auros: I love my school.

Auros (

auros) wrote,
@ 2007-10-24 23:45:00

Current mood:

silly

I love my school.
So, for Principles of Sustainable Management, we're currently discussing Janine Benyus and biomimicry.

Somebody brought up a company that's making wave and tidal power systems inspired by the forms of seaweeds, fan corals, and shark fins. (These designs look like they might be a good fit for the idea that's been batted around of getting power generation from the Golden Gate. Past proposals have been windmill-like -- which is a non-starter due to concerns about the blades hitting wildlife.)

From that, somebody else brought up the poorly named Sycamore Fan, which uses the helicopter-seed design, which turns out to create more airflow for less power input. I pointed out that helicopter seeds in America are mostly from maples. (ETA: The tree called "sycamore" in Europe is a variety of maple, but the American Sycamore has globe seed clusters with fluffy, slightly dandelionish seeds. They're fun to throw at walls, as they explode and send seeds flying everywhere. My family had a huge sycamore in the front yard, when I was growing up.)

The fact that one species can produce both maple syrup and helicopter seeds is, I submit to you, completely awesome.

(Post a new comment)

	larksdream 2007-10-25 11:14 am UTC (link)
	The fact that one species can produce both maple syrup and helicopter seeds is, I submit to you, completely awesome. g You are adorable. (Reply to this)

	iridium 2007-10-25 05:36 pm UTC (link)
	neat! one of these days i'll get around to reading more about research into biomimicry. (at one point, i was seriously considering doing a Masters in bioeng with a group that was looking at biomimetic solar cells. i've unfortunately not kept up with the field much since then.) (Reply to this)

	plymouth 2007-10-25 06:23 pm UTC (link)
	mmmmm, tasty maple flavored electricity... (Reply to this)

Rock maple

ri_whittlesey
2007-10-27 06:20 pm UTC (link)

That one species can produce both maple syrup and helicopter seeds is completely awesome.

Awesome at the least. A little more about the trees, maybe not current in all of the west coast.

The sugar maple is the "rock maple" in most of New England. They also speak of a "sugar bush", and it was a while before I learned what that means. (Huh? I thought it was a tree.) A "sugar bush" is a stand of maples that's good for tapping.

All maples have a sap run, though the rock maple's is considered most satisfactory - I don't know whether it's most volume, most regular, longest run, sweetest, or what.

I've heard that Thomas Jefferson imported maples to Virginia, to introduce sugaring there. They grew just fine; but the sap run happens when spring has warmed enough to freeze at night and thaw during the day. Virginia wasn't cold enough. (Sigh. Will sugaring be another casualty of global warming.)

And the tree doesn't just produce maple syrup and helicopter seeds. The wood is handsome (pale with little visible grain), reasonably hard, fine-grained, and resistant to splitting. It's a prized furniture wood; even more prized, for thinner wooden members to hold load against an unfavorable lever arm. I've a friend who has a fine Z-looking cross-stitch stand, of rock maple.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: Rock maple

auros
2007-10-28 04:54 am UTC (link)

I've heard that Thomas Jefferson imported maples to Virginia

Yup, I've heard that story too; partly this was about trying to create maple plantations, to free America of the need to import sugar (much of which was under the control of the Brits, in the Caribbean).

Will sugaring be another casualty of global warming.

Well, so far, it's just been moving from Vermont up into Maine and Canada. But I've read that there's some serious concern about whether, if the appropriate climate zone moves too far north, the difference in sunlight patterns will start to be an issue for the trees. :-(

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Birch syrup and biomimicry

amberckerr
2007-10-31 02:14 am UTC (link)

Maple trees are great, but did you know that they're not the only trees that produce edible syrup? I was pleased to deduce this from first principles a few days ago. Jeremy and I had just made French toast and were pouring maple syrup on it, and I said, "I wonder... why is it always maple syrup? Surely there must be other deciduous trees that have a high volume of sugary sap flow in the spring..."

So we started looking up different possibilities, trying not to get the computer sticky! It turns out there is also birch syrup, produced in much the same way. (We also found websites advertising hickory syrup and tulip poplar syrup, but these are made from sugar syrup flavored with bark extracts.)

By the way, I was fortunate enough to collaborate with Janine Benyus when I was at Rocky Mountain Institute working on biomimetic building materials. She emphasized two points about biomimicry that, she said, people often misunderstand:

Biomimicry does not mean bio-production or bio-factories. For example, getting a bunch of algae to produce biodiesel is not biomimicry. In that case, you're directly using the organisms, not mimicking them.

The most genuine type of biomimicry emulates not only the form and function of the organism, but also the production process. That is to say, biomimicry should use materials that are natural, abundant, non-toxic, and if possible, self-assembling. For example, the recent attempt to produce an adhesive based on the setae of gecko feet is flawed, because it requires large amounts of energy and toxic, non-renewable chemicals.

That's what Janine would say, I think. My personal opinions are a little bit less pure - I see nothing wrong in principle with combining biomimicry and biotechnology, for example.

Fascinating stuff! I'll get back to work on my dissertation prospectus now! :-)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: Birch syrup and biomimicry auros 2007-10-31 06:42 am UTC (link)
	I've heard about birch syrup before, but never actually had any. Or rather, I guess I've had it, but it was diluted with carbonated water -- birch beer made from actual birch sap... (Reply to this)(Parent)

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