Fortunately, all that research and thought went towards something that has turned out to be a new passion of mine. Crazy what school will do to a person. I stumbled upon the word by accident. I had no idea what it meant and decided to Google it, an auspicious moment. It was attraction at first sight, and I have been deeply in love ever since. I predict a long and happy affair.
Here is my paper for CNF on biomimicry.
From our Elder Species: A Word of Hope
Imagine if you will, the age of the
Earth is the length of a calendar year.
Using this measurement for comparison, think of today as being the last
minute before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
The human race showed up 15 minutes ago, and our recorded past started only
60 seconds ago. On the other hand, our
fellow planet-mates – the animals, plants, and microbes – have been here since
March. “Been here since March”
translates to 3.8 billion years. While
some species are now extinct, those that are still with us, survive and
thrive. Humans on the other hand, use
resources to the extent that there are now massive sustainability problems. We have soiled our earth home to the point
that it is becoming less and less inhabitable.
One only has to do a simple internet search to see the continuing
destruction of our planet. I can hardly
bare it. I avoid said internet searches
because the story is just too grim. Is
there no real hope? Is there no realistic,
achievable solution to this predicament? And what of our fellow earth neighbors? What do they seem to know that we do not?
I
stumbled upon a new word the other day.
Finding a word I do not know, is not all that unusual. What was unique about this experience, is
that this word has opened up a whole new world to me; a world which contains a
solution to our spiraling earth plight and thus, a hopeful future. The word is “biomimicry”. It was coined by an American inventor named
Otto Schmitt in the 1970s. Over twenty
years later, author and scientist, Janine Benyus, popularized this word with
her 1997 book, Biomimicry: Innovation
Inspired by Nature.
How
did biomimicry take flight? In a
network. It wasn’t obvious at first
but now there are biomimicry leaders all over
the world.
- Janine Benyus-
The
key to this promising word is a question.
Janie Benyus says that we should ask it daily.
How would nature solve this?
-Janine Benyus-
According to AskNature.org, biomimicry is the
idea that nature has already solved many of the problems that humans have not
yet figured out. As it turns out, our planet-mates are consummate engineers. After their billions of years of “research
and development”, those that remain on earth, contain the secret to
survival. The failed attempts are
fossils. More specifically, biomimicry
is the creation of products, processes, and policies which are patterned after
nature’s tried and true outcomes. When
observed, these elder species can show us new ways of living that work for the
long haul. Billions of years to be
exact.
It’s valuing nature, not for what we can
extract, harvest, or domesticate, but for what we can learn. That’s a new relationship.
- Janine Benyus-
One way that humankind has fouled its home
planet is in the use of high heat, high pressure, and toxic chemicals for the
creation of products. Oddly enough,
nature does not seem to need to use these damaging techniques. Consider the spider. Architect, Michael Pawlyn speaks of the
example of the spinneret glands on the abdomen of a spider. He states that they have six different types
of silk which the arachnoid spins together into a fiber, which is tougher than
anything man has ever produced. The
closest we have come to reproducing this feat is with aramid fiber which requires extreme temperature and pressure, and
creates a large amount of pollution. The
spider, on the other hand, produces a far superior product using raw materials
of dead flies and water. It uses no
harmful heat, pressure, or pollution which would be destructive to it’s
surroundings. At this time, we do not
know the spider’s secret, but if we could learn it, we would have a healthier
home, and a stronger fiber.
We don’t have a moment to spare in honoring these geniuses.
- Janine Benyus-
The study of biomimicry has uncovered some
of natures secrets, and we have started to utilize them for better products
and processes, and a cleaner planet.
Forbes magazine ran a recent article on biomimicry. It spoke of the benefits of the skin of the
Galapagos shark. Extensive research has
gone into this species when it was found that they never have bacteria on their
skin. It was discovered that the
structure of the skin cell does not allow bacteria to land and adhere. This was astounding, and the implications
where numerous. Instead of using harsh
chemicals in hospitals for cleaning to prevent the spread of infections
commonly found in health care centers, some are now using this unique pattern
on structures such as hand rails and door knobs. Structure is also found to be the reason
peacocks have their vibrant color. There
is no color in a peacock’s feathers.
Rather, our brain perceives the colors by the way light refracts through
the cell’s structure. What if we could
eliminate the environmental waste hazard of toxic paints, for example? Instead of painting a car, we could color it
with structure.
Take heart. We are surrounded by genus.
- Janine Benyus-
The creation of products is not the only thing we can learn from
our wise neighbors. For example, we are
just starting to deepen our understanding of how nature works as a
community. Braden R. Allenby, Research
Vice President of Technology and Environment at AT&T said, “We should be
running a business like a redwood forest.”
I have learned that this is because the forest species live in
eco-harmony, taking in the resources present and producing waste that in turn,
is used by another species as a resource.
They have a symbiotic relationship with each other, and thus do not
create toxic, unusable waste that would pollute themselves and their
environment. