3.A24 Freshman Seminar: The Engineering of Trees, Spring 2003

Why are things in nature shaped the way they are? Why can't trees grow taller than they are? Why is grass skinny and hollow? Why are some leaves full of holes? These are the types of questions Dr. Lorna Gibson's freshman seminar at MIT has been investigating. We invite you to explore with...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gibson, Lorna J.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Format: Learning Object
Language:en-US
Published: 2003
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36825
Description
Summary:Why are things in nature shaped the way they are? Why can't trees grow taller than they are? Why is grass skinny and hollow? Why are some leaves full of holes? These are the types of questions Dr. Lorna Gibson's freshman seminar at MIT has been investigating. We invite you to explore with us. Questions such as these are the subject of biomimetic research. When engineers copy the shapes found in nature we call it Biomimetics. the word biomimic comes from bio, as in biology and mimetic, which means to copy. Join us as we explore and look for answers to why similar shapes occur in so many natural things and how physics change the shape of nature.