The book guides through new nano-materials processing which is inspired by nature. Novel materials are and will be prepared in the future by making use of biological structures in different ways, by: (i) reproducing biological mechanisms in processing non-biological materials, (ii) using biomolecules as essential constituents or templates for artificial materials, (iii) incorporating living microorganisms into the new materials. To handle the wide range of topics the book will be organized around general principles underlying biology-inspired materials processing. Each selection and explanation of the general principles will be motivated by particular biological case studies. This gives the background for elucidating the particular principle in a second subsection. In the third part, examples for application of the principle to materials processing will be given. In a fourth subsection, every chapter will be supplemented with a selection of relevant experimental and theoretical techniques. As a bridge between molecular biology and materials science the book is meant to promote interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Furthermore, electronic supplements for theoretical simulations as well as additional experimental data will be provided online.
