38,413 research outputs found
Roadmap on semiconductor-cell biointerfaces.
This roadmap outlines the role semiconductor-based materials play in understanding the complex biophysical dynamics at multiple length scales, as well as the design and implementation of next-generation electronic, optoelectronic, and mechanical devices for biointerfaces. The roadmap emphasizes the advantages of semiconductor building blocks in interfacing, monitoring, and manipulating the activity of biological components, and discusses the possibility of using active semiconductor-cell interfaces for discovering new signaling processes in the biological world
“Constructal Theory: From Engineering to Physics, and How Flow Systems Develop Shape and Structure”
Constructal theory and its applications to various fields ranging from engineering to
natural living and inanimate systems, and to social organization and economics, are
reviewed in this paper. The constructal law states that if a system has freedom to morph
it develops in time the flow architecture that provides easier access to the currents that
flow through it. It is shown how constructal theory provides a unifying picture for the
development of flow architectures in systems with internal flows (e.g., mass, heat, electricity,
goods, and people). Early and recent works on constructal theory by various
authors covering the fields of heat and mass transfer in engineered systems, inanimate
flow structures (river basins, global circulations) living structures, social organization,
and economics are reviewed. The relation between the constructal law and the thermodynamic
optimization method of entropy generation minimization is outlined. The constructal
law is a self-standing principle, which is distinct from the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The place of the constructal law among other fundamental principles, such
as the Second Law, the principle of least action and the principles of symmetry and
invariance is also presented. The review ends with the epistemological and philosophical
implications of the constructal law
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