Whither Creativity?

Dr. A.Jagadeesh
Nayudamma Centre for Development Alternatives Nellore 524002 Andhra Pradesh India E-mail: a_jagadeesh2@yahoo.com Blog : drjagadeeshncda.blogspot.com

What is Creativity?
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, thats creativity.
Charles Mingus Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. George Bernard Shaw

Creativity is the generation of new ideas or new combinations of existing ideas E.PAUL TORRANCE

Innovation:

Is taking what exists and making it better.

ROBERT ALAN BLACK

 It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

CARL SAGAN
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all. EDWARD DE BONO

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

LINUS PAULING

Creativity and change both imply new direction. They are both associated with uncertainty and risk There is anxiety, fear, and disapproval associated with newness However, there is also joy, excitement, and approval.
Adams

If you could define creative in a metaphoric way, what might you say and why? Example: Creativity is like a cat chasing its tail. In the act of creating or in solving problems in creative ways we often go round and round in endless circles wanting to pounce on an idea. Sometimes the answer or solution is right before our eyes but we can't see it. In order to find the solution, find the missing piece, solve the problem, we need to just look at something familiar in a new and different way.

"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.

THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Personally, I enjoy working about 18 hours a day. Besides the short catnaps I take each day, I average about four to five hours of sleep per night.

The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness.....

Inspiration can be found in a pile of junk. Sometimes, you can put it together with a good imagination and invent something.

A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die without publicizing it, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another....

Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward....

Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.

The dove is my emblem.... I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it.... I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill...

"... Thomas Edison was more responsible than any one else for creating the modern world .... No one did more too shape the physical/cultural makeup of present day Civilization....Accordingly, he was the most influential figure of the millennium...." The Heroes Of The Age: Electricity And Man

What Made Edison Innovative? 1093 Patents Last at age 83 never stopped

Perseverance over 1000 tries for light bulb

Understood where ideas come from!

No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it.

Nature never breaks her own laws

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake? There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see. Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Creativity is needed at every level and every dimension within an organization.

Creativity is the responsibility of each functional discipline, each team, each manager and each and every individual.

Some of the creativity comes from good old Mother Nature. Mother knows whats best and those people who follow her lead usually end up ahead of the game.

In Nature the name of the game is survival of the fittest. Because of this, plants, and animals and insects and bacteria and everything else have been forced to adopt, taking the most advantageous forms. Nature invariably takes the forms that work.

Adopting Natures Wonders for Scientific Discoveries - Bionics

 Biophilia

LEARNING

FROM TERMITES

Biophilia (coined by Harvard Biologist Edward O. Wilson in 1984) does what Biomimicry does not: it reaches into the human desire for an affinity with nature on both the meta- and individual levels. Biophilia is different from Biomimicry because it is based more in the appreciation of nature. To my mind it (-philia) is more on a spiritual/emotional plane rather than a quantitative/measured level. The following quote is an extrapolation on this concept: Nature, biology, offers profuse and luxuriant forms; with the same constructions, same tissues and same cellular structures it can produce millions and millions of combinations, each of which is a high level of form Alvar Alto, 1935

Though Alto's words are from long ago, we are now more widely accepting that we need to incorporate sustainable architecture, design, and daily choices into the fabric of cities. The status of a building is changingit is a crucial participant in our uphill battle for sustainability and overall well-being. This natural model is the way to discuss and to design buildings in our milieu.

Indeed, termites must live in a constant temperature of exactly 87 degrees (F) to survive. The difficulty is that the temperature outside fluctuates greatly, from between 35 degrees at night to 104 degrees during the day. The solution they have devised is to dig a kind of breeze-catcher at the base of the structure that cools the air by means of chambers carved out of the wet mud below and sends the hot air up through a flue to the top according to a Baroque circuitous Venturi principle. They constantly alter the construction, opening up new tunnels and blocking others to regulate the heat and humidity.

