Velcro

Novel materials inspired by burr, tooth and seashells - The Hindu: "Velcro is the first well-known man-made device or material that was inspired by what is seen in biology. Plants and animals contain various curious structures and devices in their body which help them in their daily life. For the cockleburr and similar plants (we have them in India, called Banokra, Chota Dhatura, Marulam Athangi), the burr is a transportable seed bag which is dispersed across the land by the animal it sticks to. And for man it became an inspiration to invent a fastening device.

Biology has inspired many such human inventions and we now have an emerging field termed bio-inspired material science. Universities and R &D centers across the world have set up laboratories where scientists study the unusual (and clever) materials and devices that are built into or made by plant and animal bodies, try understand and mimic or model them and create new materials of unusual properties."



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