Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature By Pink Sherbet Photography from USA [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Biomimicry is the science and art of emulating Nature's best biological ideas to solve human problems. Biomimicry Bios – life Mimic – to copy or emulate is a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.

Humans may have a long way to go towards living sustainably on this planet, but 10-30 million species with time-tested genius have figured it out and maybe we can learn a few things from them? Learning From Chimpanzees How to Heal Ourselves One-quarter of all modern medicines are derived directly from plants, and there are hundreds of thousands of other plant species yet to examine, each with dozens of unique chemical compounds that could prove of medicinal value. If one wanted to discover more valuable medicines, where would one start looking? It could take millions of years, literally, to sort through this enormous variety of plants and plant compounds to find ones with medicinal value. Fortunately, this is exactly what researchers have discovered that chimpanzees (Pan spp.) have already done, over millions of years of evolutionary time. By observing how chimps and other species cope with illness, researchers have acquired leads on plants with promising medical applications to human health. Trees from the Vernonia genus, for example, which chimpanzees regularly seek out when ill, have been found to contain chemical compounds that show promise in treating parasites such as pinworm, hookworm, and giardia in humans. Chimpanzee, Willem Van der Kerkhof/Flickr Creative Commons

Happy June beetle. Photo from BugGuide, by Lynette Happy June beetle. Photo from BugGuide, by Lynette. Creative Commons license. This is the real news of biomimicry: After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival

In biomimicry, we look at nature as model, measure, and mentor.

Biomimicry introduces an era based not on what we can extract from organisms and their ecosystems, but on what we can learn from them. How can a Kingfisher give you a smooth ride: Amazed? So you should be. Have you heard about The Bullet Train of Japan? The fastest train in the world, traveling around 200 miles per hour. One of the major problem that it faced was complains from residents staying one-quarter mile away from the the tunnels through which the trains passed. The complains were due to the huge noise produced when the trains emerged from the tunnels. This noise was due to the large thunder claps produced by the changes in the air-pressure every time the train passed through the tunnels. You know what they did to solve the problem. They learnt it from nature!! From the bird Kingfisher to be precise. The student of nature in this case was the chief engineer of the train, an avid bird-watcher. The chief engineer observed Kingfisher which dives into bodies of water from air with very little splash of water to catch fish. He observed that it is exactly a similar phenomenon of a body moving into one medium from another at high speed, similar to the train entering the tunnel. He modeled the front end of the train as the beak of Kingfisher. Results were amazing!! It not only resulted in a quieter train but also saving of 15% of electricity. To act as an icing on the cake, the train was now able to move 10% faster.

Instead of harvesting or domesticating, biomimics consult organisms; they are inspired by an idea, be it a physical blueprint, a process step in a chemical reaction, or an ecosystem principle. Borrowing an idea is like copying a picture-the original image can remain to inspire others. Learning from Lotus Plants How to Clean without Cleaners Ask any school child or adult how leaves keep water from sticking to them, and they'll almost certainly say, "Because they are so smooth." Yet one of the most water repellent leaves in the world, that of the Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), isn't smooth at all. The myriad crevices of its microscopically rough leaf surface trap a maze of air upon which water droplets float, so that the slightest breeze or tilt in the leaf causes balls of water to roll cleanly off, taking attached dirt particles with them. Now, microscopically rough surface additives have been introduced into a new generation of paint, glass, and fabric finishes, greatly reducing the need for chemical or laborious cleaning. For example, GreenShield, a fabric finish made by G3i based on the "lotus effect", achieves the same water and stain repellency as conventional fabric finishes while using 8 times less harmful fluorinated chemicals. By Brocken Inaglory (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons