Leaf-inspired homeostatic cellulose biosensors

Structure-switching biosensors: inspired by Nature.

Chemosensing in nature relies on biomolecular switches, biomolecules that undergo binding-induced changes in conformation or oligomerization to transduce chemical information into specific biochemical outputs. Motivated by the impressive performance of these natural 'biosensors,' which support continuous, real-time detection in highly complex environments, significant efforts have gone into the...

Controlled, Bio-inspired Self-Assembly of Cellulose-Based Chiral Reflectors

Hydrophilic Sponges for Leaf‐Inspired Continuous Pumping of Liquids

A bio-inspired, leaf-like pumping strategy by mimicking the transpiration process through leaves is developed for autonomous and continuous liquid transport enabled by durable hydrophilic sponges. Without any external power sources, flows are continuously generated ascribed to the combination of capillary wicking and evaporation of water. To validate this method, durable hydrophilic polydimethy...

Fabrication of biomimetic superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by lotus leaf and silver ragwort leaf.

Inspired by the self-cleaning lotus leaf and silver ragwort leaf, here we demonstrate the fabrication of biomimetic superhydrophobic fibrous mats via electrospinning polystyrene (PS) solution in the presence of silica nanoparticles. The resultant electrospun fiber surfaces exhibited a fascinating structure with the combination of nano-protrusions and numerous grooves due to the rapid phase sepa...

Organismically-inspired robotics: homeostatic adaptation and teleology beyond the closed sensorimotor loop

In 1972, and later in 1979, at the peak of the golden era of Good Old Fashioned Artificial Intelligence (GOFAI), the voice of philosopher Hubert Dreyfus made itself heard as one of the few calls against the hubristic programme of modelling the human mind as a mechanism of symbolic information processing (Dreyfus, 1979). He did not criticise particular solutions to specific problems; instead his...