Dendritic morphology underlies many aspects of nervous system structure and function. Dendrites, along with axons, define the connectivity of the brain [1],[2], and play a large role in information processing at the single cell level [3],[4]. Many studies have highlighted the importance of dendritic branching pattern in neuronal behavior. Mainen and Sejnowski [5] have shown […]

-TED Fellow and urban designer Mitchell Joachim presents his vision for sustainable, organic architecture: eco-friendly abodes grown from plants and — wait for it — meat.-TED

-In early 2011 Archimorph will be publishing their first book, self-titled; Archimorph Book I: Architecture, Biomimetics, Technology. More information will be available closer to the release date.-JB

“Plants’ solutions to life’s challenges are as ingenious and manipulative as any animal’s. Innovative time-lapse photography opens up a parallel world where plants act like fly-paper, or spring-loaded traps, to catch insects. Vines develop suckers and claws to haul themselves into the rainforest canopy. Every peculiar shape proves to have a clever purpose. The dragon’s […]

Like a microscopic (and monochromatic) version of Tetris, Merismopedia cells form square-packed colonies. These cyanobacteria, plucked from a New England salt marsh, were flooded with ultraviolet light that was later filtered out of the image to reveal a red hue produced by chlorophyll molecules inside the cells. –National Geographic Merismopedia (from the Greek merismos (division) […]

‘Mutation, at its base level, is an evolution technique for the production of potentially useful anomalies. It exists when an offspring has a genetic trait produced by a new DNA sequencing that does not exist in the parent. Unfortunately, ‘mutation’ is also one of the most debased terms within the glossary of contemporary architecture, being […]

‘Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. Term used to descibe the splitting of lineages or ‘cladogensis’ as opposed to ‘anagesnsis’ or ‘phyletic evolution’ occuring within lineages. Whether genetic drift is a minor or major contributor to speciation is the subject of much ongoing discussion. There are four geographic modes of […]

Branching morphogenesis – Dr Marcus Fruttiger’s lecture Branching morphogenesis – (bottom) Jenny E. Sabin General points Even though all organisms are 3 dimensional “objects” metabolic exchange processes occur over 2 dimensional surfaces. In single cell organisms the surface of the organism is sufficient for metabolic exchange with the environment. However, in bigger organisms metabolic exchange […]

First fully functional synthetic self-reproducing cell announced from Craig Venter (J. Craig Venter Institute). Initial endeavors by archimorph into bottom-up self-replicating systems were pursued through a purely technological trajectory of nanoscale robotics. However, it was noted shortly after this project (the self-fab house: cultivating spaces) that the current breakthroughs and research into the biological sciences […]

A barnacle is a type of arthropod belonging to infraclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings. They are sessile suspension feeders, and have two nektonic larval stages. Around 1,220 barnacle species […]