Remote-controlled flying machines used to be firmly in the realm of the hobbyist, but the rise of the drones has made the technology available to just about anyone. The problem with most RC planes and copters is that they have spinning rotors which can prove dangerous to nearby wildlife. A much more natural version of the drone is in the works, and it looks and moves so naturally that even other birds can’t tell the difference. The nine-gram bird charges on a small egg-shaped charger. In just 12 minutes it gets enough of a charge for 10 flights of up to eight minutes each.

The Bionic Bird is biomimetic, meaning that it is designed to look and act like its natural counterparts. When it’s flying, the Bionic Bird alternately flaps its wings and glides on the air currents. To anyone who isn’t scrutinizing the drone with binoculars, a high-flying Bionic Bird is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. The bird is controlled via Bluetooth 4.0 from a smartphone or tablet, which makes it easy to fly but also limits your range to about 100 meters. Future planned developments include motion control and support for Android devices.

Although we can imagine how much fun the Bionic Bird would be to play with, it’s also a little scary to know that one fitted with a camera could easily go unnoticed basically anywhere. The creators of the bird drone launched a wildly successful IndieGoGo campaign that raised more than 620% of its initial goal. The drone itself and its control programs are still under development, but the system is expected to be fully operational by Spring 2016.

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Bad news for anyone who enjoys knocking off ATMs and vending machines: a team at ETH Zurich have developed a self-defense system that would steam and foam if the machine is tampered with.

The foaming material was inspired by the bombadier beetle, a bug that sprays a boiling hot corrosive liquid at attackers when threatened. The security system works in a similar way, though it’s not quite as violent. When the material is compromised by a sharp strike or hit, a tiny barrier is broken between the its two layers. One layer contains hydrogen peroxide while the other is filled with manganese oxide.

When the membrane between the layers is broken, the two chemicals combine to produce the hot, smoking foam. No electricity is required for the system, and since it is automatically triggered by some kind of trauma there is no need for the system to be monitored. The idea is that the foam would either damage the goods – in the case of an ATM, the cash – or have markers included that would mark both the perpetrators and the cash for later identification by law enforcement. The team hopes to develop the technology further so it can be used to deter pests from eating crops or be incorporated in medical implants in some way.

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The natural world has a lot to teach us about how to interact with our environment. Researchers at Harvard looked to the often-maligned termite for robotic inspiration. Their work led them to create a swarm of robots that can build architectural structures. The hope is that the robots can be used to build structures in dangerous or inaccessible places.

The robots put together structures without a set plan, “thinking” the way that termites do when they are building. Termites build their structures simply by carrying a piece of dirt to a place – if that place already has a piece of dirt in it, they move on to another place.

Similarly, the termite robots are only given very simple directions as to which direction they should move with their building blocks. If there is already a block or another robot in the place they go, they just go to a different place to put down their block. The robots are programmed to never trap themselves inside the structure they build.

To test the robots, the researchers had them build a little castle. Their work is incredibly slow and doesn’t seem to have a lot of order to it, but in the end the structure is built and the termite ‘bots prove once again that just watching nature can inspire the most amazing technology.

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The eye is an extremely complex organ – no matter what species of animal. The human eye is sensitive enough to recognize more than 500 shades of grey. Our depth of field is excellent, but we lack the wide-angle range of the eyes of a fly. A hybrid human/fly eye was inevitable.

Associate Professor of biomedical engineering and ophthalmology at Ohio State University, Yi Zhao has come up with an experimental lens that would combine the depth of field capabilities of the human eye with the wide-angle capabilities of an insect eye. “Our eye can change focus. An insect eye is made of many small optical components that can’t change focus but give a wide view. We can combine the two,” says Zhao. “What we get is a wide-angle lens with depth of field.”

The lens can be applied to many different fields of technology, from laparoscopy and microscopes to smartphone cameras. Its ability to correct focus by altering its shape could also give surgeons more confidence. With delicate procedures such as tumor removal, it will allow them a wide-angle view while easily gauging the proximity of lens to tissue. It’s another great example of how biomimicry can change our view of the world – quite literally.

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Named for the Mayan god of rain, the Chaac Ha water collector is an intuitive and impressive invention for water preservation, which is becoming an increasingly immediate global obstacle. It was created by students from the Yucatan region of Southeast Mexico.

This funky looking gizmo catches dew as well as rain and is also portable. It collects 2.5 liters of water every night from dew alone. The design was developed by observing the water’s natural cycle. The layout of the Teflon fabric is meant to mimic the petals of a flower, which have evolved to collect moisture from the air.

The students involved in the project used cutting edge 3D design software made by Autodesk, who awarded the recognized students with Autodesk Sustainability Workshop award. Their goal was to transport clean water to neighboring villages that don’t have regular access to the necessity. They achieved this as well as designing one cool looking yard decoration.

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