Where do you look for inspiration? It appears that more and more scientists are looking to the wonders of nature for inspiration. A quick search online shows that centers for biologically-inspired research can be found from Georgia to California to London to the subject of this week’s research report, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, aka Virginia Tech.

According to Wikipedia, biologically-inspired research is a new scientific discipline  that “applies biological principles to develop new engineering solutions for medicine, industry, the environment, and many other fields that have previously not been touched by the biology revolution.”

At Virginia Tech it’s called the Bioinspired Science and Technology Center.(BIST). One creature that particularly fascinates scientists is the bat, a strange-looking, cave-dwelling, nocturnal mammal.

Since its founding in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has gone by four different official names. The campus is nestled between the picturesque Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, in Blacksburg, Virginia.

In addition to BIST, here is some other research that is going on at Virginia Tech.

Questions to ask before getting your DNA tested.

http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/2015-summer/s2015-zallen.html

New uses for beer-making by-products

http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/2015-summer/s2015-beer.html

Cell phone use by remote tribes in Africa

http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/2015-summer/s2015-maasai.html

And Virginia Tech even posts some videos about its research:

A baby wood duck video

http://www.unirel.vt.edu/audio_video/2015/10/100515-fralin-woodducks.html

Video of a vest that could save lives

http://www.unirel.vt.edu/audio_video/2015/08/082715-vtti-safetyvest.html

A video/commercial showing many of the Virginia Tech research projects

http://www.unirel.vt.edu/audio_video/2015/09/091115-unirel-halftimespot.html

Here’s a photo from a photo contest currently going on at Virginia Tech.