title: Biomimetics of photonic nanostructures.
abstract: Biomimetics is the extraction of good design from nature. One approach to optical biomimetics focuses on the use of conventional engineering methods to make direct analogues of the reflectors and anti-reflectors found in nature. However, recent collaborations between biologists, physicists, engineers, chemists and materials scientists have ventured beyond experiments that merely mimic what happens in nature, leading to a thriving new area of research involving biomimetics through cell culture. In this new approach, the nanoengineering efficiency of living cells is harnessed and natural organisms such as diatoms and viruses are used to make nanostructures that could have commercial applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. andrew.parker@green.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Helen E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Townley
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D017377:Diatoms / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000639:trends*; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D017785:Photons; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena; D014780:Viruses / Q000648:ultrastructure