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Touring exhibition shows nature in the machine

The Bionic Beast

The Bionic Beast

The elegant simplicity in the way animals navigate their world is the inspiration for an exhibition just opened at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

The exhibition has been touring Australia and is now in Sydney to coincide with the holding of the Olympic Games. BHP WildScience tells the story of how plants and animals have inspired the design of modern machines and devices. The thirty exhibits which make up WildScience were developed by science centres and museums around Australia.

elephtThe centrepiece is a near life-size bionic African elephant, called the Bionic Beast. By turning wheels, visitors can make the Beast move its limbs and trunk, demonstrating what knees, elbows and backbones have in common with joints and hinges in machinery and buildings. Built of scrap metal and old car parts, the Bionic Beast demonstrates how several parts can move in relation to eachother while remaining joined together.

batheadAnother exhibit, based around a bat's head, challenges the participant to navigate through a course using only sound. The nearer the participant gets to a virtual wall, the louder the signal feedback. This principle of echo-location, used by bats to navigate the skies, has now been applied to special headphone units which enable blind people to walk around with more confidence.

The exhibition is open until October 8, 2000.

Tags: astronomy-space