Applying nature to architecture

Succinctly put, the principle Pearce has discovered in termite architecture is the use of the thermal mass of a building and the changing environmental conditions to cool it. It is at the heart of Eastgate. The outside is made of four massive masonry and concrete walls inspired by the stone walls to be found in Great Zimbabwe, a city 200 miles southeast of Harare and over 900 years old that was the capital until colonial times. (Zimbabwe means stone house in the Shona language.) Inside, there is a seven-story-high, naturally lit atrium full of delicately detailed steel lattice girders, suspended walkways on tendons, bridges, and filigreed tiaras atop the main entrances to the complex. The hot air is pulled out through 48 brick funnels on the roof, modeled, according to Pearce, on the wind scoops from Hyderabad that he came across in Rudofskys book. The building takes advantage of the diurnal temperature swings outside. Normally, the high volume fans run at night to give 10 air changes per hour and low volume fans run during the day giving two air changes per hour.

Leaf-inspired solar cells

Plant biologists and engineers at many labs are looking to leaves to Help them make smaller and more efficient solar cells. A leaf has tens of thousands of tiny photosynthetic reaction centers that operate at 93 percent quantum efficiency, producing energy silently with water, sunlight, and no toxic chemicals. Mimics of these molecular-scale solar batteries could one day be used to split water into clean-burning hydrogen and oxygen, or as computer switching devices that shuttle light instead of electrons.

Water repellent nanotechnology from Lotus

GREEN DESIGN

Design Tips from Mother Nature Biomimicry, the practice of designing according to natural principles, has garnered devotees from many industries, producing a wide variety of innovative results Ten years ago, biologist Janine Benyus wrote a book that effectively outlined how nature is the world's best designer and how humans could learn a thing or two by paying attention. Since then, fans have used her way of thinking to create a wide range of products, from a Japanese high-speed train with a distinctively bird-like nose to tony, Dutch furniture modeled after the inner structure of bones. Biomimicry, as the practice is known, is not a product category so much as a method by which designers and engineers look to biological research for clues to how organisms solve complex problems. In other words, design informed by billions of years of evolution. In recent years, that kind of thinking applied in a commercial context has produced all manner of new products such as ultrastrong, nontoxic glues and hyperaerodynamic concept cars.

Avian Elements High-SpeedTrain

With a top speed of some 200 mph, Japan's 500 Series Shinkansen bullet train is one of the fastest in the world. To enable it to run quietly at high speeds, designers emulated one of the quietest birds, owls. By designing small serrations similar to those on owl feathers, they were able to reduce the noise generated by the train's pantographthe component that connects to overhead electrical wires. The most obviously biomimetic design element is the train's nose cone, which is modeled after a kingfisher's beak. This allows the bird to dive from air into water with a minimal amount of resistance. On a train, the aerodynamic design reduces the sonic boom that occurs when the train passes from a tunnel back into the open air, reducing noise pollution.

Sticking, Naturally Toxin-Free Glue

Portland (Ore.)-based Columbia Forest Products manufactures a broad range of wood products, including panels used in high-end cabinetry and furniture as well as various flooring surfaces. The company's researchers developed an ultrastrong glue that contains no toxins by mimicking the composition of the secretions mussels use to cling to surfaces underwater.

Echolocation

Sonar-Enabled

Cane

Sound Foresight, a small company in Barnsley, England, created the UltraCane. The high-tech device for the vision-impaired uses a sonar-like technologysimilar to the way bats navigate in the darkto prevent collisions. The cane sends out sound waves ahead of the person holding it. These sense upcoming objects, such as street signs or other people, and provide a tactile warning of an oncoming obstacle's location through the cane's handle.

Skeleton Key Bone Furniture Based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, artist Joris Laarman designed this line of furniture, which mimics the structure of bones. Though partially hollow, these form a strong, almost architectural matrix of support. This polished aluminum chair was created using software that mimics the process by which bones grow over time. This kind of design approach has also inspired improvements in a wide range of products. General Motors (GM), for instance, developed a series of car parts that is lighter than conventionally made components but just as strong.

Stanch the Bleeding Self-Healing Pipelines

Brinker Technology in Aberdeen, Scotland, has developed a system inspired by the platelets in the bloodstream that in effect patrol veins, sealing cuts and wounds. The company's "Platelet Technology" adapts the technique for industrial applications such as oil pipelines. The flow inside a pipeline delivers specially designed "platelets" to cracks and leaks. These stick against the pipe wall, sealing the leak. The material contains a radioisotope that marks a leak's location so that engineers know to reinforce that section of pipe.

Keeping the Bugs Out Antibacterial Film

The most common antibacterial technologiesincluding antibiotics like penicillinkill bacterial microbes. Over time, this has led to the development of hardy, resistant strains of bacteria. That immunity has increasingly confounded doctors and epidemiologists more than the presence of bacteria itself. Australian company Biosignal studied a type of seaweed in which natural compounds prevent bacteria from gathering. It developed a film that prevents bacteria from colonizing by "jamming" or interfering with the signals used by microbes to communicate with one another. Applied to contact lenses, for instance, this film prevents infection without helping to create superstrains of harmful bacteria.

New Plumage Bio-Inspired Color Displays

Qualcomm (QCOM) engineers have developed the nature-inspired mirasol display, which conveys color in a manner similar to the way a butterfly shows off its brightly colored wings or a peacock displays its plumage. Rather than showing pigmented pixels, these displays contain tiny structures that variably reflect light in such a way that specific wavelengths of light interfere with one another to create vivid colors. The technology could help cell phones and other electronics reduce their power consumption. Last October, Audiovox (VOXX) began using the technology in its Bluetooth stereo headsets.

Scrubbing Bubbles Low-Energy Carbon Sequestration Carbon sequestrationor the removal of harmful carbon emissionsis becoming a major front in sustainable industry. Whereas humans view CO2 as a major poison, plants and animals see it as a fundamental building block, processing it for energy or using it to construct shells, for example. With this in mind, Monmouth Junction (N.J.)-based Carbozyme developed an industrial flue scrubber that mimics the enzymes of mollusks to sequester CO2 from waste gases, converting it to nontoxic limestone powder. Unlike other gas separation methods, it operates at a moderate temperature and pressure.

Leaving No Trace Self-Cleaning Paint The hydrophobic surface structure of lotus leaves inspired a line of selfcleaning paints from German company Sto. Seeking a solution that did not require toxic detergents, the company's scientists studied the microscopic structure of the leaves whichby designrepel water. Imbued with similar surface structures, the paints repel water, meaning that rainwater washes away any dirt.

Today, much of this centurys infrastructure is in need of replacement including outmoded highways, energy and communications networks, water treatment facilities, factories, and even economic models. Natures blueprints could provide a foundation for their replacements. As Benyus tells us, there is no reason why we cannot develop a technology with far greater complexity and sophistication than anything we have yet invented that also supports a healthier, happier future for both humans and nature.

Biomimicry of butterfly wing scale structure could cut bank fraud

Cambridge scientists have discovered a way of mimicking the vivid and beautiful colors found on the wings of tropical butterflies in order to lessen the frauds in the future and enhance the security in the printing industry. The findings could find important applications in the security printing industry, helping to make bank notes and credit cards harder to forge.

Biomimicry of butterfly wing scale structure could cut bank fraud

The discovery that butterfly wings have scales that act as tiny solar collectors has led scientists in China and Japan to design a more efficient solar cell that could be used for powering homes, businesses, and other applications in the future. The researchers turned to the microscopic solar scales on butterfly wings in their search for improvements. Using natural butterfly wings as a mold or template, they made copies of the solar collectors and transferred those light-harvesting structures to Grtzel cells.

Fish schooling inspires new ideas for vertical-axis wind turbines

In the Los Angeles basin, the challenge of finding suitable space for large wind farms has prevented further progress in the use of wind energy. However, researcher John Dabiri, associate professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and head of Caltechs Biological Propulsion Laboratory, is using the bioinspiration from fish schooling in order to optimize the vertical-axis wind turbines.

