Biomimicry

Many of the design strategies we’ve already discussed have stemmed from the concept of biomimicry, i.e., learning from how nature does things. It’s not really a new concept, considering that the Wright brothers studied birds in flight and read Sir George Cayley’s studies of how birds flew before constructing their first airplane. But it’s a concept that has largely been abandoned, until fairly recently.

However, biomimicry holds great promise for the future, as brilliantly elucidated by Janine Benyus, founder of the Biomimicry Institute and author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. One of the many fascinating approaches she discusses in that book is how biomimicry may one day solve the current problem of non-biodegradable garbage, as scientists work to develop durable plastic-like substances patterned after the shells of crustaceans such as lobsters.

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