kate van horn

Thursday, February 18, 2010

further research

These are examples of the new 'trees' that I have been working on for my series of solar thermal and wind energy plants, and serve as both structural/spatial elements as well as funnels for the extreme winds of Mars. Housed within the curvilinear trunks of these elements will be wind turbines, sealed off from the the interior pressurized spaces.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Inspiration: Organism growth, reproduction, and aggregation

I wanted to further study the concept of biomimicry by looking at different methods of growth, reproduction, and aggregation as they already occur in nature. The first of these examples was the Lichen, Lichens (pronounced LIKE-en) are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic association of a fungus (the mycobiont) with a photosynthetic partner (the photobiont or phycobiont), usually either a green algae or a cyanobacterium.

The body of most lichens is quite different from those of either the fungus or alga growing separately, and may strikingly resemble simple plants in form and growth. The fungus surrounds the algal cells, often enclosing them within complex fungal tissues unique to lichen associations.

The second organism I studied was the group of fungi called 'polypores' -- or more literally, 'many-pored' fungus.

Polypores are a group of tough, leathery poroid mushrooms similar to boletes, but typically lacking a distinct stalk.

They are mainly found on trees, and resemble mushrooms. Some form annual fruiting bodies while others are perennial and grow larger year after year. Bracket fungi are typically tough and sturdy and produce their spores, called basidiospores, within the pores that typically make up the undersurface.

Consider a spore from a simple mushroom, out in a field. The spore germinates and produces a short, initial hypha (called a germ tube). The germ tube grows and branches, each of those early branches grows and branches in turn and the process continues. The following diagram shows this process.