Bat biosonar biomimicry for improved sonar technology

Comparable to some other animals on our planet, bats use other methods instead sight in order to navigate or hunt.They are able to see Comparable to some other animals on our planet, bats use other methods instead sight in order in the dark by sending out sound waves that bounce back to the bats ears from objects such as fruit on trees and flying insect prey. The echolocation or biosonar is currently a simpler way for robots to perceive shapes than pattern recognition programs and is much more applicable in areas without the needed light.

Sea shells inspired a new material made of chalk and polystyrene

A team of materials scientists and chemists from The University of Manchester and The University of Leeds have taken inspiration from sea shells found on the beach to create a composite material from dissimilar ingredients. They have successfully reinforced calcium carbonate, or chalk, with polystyrene particles that are used to make drinks cups. They report that the polystyrene also acts as a toughening agent, assisting the prevention of the growth of cracks.

For a fast walking robot combine a guinea hen with a cockroach

After writing about biomimicry of penguins, sharks, butterflies and bats, were going to write about cockroach biomimicry. Although the sight of a crawling cockroach dashing for cover may be repulsive, the insect is also a biological and engineering marvel. Cockroaches and guinea hens serve as bioinspiration to the researchers at Oregon State University where they are trying to build the worlds first legged robot capable to run over rough terrain. Their latest findings outline how animals use their legs to manage energy storage and expenditure, and why this is so important for running stability. Humans can run, but frankly our capabilities are nothing compared to what insects and some other animals can do, said John Schmitt, an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at OSU. Cockroaches are incredible. They can run fast, turn on a dime, move easily over rough terrain, and react to perturbations faster than a nerve impulse can travel.

Its a bird, its a plane, its RoboSwift

The students which made RoboSwift based the project on the findings of their supervisor, David Lentink of Wageningen University. In April 2007, with several co-authors he published a about the aerodynamic properties of the swift. During its lifetime, single swift flies a distance comparable to five roundtrips to the Moon and can remain in the air continuously for 7000 kilometers. Lentink and his associates discovered that the swift can fly so efficiently and maneuver so well because it continuously adapts the shape of its wings to the flying conditions.These large benefits are possible because the swift can very precisely adjust its feathers to the flight condition. It changes several parameters simultaneously during morphing, including wing sweep, wind area, the local curvature of the wing (airfoil camber) and the wing slenderness (aspect ratio).

Biomimicry of heliotropic plants more efficient solar panels

Many plants are heliotropic, gradually tilting towards the sun to optimize solar energy capture. From an expressive standpoint, a solar panel that tilts towards the sun (like a sunflower) can help the public see a connection between the natural and the high tech. Solar cells that track the angle of the sun can be 38 percent more efficient at generating power than those that are mounted in a fixed position. A team of three MIT students (Forrest Liau, Vyom Sharma, and George Whitfield) designed such a system. They designed the system that imitates the way plants track the sun across the sky, by using the difference in temperature between shaded and sunny areas to change the properties of the material supporting solar photovoltaic cells. Unlike the systems which are currently being used the biomimetric system, once built, is completely passive, requiring no power source or electronics to control the movement.

Lotus flower biomimicry for dirt and bacteria free surfaces

Researchers at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are developing a transparent coating that prevents dirt and even bacteria from sticking in the same way a lotus plant sheds water. The research begun through collaboration of Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems, Linthicum, Md., and nGimat Corporation, Atlanta, Ga. Although a lotus leaf appears smooth, under a microscope, its surface contains a very large number of tiny spikes that greatly reduce the area on which water and dirt can attach. Unlike a similar research described in one of our previous articles, this one differs in application and features since it has addition of bacteria-killing biocide. The NASA team is attempting to mimic this special quality in order to prevent dirt from accumulating on the surfaces of spacesuits, scientific instruments, robotic rovers, solar array panels and other hardware used to gather scientific data or carry out exploratory activities on other objects in the solar system.

