Biomimicry: Nature is the Expert on Adaptation

The article below was given to me by colleagues in UNESCO as part of the values and sustainability program they took around Australia and the world. It is an excellent paper on biomimicry and will change your world view.

I remember my former husband was a design engineer. I used to tell him to copy nature, the greatest engineering is there. What I love about nature is when you look at it you marvel at the intelligence yet simplicity of how it self regulates and operates, the brilliance is simply stunning. Sometimes I imagine the distance between human built technology and nature’s geometric and genetic blueprints that catalyse life forms that grow in a highly organised co-dependent synchronistic systems. In the case where species are not favoured by the environment genetically, they die off, those that adapt to the environment are favoured by natural selection. That is what I term the perfection of imperfection. The system is a learning system and it maximises survival through learned/genetic harmonisation. This is the sacred balance engineered into nature yet flexible enough to be responsive to change. Nature are the experts on adaptation. It is time to start learning and listening from our true nature.

The core issue today is that we expect nature to fit in with our lifestyle, as for many of us, that is all we know. Our world is so human focussed, in terms of our focus on the news, entertainments, friends, workplaces, families within the context of cities that operate as if outside of nature. That is the illusion of our dominance of nature. As we are discovering, we are very much embedded in nature and for the moment we are in denial of that reality. We have created mindsets that are predominantly cognitive in process, that is we think through our day. There are not many moments when we ‘feel’ ourselves, or feel the wind, the sunshine, feel our life essence as a reconnection to life itself. We are trained to focus elsewhere and this is the lag effect we are witnessing today. We are simply disconnected.

So those who have indigenous experience, who have lived within the land in a intimacy that is deeply respectful, dependent and aware of its sacredness of all life, they are the real teachers. Of course they themselves were taught by nature, if you didn’t learn about the way of nature you didn’t live. So they were forced to adapt, to find food, to live in balance and nature became who they are. So many created stories, dances, songs as they saw through the eyes of nature. That is how they learned the true knowledge.

We will learn this too but after nature reminds us that change is not an option, it is going to happen, whether we go kicking and screaming or intelligently remembering our natural roots into a new ecologically harmonious and sustainable life.

I introduce to you Janine Benyus, who wrote a paper called Resurgence. I felt a deep resonance with her description of biomimicry and provides deep insights into nature, its magnificence and integration as an earth system. All species serve the greater whole in bio-feedback and integrative processes furthering best interest rather than self interest. Everything has a unique and intricate purpose. When we reflect on human life, it begs the question – what is our purpose? How do we fit into the natural system? Are we listening to our true nature?

http://www.gcf.org.sa/Documents/Janine%20Benyus%201.pdf

Here are excerpts from a paper by Janine Benyus.

A Biomimicry Primer
By Janine M. Benyus

www.biomimicryguild.com, www.biomimicryinstitute.org, www.asknature.org

What’s It About?

Biomimicry is learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more
sustainable designs. It’s studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell or a coral reef to make a more resilient company. The core idea is that nature has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, benign chemistry, transportation, collaboration, and more.
Mimicking these earth‐savvy designs can help humans leapfrog to technologies that sip energy, shave
material use, reject toxins, and work as a system to create conditions conducive to life.

Here is a sampling of biomimicry case studies:

 Materials:
o Shell-inspired self-assembling ceramics
o Bone-inspired self-healing and self-assembling cement
o Skin-inspired self-healing plastic
o Leaf-inspired chemistry that converts CO2 to biodegradable polycarbonate

 Water:
o Cell-inspired desalination using highly efficient forward osmosis
o Beetle-inspired fog capture that is 10 X better than fog-catching nets

 Manufacturing:
o Shell-inspired self-assembly of materials in low temperature, low toxic processes:
o Spider silk-inspired benign manufacture of tough, resilient fiber
o Diatom-inspired benign manufacture of computer chips
o Biochemistry-inspired conversion from industrial chemistry to nature’s chemistry for
whole families of reactions such as oxidation

 Transportation:
o Penguin-, shark, and bird-inspired drag reduction technologies for boats and airplanes
o Kingfisher-inspired nose on a quieter and more efficient bullet train
o Boxfish-inspired Mercedes Benz gets 70 mpg

