How can we design a infection free self cleaning toilet ?
• How does nature reduce density of bacterial growth ?
• How does nature allow to reduce flow of waste liquids outwards ?
• How does nature regulate atmospheric composition?
• How does nature helps in touch and mechanical forces in process ?
• How does nature self replicate ?
• How does nature balance gravity / orientation ?
• How does nature regulate hydrological flows ?
• How does nature adapts to self cleaning ?
• How does nature help to maintain detoxification or to purify air/water / waste?
HOW DOES NATURE HELP TO MAINTAIN
DETOXIFICATION OR TO PURIFY
AIR/WATER / WASTE ?
THREE ORGANISMS:
1. SPIDER WEB- FORM
2.ITALIAN RYE GRASS – UNDERSTANDING PROCESS
3.WETLAND ECOSYSTEM- STRATEGIES
SPIDER WEB.
Fibers Contract and Relax
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The abrupt halt of a bumble bee’s flight when it impacts the almost invisible threads of an orb web
provides an elegant example of the amazing strength and toughness of spider silk.
Spiders depend upon these properties for survival, yet the impressive performance of silk is not limited
solely to tensile mechanics.
Silk also exhibits powerful cyclic contractions, allowing it to act as a high performance mimic of
biological muscles.
These contractions are actuated by changes in humidity alone and repeatedly generate work 50
times greater than the equivalent mass of human muscle.
ITALIAN RYE GRASS.
Ryegrass sucks industrial chemicals from the soil and concentrates them in its cells.
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Beneath the ground, grasses form an intricate lattice of roots that divide and subdivide like the
branches of a tree. Weaving through and around particles of soil, these roots hold the plants in place
and absorb water and nutrients from the soil around them. It’s like sucking a beverage through a
straw—except through thousands of straws at the same time.
“Like attracts like” can be true not only for dating but in the chemical world as well. Pretty much every
compound fits into one of two broad categories.
One type is made up of molecules that have a bit of a positive or negative charge. They are called
“polar.”
The other type lacks a charge and is called nonpolar. Water is polar, and other polar substances tend
to hang out with it. Oil is nonpolar, and other nonpolar substances tend to hang out with oil instead.
WETLAND ECOSYSTEM.
Wetland plants, bacteria, and the physical environment work together to remove particles and pollutants .
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Dense communities of wetland plants slow down water flow, which gives more time for solid particles
to settle out and nutrients to be consumed by plants and bacteria.
In addition, the leaves, stems, and roots of wetland plants provide a large surface area on which
bacteria and other microbes can attach.
Certain wetland bacteria consume nitrate (an ion containing nitrogen) in the water and convert it
into nitrogen gas, which is released into the atmosphere.
This process of denitrification tends to be the way that most nitrogen is removed from the water in
wetlands. The plants take up some nutrients, but this is temporary storage as the nutrients are released
again when the plants die and decompose.
HOW DOES NATURE REGULATE
HYDROLOGICAL FLOWS ?
THREE ORGANISMS:
1. WATER STREAM - FORM
2.PEATLANDS – UNDERSTANDING PROCESS
3. LEAF PORES - STRATEGIES
WATER STREAM.
Streams maintain aquatic organisms by maintaining natural hydrological regimes.
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The primary degrading process to streams in many urban areas is effective imperviousness (EI), the
proportion of a catchment covered by impervious surfaces directly connected to the stream by storm
water drainage pipes.
The direct connection of impervious surfaces to streams means that even small rainfall events can
produce sufficient surface runoff to cause frequent disturbance through regular delivery of water and
pollutants;
PEATLANDS.
Peatlands regulate water flows because they lack topographic relief and well-defined channels, and have shallow
water tables.
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“Peatlands are of particular interest to water resource managers because they occur extensively in
the headwater areas of many streams and rivers.
Peatlands can have large impacts on the quantity and quality of the receiving waters .
The response of peatlands to large rainstorms is different from that of mineral soil uplands. The lack of
topographic relief, the absence of well-defined channels, and the shallow water tables all combine
to make peatlands behave hydrologically like unregulated, shallow reservoirs.
Some peatlands act to regulate the flow of water in the landscape. Flow regulation would attenuate
flow in wet conditions and release it in dry conditions. Some wetlands are good flood attenuators
(mid-basin stream or riparian wetlands).
LEAF PORES.
Leaf Pores Draw Water Through Plants
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Forest trees play a major role in influencing the flow of water resources. Trees, like most plants,
undergo a process called transpiration.
This is where water taken up from the roots moves through the plant to be utilized for photosynthesis in
the leaves. The water is then released from the leaves into the air as water vapor.
This process has not only an effect on trees as individuals, but when compounded across an entire
forest, it has an impact on the water retention of the ecosystem as a whole.
In forests with a large amount of trees, the effects of this process are readily seen in the changes in
stream flow and soil water.
For example, harvesting or cutting down forests substantially increases streamflow because fewer
trees are able to draw up and cycle the water back into the atmosphere.
HOW DOES NATURE REDUCE DENSITY
OF BACTERIAL GROWTH ?
THREE ORGANISMS:
1. MOLLUSKS (SNAILS) - FORM
2.NORTH ELEPHANT SEAL – UNDERSTANDING PROCESS
3.ANTARTIC CRUSTACEANS - STRATEGIES
MOLLUSKS (SNAILS).
Shell Protects, Supports, and Allows for Growth
• To provide both support and protection for the organism, the shape must be a hollow one,
but an opening must exist somewhere.
• Growth can occur only by addition to the inner surface or the free edge.
• And the shape should change only minimally as it grows
• A cubic shell with an open face won’t work: addition to walls will give more shell relative to
its contained volume, and addition to cylinder doesn’t meet the conditions–addition to
the edge will move it from short and fat to long and (relatively) thin.
• What will work are cones, whether circular or elliptical.
• Add to the edge and thicken the walls and one gets a bigger cone, isometric with the
original.
NORTH ELEPHANT SEAL. - Capture, Absorb, or Filter Liquids
• The most common liquid used by living systems is water, which they require to survive.
• But there are many other liquids that provide nourishment, play a role in defense mechanisms, or
serve other purposes.
• Water varies in its availability; it is sometimes plentiful and sometimes very scarce or only available as
fog or mist.
• To minimize the energy required to capture, absorb, or filter liquids, living
• Designs of nasal turbinates in marine mammals like the elephant seal may offer inspiration for the
design of more effective human-constructed water and heat recapturing systems
ANTARTIC CRUSTACEANS. -Wax Changes Density to Help Sink or Float
A tiny Antarctic marine crustacean (Calanoides acutus)
hibernates deep in the ocean during winter where the cold
slows its metabolism. Swimming down into the water can take a
lot of energy, but this crustacean uses a special material to help.
Once it reaches depths below 400 meters (one quarter mile),
cold temperatures cause a pocket of waxy liquid within the
crustacean’s body to turn into a dense solid, helping the
organism to sink on its own.