A new trend is emerging, where researchers, designers, and everyone in between are starting to ask, "how can we be more like nature — more renewable, more constructive and more sustainable?"
In a world filled with 7 billion people crammed into mega cities, human kind will have to adapt before we can continue to grow, or else we will destroy the only home we've ever known. We need to look to nature for instructions on how to survive on this planet in ways that are "conductive to life," according to biomimicry pioneer Janine Benyus.
Elegance of the natural world
We talked to Gavish about how this "nature-inspired" and "bio-designed" movement can be applied to the world around us.
An abalone shell is made of thousands of layers of “tiles” made of calcium carbonate (more commonly known as chalk). A key to the strength of the abalone shell is a protein adhesive that binds to the top and bottom surfaces of the calcium carbonate tiles. The glue is strong enough to hold layers of tiles firmly together, but weak enough to permit the layers to slip apart, absorbing the energy of a heavy blow in the process. This pictures shows the tiles under various degrees of magnification.
1. We can mimic its natural form — the physical features of a finished product.
2. We can watch how things come together in nature and mimic that natural process — for example, how our cells use proteins and enzymes in groups.
3. We can look to entire communities in nature — ecosystems — to lean how to better design our cities.
In the past, designers and inventors have used nature sporadically — for example, the design of velcro was inspired by the hooks on burrs that catch on hair and clothing. Biomimicry enthusiasts think this that there's almost no limit to how the natural world can inspire new design principles and methods.
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