 Health Care:
o Shark-inspired antibacterials that don’t encourage resistance
o Ormia fly-inspired hearing aids that easily locate sound
o Cricket-inspired sensing “ears” that will one day improve cochlear implants
o Resurrection-fern-inspired vaccine storage that needs no refrigeration
o Tardigrade-inspired long-term storage of replacement organs
o Lizard-inspired tissue regeneration
o Skin-inspired infection protection for burn victims
o Crested auklet-inspired repellent for mosquitoes
o Mosquito-inspired pain-free hypodermic needle

 Buildings:
o Leaf-inspired self-cleaning surfaces for auto paints, building facades, and fabrics.
o Cactus-inspired building skin that is self-shading and cooling.
o Termite-inspired building in Zimbabwe that uses natural air flows and requires no airconditioning
o Polar bear-inspired building in Singapore that erects it’s “fur” to shelter itself when
temperatures change
o Mussel-inspired glue for formaldehyde-free plywood
o Nautilus-inspired fans that minimize energy use and cut noise
o Beetle-inspired fog harvester for building skins
o Insect-inspired dehumidification for HVAC systems

 Paints and Coatings:
o Peacock-inspired color using structure rather than paint
o Mollusk-inspired corrosion and scale reduction for pipes
o Algae-inspired non-toxic antifouling paint for boats
o Gecko-inspired adhesive coatings that use no glue
o Moth-eye-inspired coating for solar cells

 Sensors:
o Locust-inspired collision avoidance technology
o Bat-inspired cane for the blind
o Jewel beetle-inspired fire detectors
o Lobster-inspired chemical detectors that can pinpoint the source of chemical pollution in
water

 Energy:
o Bacteria-inspired replacement for expensive platinum in fuel cells
o Algae-inspired catalyst for solar hydrogen production
o Leaf-inspired dye-sensitive thin films for inexpensive solar cells
o Whale flipper-inspired drag reduction for wind turbines blades

 Business:
o Forest-inspired symbiotic business food webs
o Detritore-inspired cradle-to-cradle design
o Ecosystem-inspired cooperative strategies in business
o Cell-inspired manufacturing production techniques
o Resilience science-inspired organizational development

What Better Models Could There Be?

For designers, architects, engineers, and innovators of all stripes, the answer to the question “What would nature do here?” is a revelation. There’s not one new idea, but millions, ideas evolved in context, tested over eons, and proven to be safe for this generation and the next. This trusted source of inspiration arrives just as our species is counting the casualties of our industrial crash.

Yearning for something that works for instead of against life, professional innovators are heading outside to see how other species have managed to survive for 3.85 billion years. Their models are organisms that manufacture without “heat, beat, and treat,” and ecosystems that run on sunlight and feedback, creating opportunities rather than waste. The resulting designs are functional, sustainable, and not surprisingly, beautiful as well.

At the cusp of every design decision, biomimics have 30 million elder strategists to advise them. Rather than flipping through a catalogue of human inventions, or going on a retail safari, biomimics turn to nature for inspiration. Their mentors are the bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals of this planet, the perform what seem to us to be technological miracles.

Upon closer inspection, organisms manage these feats with a beguilingly simple set of common raw materials, procured locally, manufactured at body temperature and pressure, and processed silently in
water. At the end of their useful life, these materials are regathered and reconfigured by other organisms, upcycled again and again with the energy of the sun. These tightly‐knit forests, prairies, corals, tundras, and grasslands are the envy of all of us who thirst for a sustainable and equitable world. As a community, they not only create, but continually heal and enhance their places. Our places, too. What better models could there be?

How Biomimicry Fits into Other Design Paradigms

Because of its broad range, biomimicry contributes, both practically and philosophically, to many of the eco‐design paradigms devised in the last 30 years, including the Natural Step, Natural Capitalism, Cradle to Cradle, Ecological Design, and Living Building Challenge. Biomimicry is what you do on Monday morning when you’ve committed to a sustainability framework like LEED or carbon footprint reduction, and now it’s time to actually reinvent what you make and how you make it.

The biomimicry approach seeks nature’s advice at all stages of design, from scoping to creation to evaluation. Working with “biologists at the design table,” innovators explore the true functions they want their design to accomplish, and then ask: what organisms or ecosystems depend for their survival on performing those functions? An “Amoeba through Zebra” survey of the biological literature reveals dozens of inspiring models, complete with physical blueprints, chemical formulae, process descriptions, and community strategies. To infuse life’s systemic wisdom into the design of everything from carpets to cities, a list of Life’s Principles serves as an overarching scoping and evaluation tool—nature’s own ecodesign checklist.

