#biomechanics
My latest heart.
I know - another heart. I still love making them and, at this time of year, I get a lot of requests. Each is unique - sometimes on purpose, sometimes to cover up an accident - drill scratch, hole in the wrong place etc. The heart itself is vintage - new old stock from the 1970s - a lucite core with a thick copper plate. They are still available but, eventually, I’ll have to find an alternative. I’d love to find similar wood hearts - that could be hinged with a secret internal compartment. If anyone knows where something like that can be sourced - let me know. Dimensions would be 1 ½ inches wide/high and about ¾ of an inch deep so they could be cut and hollowed out.
The next one I’ll be making will be a bit different - a central “window” with a flashing red LED - with batteries that can be replaced. It will have to be a symmetrical design with a feature taking up that much real estate on the heart. I’m starting it tonight and I’ll post a video of it to show the “flash”.
Light Spider
This has been a long time in the making. The parts have literally been sitting on my work desk all year. First problem was creating the abdomen from two perforated domes - something that could be opened and closed. So I found a tiny little hinge and fashioned a swing hook latch. Next major problem was the legs. Another artist who I admire greatly solders watch winding stems for insect legs. I wanted to use the same materials but I don’t copy. So I used sleeves, cord end tubes with loops, tiny rubber rings and brass rods. They are screwed to a brass ring. I did want a lot more detail in the cephalothorax but decided to go simple with a stepped brass finding with brass rings attached underneath for the central screw. It’s more wild wild west than a real representation of a spider.
The glow is from the innards of a LED “fairy globe” sold on one of the big wholesale sites for party decoration. I took it out of the plastic ball and put it in the spider’s abdomen. The light pulses slowly on and off. Batteries can easily be replaced. It doesn’t have a switch so I just break the circuit with a toothpick between the battery and terminal to turn it off.
It’s 3 inches wide, 2 ½ inches long and 1 ½ inches high.
Thanks to all my followers - I really appreciate all of you. I hope you have a wonderful New Year and fantastic 2019!
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Tritium Powered Assassin Bug
No, not really “powered” by tritium but that would be fantastic. It’s just a fantasy mechanical winged insect with a tritium rod in the abdomen.It’s hanging from a stick pin so it can attached to clothing. The legs are vintage watch stems attached to brass rods. Nearly every connection is nuts and bolts - tiny nuts and bolts. The centre piece is brass with a square top screw securing the glass vial to the body and head.It’s estimated the green tritium will glow continuously for 10 to 12 years. It doesn’t need “charging” from a light source like regular glow in the dark.
It’s 1 ½ inches long, just over 1 inch wide and stands ½ an inch high. It’s US$185 shipping included. If you are interested in buying it - drop me a line with your paypal email address and I’ll invoice you.
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Quadrupedal water launch capability demonstrated in small Late Jurassic pterosaurs
Pittman, Kaye, Campos, Habib
Abstract
Pterosaurs thrived in and around water for 160 + million years but their take-off from water is poorly understood. A purportedly low floating position and forward centre of gravity barred pterosaurs from a bird-like bipedal running launch.
Quadrupedal water launch similar to extant water-feeding birds and bats has been proposed for the largest pterosaurs, such as AnhangueraandQuetzalcoatlus. However, quadrupedal water launch has never been demonstrated in smaller pterosaurs, including those living around the Tethys Sea in the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Lagoon.
Using Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence, we singled out aurorazhdarchid specimen MB.R.3531 that alone preserved specific soft tissues among more than a dozen well-preserved Solnhofen pterosaur specimens. These soft tissues pertain to primary propulsive contact surfaces needed for quadrupedal water launch (pedal webbing and soft tissues from an articulated forelimb) that permit robust calculations of its dynamic feasibility without the need to make assumptions about contact areas.
A first-principles-based dynamics model of MB.R.3531 reveals that quadrupedal water launch was theoretically feasible and that webbed feet significantly impacted launch performance. Three key factors limiting water launch performance in all pterosaurs are identified, providing a foundation for understanding water launch evolution: available propulsive contact area, forelimb extension range and forelimb extension power about the shoulder.
Read the paper here:
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Illustration to the book of science fiction writer Rudy Rucker “Software. Wetware”.
In this novel, the main character scientist Cobb Anderson goes to the moon to find a way to gain immortality. There he is exposed a medical operation conducted by one of the local surgeons. After that his biological body is completely replaced by an artificial one.
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ZOIDS-like robotic pterosaur by Takashi Yamazaki…I’m getting Roger Dean and Hajime Sorayama vibes from this one. This illustration appears on page 106 of The Mind’s Eye: The Art of Omni.
https://books.google.com/books?id=oYkyBgAAQBAJ
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Wolf King ⚜
Aerospace Attack Mech (Commission)- Another monster designed and drawn for an anonymous client. This creature is able to control the smaller bio-mechs swarming around it
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![[KaijubrainsArt]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/d3f2e240a0b17380cdb77917ea1cb6c2/e20b26d07e2f346e-db/s30x30u_c1/0eabae204e09a3fbbea561d183199d91205201b0.png){kind=small}
Traceurs, or people who do parkour, may seem superhuman in their ability to climb up walls and jump off buildings without getting hurt, but really they’re just biomechanics masters!
Check out my Face Slapping Breviary and reblog it, if you are active or passive in FaceSlapping —>>> http://licence24.de/Ohrfeigen-Brevier/Face-Slapping-Breviary
Thank you for your interest.
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