Werner Nachtigall
Encyclopedia
Werner Nachtigall is a German zoologist and biologist.

After graduating from high school in Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, he studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in the fields of natural sciences biology, physics, chemistry and geography with a diploma in Technical Biology and Bionics. From 1959 to 1961 he was research assistant at the Radiobiology
Radiobiology
Radiobiology , as a field of clinical and basic medical sciences, originated from Leopold Freund's 1896 demonstration of the therapeutic treatment of a hairy mole using a new type of electromagnetic radiation called x-rays, which was discovered 1 year previously by the German physicist, Wilhelm...

 Institute in Neuherberg, later in the Zoological Institute of the University of Munich. His research interests during this time gave rise to questions that later led to the foundation of the field of bionics
Bionics
Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.The word bionic was coined by Jack E...

 in Germany. In 1967 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

.

In 1969 he was appointed professor and director of the Zoological Institute of Saarland University
Saarland University
Saarland University is a university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland, and Homburg. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in 8 faculties that cover all major fields of science...

. In 1990 he initated the field of study called "Technical Biology and Biomimetics" (which he supervised until his retirement in 2002) and also the "Society for Technical Biology and Bionics" (GTBB) of which he was the first chairman until 2003.

After his retirement in 2002 he became head of the BMBF-funded Competence Network Biomimetics BIOKON at the University of Saarland.

Research

By making use of biostatistics
Biostatistics
Biostatistics is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology...

, and also bringing together several scientific and engineering disciplines, his research which focused on mechanisms for movement in the animal kingdom led him to pioneer the field of bionics
Bionics
Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.The word bionic was coined by Jack E...

 in Germany. Much of his published work centres on technology in the fields of biology, flight biomechanics
Biomechanics
Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Perhaps one of the best definitions was provided by Herbert Hatze in 1974: "Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of...

 and general bionics. In addition to technical scientific papers (over 300), he has published several popular books (over 30) as well as articles which has stimulated interest in this emerging field.

Professor Marianne Stokholm head of the department of Architecture & Design at Aalborg university (AAU ) Denmark, writes: "The German biologist Werner Nachtigall has since the 1960's been occupied with bionics. His writing on the subject is among the best."

Nachtigall formulated ten principles which he felt should undergird bionics:
  • 1. The concept of biological design can be understood in analogous relation to the concept of technological design;
  • 2. The structural relation of technical biology and bionics is of image and reflection;
  • 3. The organism forms a functional whole;
  • 4. Biological design follows the principle of ”optimum integration“
  • 5. The organism compensates for harmful overloading
  • 6. The overall size of an organism defines its stability
  • 7. An organism has environmental contact with the inorganic.
  • 8. A form always meets multiple requirements
  • 9. The organism is in contact with other organisms
  • 10. The organism faces a permanent energy crisis


Biomechanist Steven Vogel in his book "Life's devices: the physical world of animals and plants" writes "Wherever nature has a structure, biologists have be painstakingly describing it, but most often paying little attention to mechanical functions. Nachtigall (1974) went the next step, gathering a vast collection of structural schemes for attachment, classifying them by function, and comparing each with its technological analogs. Among interlocking joints he recognizes miters, rabbets, dovetails, and mortises; under releasable attachments he describes plugs and sockets, hooks and eyes, snaps, vises, forceps, anchors, suction cups, and others. The diversity defies summarization. Even velcro
Velcro
Velcro is the brand name of the first commercially marketed fabric hook-and-loop fastener, invented in 1948 by the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral...

 has its biological analog – what Nachtigall calls 'probabilistic' attachments, coatings of burrs invented repeatedly as a dispersal device for the seeds and fruits of plants. All that these latter require is gentle contact with a sufficiently irregular surface (fur perhaps originally but cloth works at least as well) and enough burrs attach to provide a surprisingly strong connection. Velcro
Velcro
Velcro is the brand name of the first commercially marketed fabric hook-and-loop fastener, invented in 1948 by the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral...

...represents highly successful bioemulation: its inventor Georges DeMestral, deliberately worked from the seed barbs of cocklebur and burdock." (Vogel, 1988:283)

Awards

  • 1982 - Karl Ritter von Frisch Medal, Science Prize of the German Zoological Society (DZG)
  • 1996 - construction prize from the Fritz-Bender Foundation (Munich), for the development of a ventilation system according to the Termitenbauprinzip (together with Georg Rummel)
  • 2002 - International Rhineland Prize for Environmental Protection of the TÜV Rheinland Berlin Brandenburg
  • 2004 - Treviranus Medal of the Association of German Biologists (VdBiol)

Publications

  • Nachtigall, W. 1965. Die aerodynamische Funktion der Schmetterlingsschuppen. Naturwissenschapter, 52(9): 216–217.
  • Nachtigall, W. 1966. Die Kinematik der Schlagflugelbewegungen von Dipteren: Methodische und analytische Grundlagen zur Biophysik des Insektenflugs. Z. vergl. Physiol. 53, 155—211.
  • Nachtigall, W. & Wilson, D.M. 1967. Neuro-Muscular control of dipteran flight. Journal of Experimental Biology Vol 47: 77-97 http://jeb.biologists.org/content/47/1/77.full.pdf [Date of Access 5 November 2011].
  • Nachtigall, W. 1968. Transparent wings, Moos Verlag
  • Nachtigall, W. 1968. Elektrophysiologische and kinematische Untersuchungen Start and Stop des Flugrnotors von Fliegen. Z. vergl. Physiol. 61 , 1-20
  • Nachtigall, W. 1968. Insects in Flight.
  • Nachtigall, W. 1974. Biological Mechanisms of Attachment:the comparative morphology and bionengineering of organs for linkage New York : Springer-Verlag
  • Nachtigall, W. 1974. Insects in Flight. English Translation Edition, London : Allen & Unwin Ltd.
  • Nachtigall, W. 1984. Vogelzugforschung in deutschland (Migration research in Germany). Journal of Ornithology. Vol 125:15-187
  • Nachtigall, W., Nagel, Rolf. 1988. In the Realm of a thousandth of a second - Fascination of the insect flight, Gerstenberg ISBN 3-8067-2043-6
  • Kesel, A.B., Philippi, U. & Nachtigall, W. 1998. Biomechanical aspects of the insect wing: an analysis using the finite element method. Computers in Biology and Medicine, Vol 28: 423-437.
  • Nachtigall, W. 2000. Insect wing bending and folding during flight without and with an additional prey load. Entomol. Gener., 25(1): 1–16.
  • Nachtigall, W. 2001. Natural mother of invention, Ravensburger Verlag (2nd edition), ISBN 3473358908
  • Nachtigall, W. 2003. Insektenflug (Insect Flight): Konstruktionsmorphologie, Biomechanik, Flugverhalten, Springer Verlag ISBN 354000047X, 9783540000471
  • Nachtigall, W., Blüchel, Kurt. 2003. The Big Book of bionics, DVA ISBN 3421058016
  • Nachtigall, W. 2006. Ökophysik, Springer Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-540-28878-3
  • Nachtigall, W. 2006. Bionics, principles and examples for engineers and scientists, Springer Verlag (2nd edition), ISBN 978-3-540-43660-7
  • Nachtigall, W. 2006. Bionics - What is it? What can it mean? Audio-CD.Köln ISBN 978-3-932513-72-5 supposé, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-932513-72-5
  • Nachtigall,W. 2008. Bionics - Learning from Nature, Knowledge CH Beck Munich ISBN 978-3-406-53636-6
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK