"Why Meme?", A Literature Review

What's up guys? Adrian here.

As you can probably tell, we chose Meme as our adopted life because we consider her (?) an attractive case for biomimicry. Her various features make for an array of interesting engineering applications. How do we know this to be true? Well that’s what I'm here to clarify.

Based on scientific literature, I can show you why we chose Meme as our adopted life. As mentioned by my group leader Aisyah before, Meme is a plant which can trap insects as prey and digest them for energy. Did you know that engineers have already considered this amazing feature of nature for engineering applications? 

The Venus Flytrap is a monotypic genus that exhibits a carnivorous lifestyle. The Venus Flytrap uses a snap trap to catch, digest and "eat" animals. To digest its food and assimilate the nutrients, carnivorous plants have to break down their chitin-rich shield (cuticle) before additional enzymes can penetrate and degrade internal tissues. Since carnivorous plants such as Venus Flytraps commonly feed on chitin cuticle-shielded animals, the digestive fluid within these plants should contain chitin-degrading enzymes known as chitinase. The chitinase in the venus flytrap is expected to be i) functional at relatively high temperatures, ii) have an acidic pH optimum, iii) be resistant towards proteolytic degradation and iv) degrade crystalline chitin. With so many attributes to this fluid, P. Pastoza et al. notes that these peculiar characteristics could very well be used in industry for its ability to hydrolyze both soluble and crystalline chitin substrates. [1]
Besides that, Venus Flytraps are known to have incredible reaction times. Why is that? This is because when insects touch the trigger hairs of the plant, a receptor potential is triggered which sends an electrical signal that acts as an action potential. All it takes is two stimuli to activate the trap, which closes in a fraction of a second. This rapid closure has been attracting attention for its possible applications in engineering industry.  

A. Volkov et al. stated in his study that the reason why plants developed such an acute sense of reaction probably lies in environmental stress factors. The research explores the character of electrical stimuli which triggers the trap as well as discovers the presence of sensory memory within the plant. [2]

In a more recent study, A. Volkov et al. researched biomechanics and forces involved with the Venus Flytrap. It is stated that the Venus Flytrap does not crush the insect it catches but merely entraps it like a cage with the lobes of the trap changing from convex to concave. It is found that by understanding the mechanics of the trap, it is possible to design a closing mechanism with a high force that merely encaptures the small object rather than crushes it. The trap also responds quickly and can be activated through mechanical or electrical impulse. The applications for such a concept is important for industrial purposes such as creating rapid response safety mechanisms that protect the consumer upon a slight detection of stimuli. [3]

Figure 2: View of the Venus Flytrap when the trap closes shut

Mohsen Shahinpoor et al., was the first researcher to create a robotic version of the Venus Flytrap. The robot Venus Flytrap makes use of a material known as ionic polymeric metal composite (IPMC) that mimics muscle actuators. This new material in the robot works in two ways. First, because of the unique properties of the IPMC material, simply touching it causes a very small voltage to be generated. The second is the muscle type flexing or bending, exhibited by the material when given a charge. With the robot, the small strips serve as sensors, that when touched, relay a tiny charge to the voltage generator which sends a little bit bigger charge to the “leaves” causing them to bend inwardly towards one another, or in viewing it, as a mouth closing on its prey. [4]

Figure 3: Robotic Venus Flytrap responding to electrical impulses

The combination of this technology with the fluids to digest prey into energy are astounding. The future could be filled with robots who "eat" to self-sustain themselves, thus alleviating the need for an external power source.

References

[1] P. Paszota, M. Escalante-Perez, L. R. Thomsen, M. W. Risør, A. Dembski, L. Sanglas, T. a. Nielsen, H. Karring, I. B. Thøgersen, R. Hedrich, J. J. Enghild, I. Kreuzer, and K. W. Sanggaard, “Secreted major Venus flytrap chitinase enables digestion of Arthropod prey,” Biochim. Biophys. Acta - Proteins Proteomics, vol. 1844, no. 2, pp. 374–383, 2014.

[2] A. G. Volkov, H. Carrell, A. Baldwin, and V. S. Markin, “Electrical memory in Venus flytrap,” Bioelectrochemistry, vol. 75, no. 2, pp. 142–147, 2009.

[3] A. G. Volkov, S. L. Harris, C. L. Vilfranc, V. a. Murphy, J. D. Wooten, H. Paulicin, M. I. Volkova, and V. S. Markin, “Venus flytrap biomechanics: Forces in the Dionaea muscipula trap,” J. Plant Physiol., vol. 170, no. 1, pp. 25–32, 2013.

[4] K. J. Kim and M. Shahinpoor, “A novel method of manufacturing three-dimensional ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) biomimetic sensors, actuators and artificial muscles,” Polymer (Guildf)., vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 797–802, 2001.