CO1: Define Biological Concepts from an Engineering Perspective PDF

**CO1: Define biological concepts from an engineering perspective.** Reading material: **WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW BIOLOGY** - To find solutions to challenges, that face mankind - Biology is us, we are all biological creatures **DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING\ ** - Generally, Sc...

**CO1: Define biological concepts from an engineering perspective.** Reading material: **WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW BIOLOGY** - To find solutions to challenges, that face mankind - Biology is us, we are all biological creatures **DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING\ ** - Generally, Science is the study of the physical world, while Engineering applies scientific knowledge to design processes, structures or equipment. - Both Engineers and Scientists will have a strong knowledge of science, mathematics and technology, but Engineering students will learn to apply these principles to designing creative solutions to Engineering challenges. - So when we think of a scientist versus engineer, the two aren't separate entities but belong to each other -- without science, there wouldn't be engineering **Science** - Science is the study of the nature and behavior of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them - Science is the field of study concerned with discovering and describing the world around us by observing and experimenting - Science is defined as the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena **Engineering** Engineering, the application of science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the uses of humankind Engineering is the creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property There are four questions that can help you frame your explanation of the differences between engineering and science.\ **What's the simple definition?** - Science is the body of knowledge that explores the physical and natural world. Engineering is the application of knowledge in order to design, build and maintain a product or a process that solves a problem and fulfills a need (i.e. a technology). - The essence of science is inquiry; the essence of engineering is design.  - Scientific inquiry expands the scope of human perception and understanding; engineering design expands the scope of human plans and results - Science is knowledge of facts and engineering is application of these facts **What's the procedure?** Scientists use the scientific method. The scientist starts with asking a question. Then they do background research, formulate a hypothesis, test that hypothesis by conducting an experiment, analyze the data and communicate their results. Engineers use the engineering design process. Engineers start by defining the problem, then they identify the criteria and constraints, brainstorm ideas, plan, create a technology and improve upon their design. **What's the goal?** Scientists and engineers have different goals. Scientists seek to describe and understand the natural world. Engineers consider various criteria and constraints in order to design solutions to problems, needs and wants that better the lives of humans, animals and/or the environment. **What's the result and impact?** Scientists use their varied approaches---controlled experiments or longitudinal observational studies---to generate knowledge. The final result might be a research paper or a book, and the knowledge therein can be used to help us understand and make predictions about the natural world. Engineers use scientific knowledge to create a technology. What does this mean in a real-world context? Example: A virologist is a scientist who researches how viruses are spread and how they affect the human body. A biomedical engineer can use the virologist\'s research to create an anti-viral drug that blocks a certain virus from spreading to new cells in the body. In this way, both engineers and scientists are extremely important, and both fields benefit from the ingenuity and hard work of its counterpart. In some cases, scientists rely on the innovations that engineers design to further their research (e.g. microscopes or monitors) **COMPARISON BETWEEN EYE AND CAMERA** Eye is an organ of sight while a camera is equipment that is used to record images How eye works..... The facts gathered by using different fields of science (like biology, physics etc.) and then human engineered camera by using these facts The human eye lets us see the world by sending impulses to our nervous system. In many ways, it is very similar to other optical devices, including cameras. Your eyes and your brain work together to allow you to see. In fact, human eyes and brains have been coevolving for millions of years. Your eyes are a bit like something else that captures images of the world: a camera. The camera and the human eye have much more in common than just conceptual philosophy --- the eye captures images similar to the way the camera does. The anatomy of the camera bears more similarities to a biological eyeball than many would imagine, including the lens-like cornea and the film-like retina. Similarities like these give the camera the appearance of a robotic eye. However, though there are many similarities between cameras and eyes, they are by no means identical. **How are an eye and a camera similar?