Biomechanics Overview 2012 - Field Museum

BIOMECHANICS* A New Traveling Exhibition

* working title only

Exhibition Details

7,500 Sq Ft Launches March 2014 Touring throughout North America $250,000 USD for 3-month booking 5,000 Sq Ft Launches April 2014 Touring outside North America through 2017 $165,000 USD for 3-month booking * Quotes for longer bookings can be provided

WHY BIOMECHANICS?

> Visitors & Venues like it <

> Intriguing science & compelling stories<

> Nature’s ingenuity is timely and timeless <

MARKET RESEARCH

> Survey of Field Museum Members: 86% want to see it > National online survey of 400 museum-goers (50% with

children under 18): Biomechanics tied for #2 (of 11) > Onsite survey of 200 visitors: Biomechanics ranked #3 (of

8)

- 87% would make special trip to see exhibition - 74% would pay an extra ticket charge

> Online survey of 70 museums (8 different countries): Biomechanics ranked #1 (of 8) - 78.6% (highest rating) would be interested in hosting exhibition

THE BIG IDEA Biomechanics is a way of looking at the living world: as machines built by evolution.

THE GOALS VISITORS WILL: > discover the marvels of natural engineering > see how biomechanics & biomimicry are re-energizing the imaginations of scientists & designers.

• All LIVING THINGS (plants, animals, and humans) respond to the forces of the physical world. • EVOLUTION creates an enormous diversity of biological designs that solve life’s challenges—some common strategies and some unique cases of extreme performance. • By LOOKING at living things in new ways—slowed down, enlarged, from the inside—scientists reveal how biological designs really work.

MAIN MESSAGES

> Consortium of international experts and museum partners > Specimens, fossils, models, touchable elements > Media and digital programs > Mechanical interactives & kinesthetic experiences

HOW WE’LL TELL THE STORY

BUBBLE PLAN

The exhibition is divided into seven sections: •  Galleries 1–4 depict a fierce battle of survival: in

which every living thing must contend with the elemental challenges of life on Earth.

•  Galleries 5 & 6 examine how organisms journey through

the world’s diverse, perplexing, and sometimes dangerous environments.

•  Gallery 7 explores how living things respond to the

mysterious world around them.

EXHIBITION AT-A-GLANCE

FLOOR PLAN As visitors move through the galleries they will

experience a sense of moving from the internal to the external

How do plants and animals manage to stay in one piece in a world where the crushing force of gravity, the pressure of water and wind, and the blows of other creatures are all working to tear them apart?

INNER STRENGTH

A woodpecker’s unique skull allows it to peck wood at a rate of 20 pecks per second, without injuring its brain.

BODYWORKS

Inside every living thing, fluids like blood have to circulate with a precise pressure, speed, and volume in order to sustain life. How—without metal, motors, or electricity—do they manage to drain, pressurize, push, and recirculate these vital fluids?

A redwood tree pumps 160 gallons of water to a height of 250 feet- silently, using no electricity, and without breaking a sweat.

Life on earth must endure the planet’s extreme temperatures. What strategies and mechanisms do plants and animals use to keep warm in icy seas—or keep their cool in broiling deserts?

EMBRACING EXTREMES

Skunk cabbage has the ability to generate temperatures of up to 15-35°C above air temperature in order to melt its way through frozen ground.

Everyone has to eat. But food can be scarce—and competition fierce. How do animals use muscles, levers and linkages to grab onto food and take a bite?

FEEDING FRENZY

The fossil fish Dunkleosteus had a bite force of 8,000 pounds per square inch. How do we know and why so strong?

Whether you are an ant, an antelope, or a human, the world is still a big place: how do living things overcome the forces that hold them in place in order to jump, slither, gallop, and crawl across the faces of the earth?

MOVING ON LAND

A flea can leap two feet between dogs. That’s like a four-foot tall girl jumping the length of a football field.

Only a small fraction of the earth is dry land. Over millions of years living things have adapted to the dizzying heights of the open skies and the crushing pressure of the deepest seas. How do these creatures manage to propel themselves through air and water?

MOVING THROUGH AIR AND WATER

Fish larvae swimming through our world’s oceans feel the resistance that we would if we were to swim through honey.

SENSING THE WORLD What tools and techniques do animals

use to sense what’s out there in the world, beyond their own bodies? Go beyond the five familiar senses to explore nature’s most advanced technological devices: specialized equipment that animals use to detect Earth’s magnetic field, read the electrical signals of other living things, and “see” objects in places where there is no visible light to see them in.

The giant silkworm moth can sense a single female moth from miles away. How does the male have this capability and why is it needed?

BIOMIMICRY Taking inspiration from nature’s ingenuity, scientists have made new technological breakthroughs in the field of biomimicry. Examples of innovations imitating aspects of the natural world are present throughout all seven sections of the exhibition.

Amputees are offered new levels of athletic mobility with the help of carbon prosthetic limbs inspired by the natural design of cheetah legs.

Mark W. Westneat, PhD. lead curator. biomechanics of feeding, locomotion and respiration in animals

> CONTENT ADVISORS IN AREAS OF:

- Sensor-based motion and cognition

-  Motor control and the mechanics of axial movement -  Primate feeding kinetics -  Fluid transport system design -  Bioengineering & material science -  Biomimicry -  Robotics

CONTENT ADVISORY TEAM