Oxford Bionics Initiative

Webs are specialized composites created from a wide range of silk potein-polymer materials. Both structure and material have evolved in long-standing arms races with flying insects. These in turn have evolved agility in flight as one of the many countermeasures to being caught.

Welcome

The Oxford Bionics Initiative (OBI) is a collaboration between a number of Oxford University research groups working on :

- BIOMATERIALS, specifically bio-elastomers

- BIOSENSORS

- BIOMECHANICS, specifically animal motion and structures

- BIOENERGETICS, specifically the energy costs of bio-polymers and the ergonomics of animal movements

For first collaborators at the Department of Zoology see Oxford Silk Group, Animal Flight Group and Oxford Tracking; collaborators at other departments in Oxford will be listed shortly.

This initiative aims to spearhead research at Oxford into Nature's relationship with, and exploitation of, her physical environment.

We deploy state-of-the-art analytical techniques drawn from Physics and Chemistry and Materials and Engineering Sciences, combining these disciplines with a solid grounding in Biology. Our goals are the 3 I's of Biomimetics: Integration, Interpretation and Innovation - with the ultimate aim to use the Creativity of Nature and her Design by Evolution in order to gain novel insights and to guide our own utilization of the physical world.