** An eye and a camera both have lenses and light-sensitive surfaces. Your iris controls how much light enters your eye. Your lens helps focus the light. The retina is a light-sensitive surface at the back of your eye. It captures an image of what you're looking at. Then, the retina sends impulses to your brain along the optic nerve. Finally, the brain interprets what you're seeing. A human eye has a lens (1), pupil (2), iris (3), cornea (4), retina (5), optic nerve (6), and blind spot (7) This is similar to what happens when a camera captures an image. First, light hits the surface of the camera's lens. The aperture controls how much light enters the camera. Then, the light makes its way to a light-sensitive surface. For a long time, this surface was the camera's film. In today's digital cameras, this surface is an imaging sensor chip.  An SLR camera has a lens (1), mirror (2), aperture (3), prism (4), film or imaging sensor (5) and eyepiece (6) **Cornea and Lens** The cornea is the "cap" of the eye. This transparent (like clear jelly) structure sits to the front of the eye and has a spherical curvature. The lens of a camera is also transparent (glass) and sits at the front of the body. Like the cornea, the lens also maintains a spherical curvature. The corneal and lens curvature allows for the eye and camera to view, though not in focus, a limited area to both the right and the left. That is, without the curve, the eye and camera would see only what is directly in front of it. **Iris and Aperture** Light adjustment: Both the eye and a camera can adjust quantity of light entering. On a camera, it's done with the aperture control built into your lens, whilst in your eye, it's done by having a larger or smaller iris. The aperture is to the camera as the iris is to the eye, and this reveals one of many similarities between cameras vs. eyes. The aperture size refers to how much light is let into the camera and will ultimately hit the sensor or film. As with the human eye, when the iris contracts itself, the pupil becomes smaller and the eye takes in less light. When the iris widens in darker situations, the pupil becomes larger, so it can take in more light. The same effect happens with the aperture; larger (lower) aperture values let in more light than a small (higher) aperture value. The lens opening is the pupil; the smaller the opening, the less light let in. **Focus in Eyes and Cameras** Image focusing: Human and camera lenses both focus an inverted image onto light-sensitive surface. In the case of a camera, it's focused onto film or a sensor chip. In your eyes, the light-sensitive surface is the retina on the inside of your eyeball. Both the eye and camera have the ability to focus on one single object and blur the rest, whether in the foreground (shallow depth of field) or off at a distance. Likewise, the eye can focus on a larger image, just as a camera (greater depth of field) can focus and capture a large scape. **Scope and Field of View** As the eye, the camera has a limited scope to take in what is around it. The curvature of the eye and the lens allow for both to take in what is not directly in front of it. However, the eye can only take in a fixed scope, while a camera's scope can be changed by the focal length of different types of lenses **Retina and Film** The retina sits at the back of the eye and collects the light reflected from the surrounding environment to form the image. The same task in the camera is performed either by film or sensors in digital cameras. Retinas, film, and imaging sensor chips all have one other thing in common. They all receive an inverted (upside-down) version of the image. Why? The lens in both an eye and a camera is convex, or curved outwards. When light hits a convex object, it refracts. This flips the image upside-down. But you don't see images upside-down. And the movies you watch aren't upside-down either. Why not? This is because your brain steps in to help your eyes. It knows the world is supposed to be right side up. So it flips the image over again. Digital cameras are programmed to make the correction on their own. Non-digital cameras contain a prism or mirror that flips the image so it appears right side up. Film is transparent so you can view the images on it the right way around. **How are an eye and a camera different?** The human eye contains small muscles that contract and relax -- and this enables the lenses in your eyes to change shape and stay focused on a moving object.\ These muscles also capable of changing the thickness of the lens to accommodate the image being viewed.\ A camera lens can't do this. That's why photographers change lenses, depending on how far away they are from an object. Mechanical parts in the camera lens also adjust to stay focused on a moving object. Simply speaking, the human eye is a subjective device. Your eyes work in harmony with your brain to create the images you perceive: Your eyes are adjusting the focus (by bending the light through the lens in your eyeballs) and translating photons (light) into an electrical impulse your brain can process. From there onwards, it's all about your brain: It is continuously readjusting its colour balance according to the lighting context. In other words, our eyes know what must be seen as red or white or black etc. A camera, on the other hand, is an absolute measurement device --- It is measuring the light that hits a series of sensor, but the sensor is 'dumb', and the signals recorded need to be adjusted to suit the color temperature of the light illuminating the scene, for example Lens focus: In camera, the lens moves closer/further from the film to focus. In your eyes, the lens changes shape to focus: The muscles in your eyes change the actual shape of the lens inside your eyes. Sensitivity to light: A film in a camera is uniformly sensitive to light. The human retina is not. Therefore, with respect to quality of image and capturing power, our eyes have a greater sensitivity in dark locations than a typical camera. **How does an eye process colour differently from a camera?** Your retinas contain two types of [photoreceptors](https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-in-context/how-do-we-see-colour): rods and cones. Rods allow you to see in low light. They aren't useful for colour vision. Cones let you see in colour. There are three types of cones. Each type responds to different wavelengths of light. Red cones respond to long wavelengths. Blue cones respond to short wavelengths. Green cones respond to medium wavelengths. When your brain activates different combinations of cones, you can see the world in colour. Cameras also have photoreceptors. But they only have one type. Cameras respond to red, blue and green light using filters placed on top of their photoreceptors. The photoreceptors in a camera are evenly distributed across the lens. In the human eye, however, the cones are concentrated at the center of the retina. There are no rods at all at the center of the retina.  Because a camera has photoreceptors all over its lens, it always sees a "full" picture. Your eyes, on the other hand, have a blind spot. That's the point where the optic nerve connects to the retina. It has no photoreceptors at all. uMost of the time, you don't notice your blind spot. This is because when light hits this area of one eye, your brain uses information from your other eye to fill in the gap. If you want to test your blind spot, you can with a simple experiment. **Co2 : Recognize artificial systems mimicking human action.\ \ COMPARISON BETWEEN BIRD FLYING AND AIRCRAFT\ ** - Birds and aircraft are amazing because of their common attribute, flight - Birds fly so effortlessly because of the adaptations that they have - Birds have streamlined shapes so that when they are in flight the air can flow on their surface smoothly - Birds have smooth and sometimes glossy surface. Birds groom their feathers with their beaks to makes sure that their body is smooth as they fly - Engineers used the shape of the birds as inspiration to model the planes - Most airplanes have a streamlined shape so that they do not face air resistance when they are in motion - Airplanes also have polished surfaces, and this prevents air resistance **´The shape and structure** ´The structure of birds and aircraft is quite similar. ´Both have streamlined body structure which is necessary for flight. ´The body is made up of light materials in case of aircraft whereas birds have light bones and feathers in their body. ´The wings make birds and aircraft even closer, as both of them use wings for flight as well as the shape of it. ´Also, the front part of aircraft is pointed as the front part of bird (beak). This is responsible for creating them more aerodynamic and helps in forward movement by sweeping the air. ´**Flight techniques -- Hovering and gliding** ´There are various flight techniques that aircraft practice as the birds do. Both birds and winged aircraft can glide in the air for a longer distance. ´They can also use gliding as an energy efficient mode. During gliding almost no energy is spent by birds whereas the aircraft also use minimum of energy. ´Also the helicopters hover as different birds do. The diving technique used by birds is also used in airshows. Most of the flight techniques are adopted from the observation of birds as human strive to outwit birds in flying **´Movement in the air** **´**Aircraft use different movable parts in their wings and tails to maneuver or simply change direction so as to direct the movement like rudder, elevator and ailerons. ´They control horizontal and vertical movement as well as tilting. Likewise the tail of birds are responsible for the maneuvers and the entire movement since both parts of birds are completely movable unlike aircraft. ´Birds use a concept where they fly in a V shape when they are in a flock. This mode of flying has enabled birds to travel greater distances. ´The V formation aids in collaboration, because as each bird flies, it adds more energy to the group, and they can keep up many miles in flight. ´The birds keep changing positions and rotate their place in the stack, and this helps them go for long distances without tiring. **´Landing** ´Aircraft and birds both gain or lose elevation with the variation of the drag force that acts downward and the lift force that acts upwards. ´The parts that control the movement are the things that enable them to create such variation finally enabling them to land as well as take off. ´Both of them take control during the landing process by the use of their motion controllers. ´Birds usually generate a resistance by flapping their wings while the aircraft move the ailerons, elevator and apply brakes. ´There are some researchers from Stanford University who utilized this trait and concluded that if jets use the same trait, they can save on fuel. ´They purported that if jets fly in a V-shape and alternate their positions, they would manage to save their fuel up to 15%. ´Apart from these similarities, both are different in terms of many other things. ´Even we can sort many differences out in those above similarities when we scrutinize these two things