Biomimetics: Lessons From Nature: Ecosustainability, Design And Production Cycles In The Third Millenium

By Professor Carlo Santulli

Biomimetics: Lessons from Nature is an essay dedicated to the important topic of biomimicry - that is, inspiration from nature - as it relates to design and environmental and social sustainability, as well as issues related to the manufacturing cycle, from the initial phase of product design until  final outcome, where there is often very little sustainability or none at all. This book also pays particular attention to today's pressing issues about alternative energy sources and the recycling of waste products from manufacturing activities and normal daily life. The approach is intentionally colloquial, with the aim of making access to these topics more engaging, while fully adhering to correct terminology and scientific reliability.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Babelcube Inc.
• Release date: Dec 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781547590759

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BIOMIMETICS: Lessons from Nature

Written By Carlo Santulli  & Luigi Milani

Copyright © 2019 CIESSE Edizioni

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by E.S. Dempsey

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

Prof. Carlo Santulli

Biomimetics

Lessons from Nature

Ecosustainability, design and production cycles in the Third Millennium

Translated by:

E. S. DEMPSEY

Edited by

LUIGI MILANI

Foreword by

PIERSANDRO PALLAVICINI

                                                          

BIOMIMETICS

Lessons from Nature

Ecosustainability, design and production cycles in the Third Millennium

Author: Professor Carlo Santulli

Editor: Luigi Milani

Translation by: E. S. Dempsey

Published in Italy with the title: Biomimetica. La lezione della Natura

© CIESSE Edizioni

www.ciessedizioni.it

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Any reproduction of this work, even partial, is prohibited, therefore no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior consent of the publisher.

Author biographies

Luigi Milani                                      Carlo Santulli

Carlo Santulli has been an associate professor in materials science and technology at the University of Camerino since 2012, where he teaches materials technology courses and experiments with innovative materials in industrial and environmental design. He has a degree in chemical engineering specializing in materials science (Sapienza, 1991), a degree in humanities (Sapienza, 2001), a PhD in materials science and engineering (Liverpool, 2000), and a master’s degree in environmental decision-making (Open University, 2004). He was named a ‘Returning Brain’ in 2006 upon coming back to Italy from his work abroad.

His main research interests are in composite materials, nondestructive testing, the use of natural fibers, sustainable materials, revitalizing of waste, and biomimetics. He has almost 30 years of experience in this field, having worked at the University of Rome (La Sapienza), the Joint Research Center (JRC) at Ispra, the universities at Liverpool, Nottingham, and Reading in the U.K, and the Second University of Naples (SUN). He has been a guest researcher at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the School of Mining (École des Mines) in Saint Étienne, the University of Rouen, the University of Bologna, and the University of Technology Malaysia. Dr. Santulli has more than 250 scientific publications; he also makes presentations at schools and other organizations on issues related to sustainability and the environment.

Luigi Milani, born in 1963 in Rome, is one of the founding members of Edizioni XII, is an editor of the eTales series for Graphe.it Edizioni, and is a contributing editor to Kipple Officina Libraria. Milani has written short stories that have appeared in several literary journals as well as novels for various publishers (Casini Editore, Ciesse Edizioni, Delmiglio Editore, Nero Press Edizioni, and Graphe.it Edizioni).

His most recent books include: Nessun Futuro (published by Casini Editore in 2011 and Dunwich Edizioni in 2015); Seasons, Ci sono stati dei disordini, and L’estate del diavolo (Delirium Edizioni, 2011-2012); Lo studio in verde (with Alexia Bianchini, La Mela Avvelenata Edizioni, 2013); La notte che uccisi Jim Morrison (Dunwich Edizioni, 2014), Solo il mare intorno (with Danilo Arona and Angelo Marenzana, Nero Press, 2016); Un altro futuro (Edizioni Scudo, 2016); Il demone di carta (Graphe.it, 2017); Il libro maledetto (with Alexia Bianchini, Delos Digital, 2018); and L’ira della Medusa (Delos Digital, 2019).

Foreword

By Piersandro Pallavicini

I was a young man with great and high hopes when in 1985 I saw my first lecture by Jean-Marie Lehn at a national congress of inorganic chemistry in Como. Here the father of supramolecular chemistry — for which he would be awarded the Nobel Prize only a couple of years later — was speaking about, among other things, the motivations that had led him to create and expand this new branch of chemistry. One of his goals, many years before, had been to find molecules that could mimic the transport of sodium cations in the propagation of nerve signals. With that introduction in Como, Lehn presented a series of complex synthetic molecules, new and magnificent at the time, which made a great impression on an astonished and admiring public. His work included the selective binding of sodium cations to similar elements such as lithium, potassium, and cesium (since they have a ‘cage’ structure with an internal cavity).

If you go back a few lines, you’ll find the magic word: mimic. And what is being mimicked? The functioning of natural molecules of biological interest, which is to say relatively small complex molecules prepared by man. These can be used to make infinitely larger and more complicated molecules, or their assemblages, than what Lehn showed in his slides.

To mimic nature and rebuild it on our own, constructing molecules from scratch on the laboratory bench. Irresistible!

That youth with the great and beautiful hopes felt his chest light up with enthusiasm and pride to be part of this family of innovative scientists, the supramolecular chemists. It made a great impression on me. I would graduate from Pavia a short time later, do a doctorate in Pisa, then return to Pavia to do research. One of the leitmotifs of my work remains simply this: to create synthetic systems, both relatively simple molecules that mimic the molecular systems typical of biology, as well as much more complex molecules, such as enzymes and proteins, that are formed in nature. For myself and a whole generation of organic, inorganic, biological and physical chemists, the mimicry of biosystems would become