Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series nathistory_20130319-1130a.mp3

You are listening to a program from BBC Radio 4 / OK / here / chair / going up a bit / just m__. ... OK. I've got my / right hand / one / so I look a bit more / usually / dangle. OK / let go / ok, I'm dangling. ... OK. / I'm __ M__ / this / best / university / because / still stuck to the ceiling, which is quite amazing / up / scientific miracle / based / beetle's foot / its creator / roll / use / clasical sense. It is just / piece of silicon / covered / tiny little structure / inspired by beetle feet / tiny tiny / hairs / and on ceilings / but / evolve for a very specific purpose. / have / everywhere / but / certain / time, they spend / female back during c__ / So, that's why / evolution / specialized / shiny structure / wings / tape is that / taken / sex / to further human technology.

just one / technologies, so called because they've taken / inspiration / from the natural world / E__ and writer / bio- / use of aspect or features / living / as a basis for developing human technologies. Traditionally, what we've done is / engineered things / now / figured out that, / in a sense, / years of evolution / trial-and-error engineering project. / Most human adoptation today is cultural. / have / new / learning / new ways of thinking / become very popular and successful / whereas / by actual natural selection. For example we spread / but / kill / some m__ level / resist__nce / they're clearly doing something / them / us / a cultural organization / exploring our relationship with insects and the natural world / We can learn from them / to create new technology / further / bio-m__." / Bio-m__ pioneer / keen to point out / not a new branch of scientifice inquiry / wider / some decades later. / In 1960, a guy called Jack S__ / organized / air-force base / in D__, Ohio / he / he called the topic of the meeting "bionics". And this was / combination of "biology" and "technology" / he was thinking / then / got the idea / made / series of Bionic Man. / Since the 1960's / taken / beyond the __ of H__ fantasy / reality / reason / the concept is current is that / understanding / things like that, is improved to the state where / actually / But, if the creation of bionic humans / dollar / still feels far off, / insects are already with us / welcome / laboratory / London / here / robotics / look at animals / take inspirations / to build / I went / London / record-breaking jumping robot based on the grasshopper / one of the main challenges / small / insect size / big / relatively / extremely large / we can take inspiration from / animals / learn how they move / key / design of them / good for / outdoor terrains / in front of me, I / robot / good / in comparison to humans? / one of the ways / how the grasshoppers / high / compared to / own size / elastic elements / release / this can amplify the power / Now, humans jump very differently / the same power amplification / Here we go, here we go, and ... oh / really / it pings / mechanism / explosive force / grasshopper / really quick. How / cope with landing on its back / point / try to land on their feet. May be they / try / don't / jumping grass terrains / environment is very rough, compared to / by having / jumping mechanism / charge itself for the next jump / center of mass moves / uprights / by itself / no / no control involved / very simple way of jumping again, to be able to / grasshoppers / develop / different versions / which have wings on it / be / jumping with wings / riding / hybrid locomotion mode / this is very useful, especially when / glide / from trees or / from the top of a building / airplane / actually halve / down / high enough / wings / to move effectively / long distances / see / able / be beneficial for humans? / applications are very manifold / any kind of / networks / moving in the forest, moving in non-accessible terrains / detecting chemical polution or / any kind of measurement / search and rescue operations, so, basically / send humans inside / robots / believes that one of the key challenges lies / movement / but in understanding how insects adapt / the way they move / new / way / move / different media is something that / way / reproduce / If a robot knew / its own body really well, / simply / able to, kind of, / environment / simply designed / probably start / some / locomotion." So, for example / both walk and swim / even / specifically / how do we do this? Partly, the knowledge / equally talented robot. / You / some natural / in multiple modes / holding / skeleton of the first-ever / I believe / only robot capable of / powered-flying, landing / crawling / single / sequence / designed based on studies / focused / walking / to some extent, different types of flying insects / chief / this / coupling that happens between the mechanical structure and / electronic control system, which / strongly / between m__ / Science writers have / predicted / assisted by a host of robots / insect / trap images / assisting in disaster zones, and even in homes / reason / assume / don't like insects / do things / want them to do / have / useful / start liking them, actually / you can also look into different ways / environment / very attractive / interactive tools / environment / actually / more secure / more informed about their environments / still not living / future / insects. Why? J__ __ thinks he knows the answer. / "Well, / nice / ideas / see them working / a lot of / engineering / I think one the / pitfalls / has to do with the fact that / personal / approach / problem / inspiration / take the design and transcribe it, and try to mimic it / because, of course, / all of the problems / engineering / and so on. / own reserch / inspired by w__ w__. / big / as you go smaller and smaller, you're gonna have / problems / at his or her disposal / and, so, in this process / flexible needle to a deep-seated target within tissue, let's say, / critical areas like nerve bundles or / we looked at nature as a source of inspiration / solve / give / sting, which is a biological / biologically-inspired / liver surgery, for the moment / most people know, uh, familiar with / very familiar / sting / originally was / egg-laying tube / lot / etc. / very very thin, long tubes / eggs into either another animal or into a tree trunk / have / really / Correct. / needle / in a soft tissue like the brain / can / bit / very similar to the concept of / has to be inserted deep into / insect will have a very thin and long / as / nature have solved the problem / tend to buckle / behind / buckling or bending / separate the needle into a number of / interlocked / inspired design / things / because what happens in nature / replicate / a type of forward motion / pulling the tip of the needle / as opposed to pushing it from behind / how often / see / really good idea / replication of it becomes / very difficult / happens / so, I think the / good engineer / that / able to take / design / abstract some of the key concepts / design unique / trying to find a way to / into a different domain. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's difficult. / The challenges / based on animals as tiny as insects / familiar / nature / complex / little structure / year / you know / expectation / is sometimes too big. So, we ... we / load / interesting / nature / which we will not be able to mimic in a next year / complexity / what they've done / so, we've got to give ourselves / little / break / evolution, no matter / biological evolution or technological evolution / always the / how can it survive / real life. So, we / can / technological evolution / biological / not all biological inspiration / technological evolution / so, it follows / based technologies / far from being / in the home / highly-specialized / in their application

