idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Grafik: idw-Logo

idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft

Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instanz:
Teilen: 
01.07.2022 11:32

Learning from nature – how does it work? Research project on the philosophy of biomimetics launched

Sissy Gudat Presse- und Kommunikationsstelle
Universität Rostock

    Living nature offers plenty of ‘inventions’ that could serve as prototypes for new technical products. It is the task of biomimetics to abstract these ideas from nature and to implement them technically. But how exactly does that work? And can biomimetics be considered an independent scientific discipline? A new research project at the universities of Rostock and Tübingen is investigating these questions. It is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with around 500,000 euros.

    From bird flight to gecko feet, humans have always been inspired by nature for technical developments. In the 20th century, this has been elevated to a programme under the name of biomimetics, and it is hard to imagine our everyday life without biomimetic products such as the Velcro fastener. From the perspective of the philosophy of science, however, biomimetics has not yet been explored.

    Dr. Manfred Drack from the Institute for Evolution and Ecology at the University of Tübingen and Dr. Ludger Jansen from the Institute for Philosophy at the University of Rostock address this research gap and investigate the question of how exactly the transfer of biological knowledge to technical developments works.

    The researchers will examine selected biomimetic development projects to see whether common methods and a uniform subject matter can be found in them, which would justify conceiving biomimetics as a unified scientific discipline. In addition, the basic categories identified in the research processes will be formalised based on a philosophical analysis so that a computer can process them.


    Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

    PD Dr. Ludger Jansen
    Institute of Philosophy
    University of Rostock
    Tel.: +49 381 83-2818 (Secretary)
    E-mail:ludger.jansen@uni-rostock.de
    Web: https://purl.org/jansen

    Dr. Manfred Drack
    Institute for Evolution and Biology
    Eberhards-Karls-Universität Tübingen
    E-mail: manfred.drack@uni-tuebingen.de
    Web: https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/148575


    Weitere Informationen:

    http://Website of the project: https://biomimetics.hypotheses.org


    Bilder

    For the construction of his flying machine, Otto Lilienthal thoroughly studied the flight of storks, as can be seen in this pictorial plate from his 1899 book "Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst." (Image: Public Domain).
    For the construction of his flying machine, Otto Lilienthal thoroughly studied the flight of storks, ...

    Public Domain

    Dr. Ludger Jansen (pictured) from the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Rostock explores bionics in terms of the philosophy of science together with Dr. Manfred Drack from the Institute of Evolution and Ecology at the University of Tübingen.
    Dr. Ludger Jansen (pictured) from the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Rostock explores ...

    University of Rostock


    Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
    Journalisten, Studierende, Wissenschaftler
    Biologie, Philosophie / Ethik
    überregional
    Buntes aus der Wissenschaft, Forschungs- / Wissenstransfer
    Englisch


     

    Hilfe

    Die Suche / Erweiterte Suche im idw-Archiv
    Verknüpfungen

    Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.

    Klammern

    Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).

    Wortgruppen

    Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.

    Auswahlkriterien

    Die Erweiterte Suche können Sie auch nutzen, ohne Suchbegriffe einzugeben. Sie orientiert sich dann an den Kriterien, die Sie ausgewählt haben (z. B. nach dem Land oder dem Sachgebiet).

    Haben Sie in einer Kategorie kein Kriterium ausgewählt, wird die gesamte Kategorie durchsucht (z.B. alle Sachgebiete oder alle Länder).