more. ´Aircraft have evolved much from where they have started. ´So, the early bird inspired aircraft were more bird like than these modern evolved aircraft that we observe today. **APPLICATIONS** ´The study of biology for engineers will pave way for advance studies in the bioengineering. ´ ´It will help in advance research area. ´ ´It will help in understanding different biological processes. ´**Biological engineering, or bioengineering/bio-engineering**, is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products.We need biology to find solutions to challenges, that face mankind. ´Biology is used in different engineering branches **[BIO-INSPIRED TECHNOLOGIES]\ ** Biologically-inspired design (or BID) has become an important and increasingly wide-spread movement in design for environmentally-conscious sustainable development ´Aircraft wing design and flight techniques are being inspired by birds and bats. ´Biorobots based on the physiology and methods of locomotion of animals include BionicKangaroo which moves like a kangaroo, saving energy from one jump and transferring it to its next jump. ´Construction and architecture: Researchers studied the termite\'s ability to maintain virtually constant temperature and humidity in their termite mounds. ´Spider web silk is as strong as the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests. Engineers could in principle use such a material, if it could be reengineered to have a long enough life, for parachute lines, suspension bridge cables, artificial ligaments for medicine, and other purposes. ´The dolphin shape used in shipbuilding. ´Suction nozzle of vacuum cleaner is inspired by proboscis of flies. ´Techniques used in camera are inspired by human eye. ´Ant-Inspired Pheromone Sensors for Traffic Control. **Significance of Biology in Engineering** **Why does an engineer need any knowledge of biology?** Due to the nature of engineering, problem solving requires the most background knowledge as you can get. The more knowledge you have about natural structures and functions the easier it will be to create artificial ones. By adapting mechanisms and capabilities from nature, scientific approaches have helped humans understand the related phenomena and the associated principles in order to engineer novel devices and improve their capability The previous few centuries saw a better fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical world through advances in physics and chemistry. The better understanding and advances gave rise to technologies and products, such as computers, communication devices, aircraft, and others that revolutionized life. Since this is the century of biology, a similar phenomenon is expected, which will lead to probably another revolution. Many engineers are expected to contribute to a biological aspect to fuel this revolution. **NEED FOR BIOLOGY** qIt is very much important for engineering students to understand the basic principles of engineering and the introduction of biological concepts so that they can effectively interact to concern for providing solutions to the problems related to biosystems. Therefore, the engineering undergraduates need to be suitably exposed at least to the very minimum biology, so that they would at least be able to consider a biological system/aspect in which they could later make appropriate contributions, through their main expertise, say electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, materials engineering, or any other. **BIOLOGY FOR ENGINEERS** Biological engineering, or bioengineering/bio-engineering, is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. In general, biological engineers (or biomedical engineers) attempt to either mimic biological systems to create products or modify and control biological systems so that they can replace, augment, sustain, or predict chemical and mechanical processes. Biomimicry or Bio-inspired Design Biomimicry involves the translation of knowledge obtained from the natural world into new innovations. When using nature as inspiration we learn from a system that has developed resilience, adaptability and efficiency over centuries. This is also called bio-inspired design. Lessons from nature can be translated into innovations in the fields of products, organizational forms and processes **Biomimicry or biomimetics** Some of the commercial implementations of the progress in biomimetics can be seen in toy stores, in which toys appear and behave like living creatures (e.g., dogs, cats, birds, and frogs). More serious benefits of biomimetics include the development of prosthetic implants that appear very much like biological origin, and sensory aiding mechanisms that are interfaced to the brain to assist in hearing or seeing or controlling instruments. Nature constantly seeks new equilibria and actively responds to change. Biomimicry involves knowledge development of natural functions, models, systems and strategies and the translation of this knowledge into practical applications to drive innovation. Rather than focusing on the separate links, it is important that the entire chain is visualized during the process. This integrated approach rests on the fact that everything is connected and balanced in nature. Biologically inspired design (BID) Modern engineering problems require solutions with multiple functionalities in order to meet their practical needs to handle a variety of applications in different scenarios. Biologically inspired engineering design uses analogies to biological systems to develop