not replace classical scotch tape 'cause / quite expensive / production / application, because / silicon rubber / odd chemistry / it can be immediately used / any kind / medical application / outside / can be used for sports / because you can, well / use / stick / any kind / flat materials / glass / some industrial processes / it is required to move / pieces / from point A to point B / then/ little / can transfer, well, / in this case / mobile / and / dollar man / tape has potential applications / inside the body / p__ limbs / there are also / interesting properties / which actually has nothing to do / original / for example, if you touch this rubber with your fingers, it's, actually, very, kind of, soft / so / some / people / silicon / so / idea of using / outer / it's just ... it feels nice / I'm sitting here, gently stroking it / any kind of color / green version / yellow, and skin-colored version ... / yeah / much / concerned / principles can be applied on a much larger scale / beautifully c__ building / clear / what is the design inspiration behind it? / looking at here is / office building / best / first time that / been applied / comprehensive level / just / one / used / all / insects / design process / every single / problem / looked / already solved in biology

greatest architect / perhaps / key elements / borrow / looking at the structure / ended / hollow / material efficiency / gave / in / underneath / likely / S__ / temperature / below / all / year / which / pre-heating / pre-cooling / summer / few / animals / ground / ground / thermo / protection / termites / amazingly / understanding / people / they / straightforward / termites / directly / difficult / practical / using / steady / definitely / underneath / have / tubes / ground / get / benefit / use / inside / energy / small / fan / hypothetical / principle / such / close / equator / completely / cool / people / climate / air / office / staggering / done / equator / here / building / colloboration / design / all / insect / tiny / within / so / chamber / together / and / is / unstable / bomb / deal / stop / reaction / explosion / fuel / two / second / high / explosion / this / beetle / genious / means / first / by / nearest / mimicing / exactly / same / same / technology / exploded / knew / beetle / side / cockpit / jet / which / like / how / technology / office / studied / number / efficient / another / medical / looking / is / more / way / fire / beetle / produce / chamber / very / does / because / breaks / water / provide / need / external / heat / fire / quickly / possible / evapolate / no / left / if / coming / can / very / remove / steam / left / conventional / much / might / used / water / damage / there / advantage / fire / spending / use / less / need / much / big / means / people / above / also / potential / extreme / just / absolutely / from / project / inspired / beetle / night / dune / black / radiate / become / surroundings / sea / water / shell / cooler / before / shell / drink / great / clever / call / further / texture / and / and / surfaces / attract / around / repel / water / forming / tight / means / be / over / even / small / still / harvest / mouth / more / offer

although / future / look / hope / bio- / how / years / direct / argues / happier / direct / nature / argues / gateway / natural / grasp / relationship / natural / how / fit / personal / kind / in / gives / who / world / and / talked / kind / natural / spent / cities / actually / linked / attachment / learn / love / ourselves