Robotic spies bat biomimicry

We already wrote about potential surveillance micro-aerial vehicles in our previous articles. Small flyers, or micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs), have garnered a great deal of interest due to their potential applications where maneuverability in tight spaces or in stealth requiring conditions. In this article were going to write about two researches related to the biomimicry of bats. The researchers at North Carolina State University concentrated on the development of robotic bats that offer increased maneuverability and performance while the researchers from University of Michigan focused on the sensors and communication issues. Gheorghe Bunget, main researcher from the NC State, said, due to the availability of small sensors, MAVs can be used for detection missions of biological, chemical and nuclear agents. But, due to their size, devices using a traditional fixed-wing or rotary-wing design have low maneuverability and aerodynamic efficiency.

Wasp hounds sniff explosives and illegal drugs

Drug smugglers and terrorists may soon meet their match: a handheld chemical detector powered by trained wasps or bees. Nicknamed The Wasp Hound the prototype tool houses five parasitic wasps that react to the smell of explosives, illegal drugs, and plant diseases. In theory, the insects movements set off an alarm to alert authorities. Although this news dates a few years back we thought it should take its place on our website because it is a representative of natures alternative to our technological achievements. In the wild the wasps use their antennae to detect corn borer caterpillars, which the parasites use to hatch and grow their young. The wasps lay single eggs in the caterpillars. As the young mature, they feed on their hosts, which eventually weaken and die.

Green architecture Qatar cacti biomimicry

Due to the changes regarding our environment and temperature it is important to emphasize the new ideas and techniques that bring more balance between our creations and nature. Creating architecture which mimics nature or shows technological advances covers two of our main subjects. Hence we are starting the green architecture series. The Minister of Municipal Affairs & Agriculture (MMAA) in Qatar is getting a brand new office building that takes the form of a towering cactus. Qatar is fairly barren, covered by sand, and receives and average annual rainfall of 8.13 centimeters. Since Qatar has the highest GDP in the world, they can afford to construct spectacular buildings that can be very efficient in the hot desert environment.

Touch Bionics launches worlds first bionic finger

Limb: world's first fully articulating and commercially available bionic hand

The iLimb hand, from Touch Bionics, with natural skinlook cosmesis. Can you tell which is the real hand?

Bionic arm uses elephants trunk as a design model

Caterpillars' gut-sliding locomotion inspires soft-bodied robot development

When a caterpillar crawls, its internal organs slide forward inside its body before its legs move. Does that matter? It does if youre a caterpillar, but it also does if youre a designer of soft-bodied robots. A team of researchers working at Massachusetts' Tufts University used an X-ray to observe large, opaque-bodied caterpillars, then backed up their findings by examining smaller, translucent caterpillars under a microscope. In both cases, it was observed that the caterpillars internal center of mass moved forward first, while its middle legs remained attached to the substrate. In a paper on their findings, the team wrote that the so-called gut-slide is unlike any form of legged locomotion previously reported and represents a new feature in our emerging understanding of crawling.

Insect-inspired device lets micro air vehicles perch on vertical surfaces

A young robotics engineer has developed a perching mechanism that could be invaluable to the field of Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs. Mirko Kovac, of Switzerlands Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), envisions a system wherein swarms of tiny robotic gliders would be deployed over scenes of disasters, such as forest fires or earthquakes. The gliders would fly straight into the sides of vantage points, such as tall buildings or trees, whereupon they would perch on that surface and transmit data to remote observers via cameras or other sensors. They could even free themselves, to fly on to another location.

Unique three-layered snail shell could lead to tougher body armor

They say life imitates art, but any scientist knows that the best designs imitate life. Researchers from the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) are drawing new biomimicry inspiration for body armor design from a hardy ocean snail that boasts a shell structure unlike anything else seen in nature... or in
material research labs.

Green Wavelength unveils bumblebee inspired wind turbine

Gizmag's pages are filled with clever examples of biomimicry, and why not, evolution is after all the biggest, oldest and most successful design house we know of. Today's lesson is being given by insects like bumblebees, hummingbirds, and dragonflies, whose efficient wing flapping capabilities are being harnessed by Californian start-up Green Wavelength in an effort to produce more efficient wind turbines.

