Design and Nature 2010 - Fifth International Conference on Comparing Design in Nature with Science and Engineering Design and Nature 2010

The Design and Nature Conference is to be reconvened in 2010 following the success of previous meetings, the first of which was held in Udine, Italy in 2002, followed by the second in Rhodes, Greece in 2004, a third in the New Forest, UK, in 2006, and the last one in the Algarve, Portugal in 2008.

Throughout history, many leading thinkers have been inspired by the parallels between nature and human design, in mathematics, engineering and other areas.Today, the huge increase in biological knowledge, developments in design engineering systems, together with the growth in computer power and the developments in simulation modelling, have all made more comprehensive studies of nature possible.

Delegates attending Design and Nature 2010 will be invited to submit an expanded version of their paper for publication in the International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics, associated with the Wessex Institute of Technology.

Scientists and engineers now have at their disposal a vast array of relationships for materials, mechanisms and control. The resulting laws have been painstakingly assembled by observation and analysis and span the cosmic scale of space down to the molecular level of genetics. In particular, they have made us aware of the rich diversity of the natural world around us.

It is these developments which have prompted the reconvening of this international conference on Design and Nature. It is intended that the meeting will bring together researchers from around the world working on a variety of studies involving nature and their significance for modern scientific thought and design.