First day of Easter holidays today and number one son very relaxed and just slipped into being curious again, relieved of any compulsion to be taught (v learn). He came back from the shop armed with that magic balloon gue, a brilliant little device for creating your own vortex/tornado in between water bottles, and an elastic-band gun. Been intrigued about static on balloon bubbles and looked up static electricity - learning about electrons, protons, attraction etc. considered role in pressures and bursting stuff - judged by exit wounds of elastic bands.
All makes home-education very tempting again.
We also re-looked at something we'd been interested in a while back - surgical tools used in Ayurvedic medicine from around 800 -1100 BC -much more advanced than surgery in the West even in 1700s. These tools are great examples of biomimicry in form and function - based on birds and mammals beaks, mouths and skulls with even placement of eyes and nose and other features mimiced - possibly as part of the function too. Different tools are modeled on different creatures according to the job they need to perform and based on what creatures perform those same jobs well in nature - cutting, gripping, suturing etc. All made out of steel to avoid rust.
Giant biting ants were used to suture wounds - creating biodegradeable sutures - well before the first biodegradeable sutures appeared in the West
I've been trying to find some more info on these ayurvedic tools - any more that is known of them, are there any collections anywhere to see. I found some drawings in a children's encyclopedia which I've copied out (below). There's reference by a vet. surgeon interested in ayurvedic medicine as a basis of creating sustainable medicine - another growing and interesting field. There are also plenty of references to Shushruta - considered father of surgery, but haven't found much on the mimicry aspect.
Would love some info if anyone's got any?
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