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Publications in Scientific Journals:

I. Gebeshuber:
"Discussion on D. Dowson and A. Neville, Bio-tribology and the operating environment\";
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part J - Journal of Engineering Tribology, 220 (J3) (2006), 333.



English abstract:
1. Living systems also constantly sense the environment and react to it. They have evolved adaptive and smart materials. However, their sensitivity, e.g. to temperature, limits their applicability in many important synthetic materials applications.
For effective transfer from biology to technology, we have to understand the basic building principles of living and the function, which are optimized at different length scales in living systems.

2. I want to introduce the organisms I work on in tribology: diatoms. Diatoms are microorganisms that offer a thesaurus to micro- and nano-tribologists.
These organisms make (at ambient conditions) nanostructured glass surfaces of intricate beauty; some diatom species have evolved strong, selfhealing underwater adhesives. I suggest them as model organisms for tribological studies on the microscale.

Reply by theauthors. We are grateful toDr Gebeshuber for her observations. The first point she makes is an interesting one and we certainly agree that to achieve successful transfer from biology to technology we
must understand the building blocks for living organisms. Specifically, with respect to diatoms, they have a very complex and intricate structure. It is difficult to see at this stage how their remarkable characteristics could be adopted in engineering tribological situations, but their properties are certainly interesting and intriguing from the tribological point of view. Dr Gebeshuber´s work on diatoms at the nano-scale is fascinating and we look forward to further integration of biological and tribological studies in this field.\

Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.