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Biomimetics and Biologically Inspired Materials

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Handbook of Materials Structures, Properties, Processing and Performance

Abstract

Nature provides a vast array of biological materials and materials systems which have inspired innovations in novel applications and in new materials developments. These have included natural (animal) armor, flight systems inspired of course by birds, fasteners and attachments, and an array of photonic structures. Microbes producing methane and keratin–rubber composites pose novel systems along with branched biological systems which include trees, lungs, circulatory structures, and the like, which are governed by fractal geometry. The concept of protein factories is revisited in this chapter where virus and bacterial systems can act as protein factories to produce a complex array of drugs and related organic materials and functional systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, Engineering Bldg., Room M201-A, El Paso, TX, USA

    Lawrence E. Murr

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  1. Lawrence E. Murr
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Correspondence to Lawrence E. Murr .

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Murr, L.E. (2015). Biomimetics and Biologically Inspired Materials. In: Handbook of Materials Structures, Properties, Processing and Performance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01815-7_30

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