest way to get rid of these bacteria is to maintain hygiene and so far, it was believed that antibacterial soap and hand wash effectively shield us against these bacteria. 

Read More

Sightless Mechanism of Navigation: Mouth Suction by Cavefish

Neha Shukla

When it comes to visualizing environment, eyes play an important role. But there are other ways of navigation such as echolocation used by bats and dolphins. Recently, researchers studying Mexican blind cavefish (Astyanax fasciatus), have found a unique and new method of navigation. These fishes spend their entire life in the deep sea or dark caves, which are devoid of any source of light and so as the name suggests, their eyes are rendered useless and over the time the fish losses their eyeballs. 

Read More

New Laser Technology Allows for Controlling Lightning Strikes

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Central Florida have created a technology that has an ability of beaming high-intensity lasers all the way through the layers of atmosphere hence crossing the limitations that it had before. The research is still in its testing phase but the optical scientists envision that it might steer lightning strikes away from human inhabited areas and buildings. Extending the laser beam Lasers undergo diffraction because of which it fades away after beaming some feet only. This phenomenon does not allow it…

Read More

Tactile Stimulation and Reproduction go Hand in Hand Amongst Female Cockroaches

Neha Shukla

Generally, the antenna, key sensory organ of insects is known to aid insects in perceiving information about its surroundings such as availability of food, danger of predator, obstacles and potential mates and so on. They have many sensory receptors for audition, olfaction, balance, stability, gustation, graviception, thermo, hygro and mechanoreception, to name a few. They also play an important role during social interactions. In German cockroaches (Blattella germanica), during such social interaction, antennal contact alters juvenile hormone production which leads to an increase in female reproduction rate. In short the…

Read More

Bioengineered Self Healing Muscle, Successfully Grown in Laboratory

Neha Shukla

Biomedical engineers have finally achieved success in growing skeletal muscle under a laboratory conditions. These laboratory grown muscles, similar to real muscle are capable of contracting and expanding quickly. Most important breakthrough in the research is that the muscles when implanted in mice were capable of healing itself from any injuries, which was not possible till now.

Read More

Water Free Robotic Cleaning System Takes Over The Ketura Sun Solar Park

Neha Shukla

The increasing consumption of electricity, due to rise in population and limited availability of natural resources, countries have been focusing on generating energy from alternative sources. Sun energy in one among them and is widely preferreddue to its long hours availability at no cost at all. Though its conversion technology involves crystalline panels and other components, the panels require a regular look after to sustain effectively for years and decades. The large capacity solar plants consisting huge number of these panels suffer some difficulty in smooth operations as dust, sand…

Read More

Sniffing Web Pheromones Helps Male St. Andrew’s Cross Spiders Determine Female Availability

Neha Shukla

Researchers from the University of Hamburg, Germany and Macquarie University in Australia, studying St. Andrew’s Cross spiders, have found that male spiders looking for suitable mates, smell the webs woven by females and determine the females are ready for mating. The researchers observed several specimens of the species and conducted numerous experiment in their laboratory and finally concluded that smelling the pheromones present on the female web, male spider make a decision whether to move closer to the female for mating or not. 

Read More

Plants Uses Chemical Weapons and Employ Insect Armies to Defend Themselves

Neha Shukla

When we encounter a danger, the first thing that strikes in our mind is to run away and hide (though many of us might choose to give a fight). But the article is in the context of animals and plants. Animals when encounter any danger of being attacked, the first instinct is to escape from the danger is to run. Unfortunately, the plants cannot do that. Rather, plants in order to defend themselves from their predators have evolved various defense techniques such as chemical weapons and insect armies. 

Read More

Plaster to Release Medicine Below the Skin

Neha Shukla

A team of medical engineers from South Korean have developed a plaster which, when applied to the patient’s skin similar to regular band aids, discharge medicine below the skin. But unlike the normal band aid used for minor cuts and bruises, the plaster engages more complex and advanced technology, which enables it to monitor the activities of the muscle and accordingly discharges the required quantity of medicine and even decide when it is needed to stop. 

Read More

Dark Plumage helps in Flushing out Toxic Metals

Neha Shukla

Just like humans, animals living in urban areas are constantly prone to metal intoxication. In France, a team of researchers studying the level of metal intoxication in birds have found a strange relation between the color of the plumage and the level of metal toxin in the bird’s body. They observed that the birds with dark shade plumage were better at getting rid of metal toxin from their bloodstream. 

Read More

Pandas Have A Functional Sweet Taste Receptor

Neha Shukla

The popular known fact that bamboo is the only food that panda exclusively feeds on, is not true. Researchers from the Monell Center have found that the panda has also liking for sweet food. The research, based on panda behavior and molecular genetics reveals the presence of taste receptors and confirms that the panda has a strong liking for natural sweeteners as fructose and sucrose. 

Read More