solutions for engineering problems. The goals of the study is to understand the process of biologically inspired engineering design and to provide insight into biologically inspired design as a type of design activity. **Biomimetic design:** **EXAMPLES OF NATURE INSPIRING TECHNOLOGY** **Whale :: wind turbines** The humpback whale weighs an astonishing 36 tonnes, yet it is one of the most elegant swimmers, divers and jumpers in the sea. As first researched by Frank Fish, a biomechanic, these aerodynamic abilities are greatly attributed to the bumpy protrusions on the front of its fins, called tubercles. Similar to the processes of aircraft wings, whales use their fins at different steepening angles to increase their lift. Too much tilt though, and the opposite will occur and they'll stall -- a loss of lift due to current turbulence and the formation of eddies in the water. By comparing bumpy blades to smooth-edged ones, scientists found that stalling occurs at a much higher angle with tubercles -- an increase by nearly 40 per cent. Further testing also revealed that serrated-edge wind turbines proved to be more efficient and quieter than the typical smooth blades. **Bird-safe glass** It is estimated that 100 million birds die every year as a result of flying into glass, and the reason is obvious -- they simply do not recognise the transparent structure as a physical barrier. To address this problem, a company developed biomimetic Ornilux Birdsafe Glass, drawing inspiration from the UV reflective strands in spider webs, which birds see and therefore avoid. This is a clear mutual benefit for both species, and so Ornilux sought to replicate this with their criss-crossing UV glass. **Butterfly and solar cell** The rose butterfly has tiny cells on its intricate and delicate wings that can collect light at any angle. The black wings of the rose butterfly have inspired a new type of solar cell that is two times more efficient at harvesting light **USE OF ENGINEERING IN BIOLOGY** Mechanical Engineering: Biological system prosthetics. Computer science and engineering: Computational biology robotics. Electrical engineering: Robotics devices and photonics signals & image processing. Chemical engineering: Biotechnological nanoparticles interfaces polymers biofuels Biomimicry has the best potential to be harmonious with nature while resulting in better outcomes than any artificial means of development. Animals, plants, and insects have utilized such technology to establish their ecosystem with no adverse effects to nature, and such behavior and way of life is what we humans may need in the current era. **BIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OF 18TH CENTURY THAT LEAD TO MAJOR DISCOVERIES** **History of Biology** ** **The study of living things has a rich and exciting history. The key events of biological discoveries has significant impacts on humankind. We live on a planet covered in life, and humans have tried to understand how living things work for as long as we have been around. This knowledge has supported, and continues to support, our success as a species. The word biology actually comes from the Greek words, 'bios' meaning life and 'logos' meaning discourse! History of biology begins with the careful observation of external aspects of organisms and continues with investigations into the functions and interrelationships of living thigs. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is credited with establishing the importance of observation and analysis as the basic approach for scientific investigation. By A.D. 200, studies in biology were centered in the Arab world. Most of the investigations during this period were made in medicine and agriculture. Arab scientists continued this activity throughout the Middle Ages. **17 and 18th Century** In 17th and 18th Centuries, biological study primarily consisted of classifying organisms and understanding the human body on the macroscopic level. But the advent of the microscope opened up a whole new world of living things! The earliest microscopes were developed in the Netherlands in the late 16th century, but were extensively put to use throughout the 17th century when Robert Hooke identified the first cells by examining cork tissue. In the early 18th century, botanist Carl Linnaeus established the classification system that we use today in his work, Systema naturae (System of nature). This system of binomial nomenclature assigns a two-part name to species in which the genus name is capitalized and precedes the species epithet; both are italicized. For example, the scientific name for human beings is Homo sapiens. Biological sciences emerged from traditions of medicine and natural history reaching back to ayurveda, ancient Egyptian medicine and the works of Aristotle and Galen in the ancient Greco-Roman world. This ancient work was further developed in the Middle Ages by Muslim physicians and scholars such as Avicenna. During the European Renaissance and early modern period, biological thought was revolutionized in Europe by a renewed interest in empiricism and the discovery of many novel organisms. The growing importance of natural theology, partly a response to the rise of mechanical philosophy, encouraged the growth of natural history (although it entrenched the argument from design). For instance Charles Darwin\'s explanation in The Origin of Species (1859) showed how the processes of random variation and natural selection could combine to produce what appeared to be instances of \"design\" in the