But products and processes are not the only human designs influenced by biomimicry. As more people see nature as a teacher rather than a warehouse, biomimicry is prompting policies that restrain our powers and allow us to say “thank you” by stewarding wild habitats. In this way, bio‐inspired design is a sister meme to policy‐making efforts like Biodiversity Protocols and the Precautionary Principle. Biomimicry was lucky enough to come on the scene after dozens of sustainability pioneers had framed the problem space and built conceptual pathways through this evolutionary knothole. Nature‐inspired innovation is but one of the solution‐seeking paradigms in a “human immune system” pulsing with good ideas. Our hope is that it serves and complements these kindred movements.

Inside the Phrase “The Conscious Emulation of Life’s Genius”

In 1990, when I had to name the very first file folder to house a journal article on artificial photosynthesis, I was at a loss. What was the mega‐category that would encompass all instances of nature‐inspired innovation? I turned to Webster’s to find bios, which is Greek for life, and mimesis, which means to imitate. Biomimicry seemed a more melodious term, so I scrawled it on the tab, and from that moment, you might say, the idea acquired me. When I began to write and speak about the subject, another phrase became very important to me, because it captures both the letter and the spirit of biomimicry practice.

Biomimicry is the conscious emulation of life’s genius. The word “conscious” refers to intent—it is not enough to design something without nature’s help and then in retrospect say, “This reminds me of something in the natural world.” That’s called convergent evolution, but it’s not biomimicry. Biomimicry implies conscious forethought, an active seeking of nature’s advice before something is designed. The nature of the consultation is also important. Seeking nature’s blueprints and recipes is only part of the process; the intent should be to create products and processes and policies that fit seamlessly within the larger natural system, that embody Life’s Principles. This ensures that our designs are not shallow in their mimicry, but rather as fully life‐inspired as they can be.

The word “emulation” is also carefully chosen, because it is more nuanced that mere copying or slavish imitation. Biomimics may study a spider to learn about sensing, fiber manufacture, adhesion, or
tensegrity, but we are not actually trying to recreate the spider. What we’re trying to emulate are the design principles and living lessons of the spider. How a spider meets its needs while helping to enhance its habitat is as important to a biomimic as how it spins its silk.

“Life’s genius,” a term rendered more controversial in the age of intelligent design, is also carefully
chosen. It refers to the fact that these technologies are more than simply clever—they have the spark of true insight because they’ve evolved in response to earth’s mandates. Life’s true genius is in how its technologies contribute to the continuation of not just one life but all life on earth. Gleaning that kind of wisdom takes more than just recording the size and spacing of a whale’s tubercles. It means contemplating the daily life of the marine denizen in its habitat, including its physiological, behavioral, and community strategies, all of which make it a net contributor to its habitat. To move from shallow to deeper biomimicry requires us to engage in an ongoing conversation with the organism, and to mimic what we learn on at least three levels.

Three Levels of Biomimicry

The first level of biomimicry is the mimicking of natural form. For instance, you may mimic the hooks and barbules of an owl’s feather to create a fabric that opens anywhere along its surface. Or you can imitate the frayed edges that grant the owl its silent flight. Copying feather design is just the beginning, because it may or may not yield something sustainable.

Deeper biomimicry adds a second level, which is the mimicking of natural process, or how it is made. The owl feather self‐assembles at body temperature without toxins or high pressures, by way of nature’s chemistry. The unfurling field of green chemistry attempts to mimic these benign recipes. At the third level is the mimicking of natural ecosystems. The owl feather is gracefully nested—it’s part of an owl that is part of a forest that is part of a biome that is part of a sustaining biosphere. In the same way, our owl‐inspired fabric must be part of a larger economy that works to restore rather than deplete the earth and its people. If you make a bio‐inspired fabric using green chemistry, but you have workers weaving it in a sweatshop, loading it onto pollution‐spewing trucks, and shipping it long distances, you’ve missed the point.

To mimic a natural system, you must ask how each product fits in—is it necessary, is it beautiful, is it part of a nourishing food web of industries, and can it be transported, sold, and reabsorbed in ways that foster a forest‐like economy?

If we can biomimic at all three levels—natural form, natural process, and natural system—we’ll begin to do what all well‐adapted organisms have learned to do, which is to create conditions conducive to life. Creating conditions conducive to life is not optional; it’s a rite of passage for any organism that manages to fit in here over the long haul. If we want to keep coming home to this place, we’ll need to learn from our predecessors how to filter air, clean water, build soil—how to keep the habitat lush and livable. It’s what good neighbors do.