Fast thinking flies to help build better robots

A fly being shown a striped LED pattern (left), and the area of the fly's brain that processes motion (Image: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology)

What crayfish can teach us about tough decisions

'I'm outta here' - a crayfish performs a tail-flip (Photo: David D. Yager/Jens Herberholz, University of Maryland)

A team from the University of Maryland has studied the decisionmaking processes of crayfish in an effort to better understand the workings of the human brain. Crayfish were chosen because they have fewer and more accessible neurons than humans or other higher animals. That said, whats observed with them should more or less apply to us. Matching individual neurons to the decision making processes in the human brain is simply impractical for now, explained psychologist Jens Herberholz, the studys senior author. History has shown that findings made in the invertebrate nervous systems often translate to more complex organisms. Its unlikely to be exactly the same, but it can inform our understanding of the human brain, nonetheless. The basic organization of neurons and the underlying neurochemistry are similar, involving serotonin and dopamine, for example.

Drawing inspiration from Mother Nature in designing an artifical leaf

Scientists have taken a leaf from Mother Nature's book in designing a blueprint for an artificial leaf
Producing an artificial leaf capable of harnessing Mother Natures ability to produce energy from sunlight and water via photosynthesis has been a longsought goal for researchers aspiring to provide an environmentally-friendly way to free to world of its dependence on coal, oil, and other carbon-producing fuel sources. Now a group of Chinese scientists has presented a design strategy based on the chemistry and biology of natural leaves that could lead to working prototypes of an artificial leaf that captures solar energy and uses it efficiently to change water into hydrogen fuel.

Creativity in construction

Creativity in Daily life

The Wheel Great Invention

Zero was invented by Indian .

INNOVATION
Innovative process, to inspire researchers past the road blocks... 8 ELEMENTS OF INNOVATION

1. CREATIVITY 2. KNOW-HOW 3. RELEVANCE 4. PLANNING & FOCUS 5. PRECISION & CONTROL 6. OBJECTIVITY 7. PERSERVERANCE 8. DIALOGUE

1. CREATIVITY

Eureka moments are spare and far between--unless you're looking for them. Passing thoughts sometime harbor the biggest breakthroughs. (Tap into these transient fantasies to open up a whole new perspective.) 2. KNOW - HOW
The creative imagination leads where the technical skill-set must follow. In an age of continuous improvement, the "wouldn't it be great" ideas may already have supporting technologies. Keeping pace with the latest breakthroughs may bridge the juncture between theory and application.

3. RELEVANCE Where will this innovation fit within the existing marketplace? The selling point of every technology lies in its one-upmanship over existing technologies. What sustainable advantages does this innovation introduce? 4. PLANNING AND FOCUS Define a criterion for success -- measurable objectives that clearly outline your research goals. Design empirical experiments that qualify and quantify the research results.

5. PRECISION & CONTROL

Troubleshooting is vital to conducting research. Testing several hypotheses provides valuable insight into what works. Adjustments to the process can save valuable research time and materials. 6. OBJECTIVITY
Detachment and clear-sightedness go hand-in-hand with innovation. Mentally polarize the intention of creation and the act of creating. Is there a better technology that might take our research further?

Be open to the possibilities that might drastically alter, but improve, your original plans.

7. PERSEVERANCE

Cling to the indefatigable strength of purpose that drove you to become an engineer. Seek answers where they are only questions, and accomplish what can't be done.
8. DIALOGUE The dialectic between theory and application is vital to innovation. Applications that bridge the gap between observed phenomenon, like ferro-electric current, and high-performance technologies, like Fe-RAM, revolutionize the technological landscape. But communication is not bound to white paper. Consulting an expert or perhaps a peer who specializes in another field of interest may just *spark* that light-bulb moment.

While the elements of innovation are stepping stones in the innovative process, innovation is incomplete without forethought.
DISCOVER INNOVATION