natural world (humans and animals developed through an evolutionary process). **Nature-Inspired Discoveries** Mother Nature is a huge classroom that offers many lessons for those who take the time to reflect and discover. Scientists and inventors study characteristics of things in nature and comes up amazing technologies and products invented as a result of studying nature. **Law of Gravitational Force** It was Sir Issac Newton, a mathematician, who deduced the Law of Gravitational Force. It is well-known that he was once sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell down from the tree, compelling him to wonder how it came down to earth and did not go upward. This resulted in Newton formulating that it is the gravitational force of earth that attracts all objects to itself. It was formulated in Newton's work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica or The Principia, first published in July 1687. **Brownian Motion and The Origin of Thermodynamics** Brownian motion, also called Brownian movement, any of various physical phenomena in which some quantity is constantly undergoing small, random fluctuations. It was named for the Scottish botanist Robert Brown, the first to study such fluctuations (1827). He was observing a suspended pollen grain in water. While looking at this pollen grain underneath a microscope, he notices that it undergoes a type of random walk. The figure depicts the type of random, seemingly unpredictable motion, that the suspended particle underwent. This random motion is now referred to as BROWNIAN MOTION, but the motion itself may be easily remembered as the \"Drunken Sailor Walk\". At first Brown attributed this motion to signs of life. However, when he repeated the experiment with an inorganic body he observed the same motion. Now the phenomenon of Brownian motion has been discovered, but\... HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THIS SEEMINGLY RANDOM MOTION? This question leads to two school of thought and a debate that lasted for 68 years! The phenomenon of Brownian motion caused much debate on the possible causes for this motion. These debates lead to two opposed and contradicting sides. There were the ENERGETICS, lead by William Ostwald, and the ATOMISTS, lead by Ludwig Boltzmann. **Classical Thermodynamics** ** **There are three laws which describe all of Classical Thermodynamics: 1)Energy cannot be created or destroyed.  This basically means that you cannot get something for nothing. As a result, the amount of energy in the entire universe is a constant value. All that we observe is the exchange of energy from one from to another. For example the energy from the sun is used to grow vegetables, we in turn eat these vegetables to gain energy. We then walk, run, work etc. and expend this energy which we really received from the sun! 2)The entropy of a system always increases  Entropy is basically the randomness or order of a system. The entropy always increasing, means that the randomness of the system increases or the order of the system decreases. The system is becoming more chaotic. For example, a liquid has more entropy than a solid and less entropy than a gas. This is because a solid has a very definite structure and is well ordered. Whereas a liquid has less order and a gas has even less! See the figure below, which depicts the structure of a solid, liquid and gas respectively. 3)You can never reach absolute zero.  This is just a way of saying that you can never decrease the temperature to a point where the system has no energy, meaning it does not move. The temperature where this would happened is known as absolute zero, and is -273.15 degrees Celcius! Otherwise known as 0K or zero degress Kelvin. **Julius von Mayer -- Energy can neither be created or destroyed** On November 25, 1814, German physician and physicist Julius Robert von Mayer was born. Julius Mayer studied medicine at the University of Tübingen. In 1838 he earned his doctorate and Staatsexamen. German physician Julius Robert Mayer in 1842, after observations made in Java where he served as a ship's surgeon of a Dutch merchant ship, established the basis of the mechanical theory of the heat that will lead to the First Law of Thermodynamics. Mayer made the observation that storm-whipped waves are warmer than the calm sea started him thinking about the physical laws, in particular about the physical phenomenon of warmth and the question whether the directly developed heat alone (the heat of burning), or the sum of the quantities of heat developed in direct and indirect ways are to be accounted for in the burning process.  After his return in February 1841, Mayer devoted all his energies to solving this task. He is best known for enunciating in 1841 one of the original statements of the conservation of energy or what is now known as one of the first versions of the first law thermodynamics, namely that "energy can be neither created nor destroyed".   "Nature has put itself the problem of how to catch in flight light streaming to the Earth and to store the most elusive of all powers in rigid form. The plants take in one form of power, light; and produce another power, chemical difference."   --- Julius Robert von Mayer, Die organische Bewegung in ihrem Zusammenhange mit dem Stoffwechsel (1867) Julius von Mayer was aware of the great importance of his discovery, but his inability to express himself scientifically, his penchant for speculation, and his confessional religiosity did not earn him the desired reputation as a scientist.