124
8 Biomorphic Technologies
soul
3D
print
shape
memory
hydrogel
cytoskeleton
Big
Bang
dark
ma8er
microfluidic
Fig. 8.6 The number of publications on the chosen topics in Web of Science (total in yellow, last
five years in blue)
way, a variety of shapes can be created, like the flower-like forms in the right-hand
panel.
These are just two fine examples out of a multitude. I opened Web of Science
on Sunday, 4 August 2019. It is a great tool for finding a needle in a haystack or
a pearl you know where. At least, the bulk of the trifling stuff offered by Google
does not make it into the data base with the access paid by universities, restricted to
peer-reviewed papers in journals of some repute. This time, I entered it just to check
bulk publication counts for topics mentioned in this section and, for comparison,
some others, shown in Fig. 8.6. The number of papers containing “3D print*” (with
the asterix standing for any ending) is relatively modest, but most of them were
published in the last five years.
8.4 Nanotechnology
Going down the linear scale, biomorphic technology approaches structures commensurate with the light wavelength. The prefix nano, a vertex of the trendy nanobio-info triangle, is, as a rule, generously extended from the nanometer to whatever
is less than a micron, and diffraction of light is an important capability of materials
made of particles in this range. The number of publications containing this prefix,
1 605 946 in total, 702 958 in the last five years, would dwarf the above bar chart,
although of course, only a minor part of them are relevant to nanotechnology.
I have already mentioned in Sect. 3.2 chameleon-like changes of color, which are
reproduced by colloidal crystals, also used as optical sensors. Manufacturing these
devices requires precision, since they should comprise identical particles arranged
in a well-ordered way. This comes naturally in atomic and molecular crystals, as
atoms and small molecules of the same kind are indistinguishable, but manufac-
8 Biomorphic Technologies
soul
3D
shape
memory
hydrogel
cytoskeleton
Big
Bang
dark
ma8er
microfluidic
Fig. 8.6 The number of publications on the chosen topics in Web of Science (total in yellow, last
five years in blue)
way, a variety of shapes can be created, like the flower-like forms in the right-hand
panel.
These are just two fine examples out of a multitude. I opened Web of Science
on Sunday, 4 August 2019. It is a great tool for finding a needle in a haystack or
a pearl you know where. At least, the bulk of the trifling stuff offered by Google
does not make it into the data base with the access paid by universities, restricted to
peer-reviewed papers in journals of some repute. This time, I entered it just to check
bulk publication counts for topics mentioned in this section and, for comparison,
some others, shown in Fig. 8.6. The number of papers containing “3D print*” (with
the asterix standing for any ending) is relatively modest, but most of them were
published in the last five years.
8.4 Nanotechnology
Going down the linear scale, biomorphic technology approaches structures commensurate with the light wavelength. The prefix nano, a vertex of the trendy nanobio-info triangle, is, as a rule, generously extended from the nanometer to whatever
is less than a micron, and diffraction of light is an important capability of materials
made of particles in this range. The number of publications containing this prefix,
1 605 946 in total, 702 958 in the last five years, would dwarf the above bar chart,
although of course, only a minor part of them are relevant to nanotechnology.
I have already mentioned in Sect. 3.2 chameleon-like changes of color, which are
reproduced by colloidal crystals, also used as optical sensors. Manufacturing these
devices requires precision, since they should comprise identical particles arranged
in a well-ordered way. This comes naturally in atomic and molecular crystals, as
atoms and small molecules of the same kind are indistinguishable, but manufac-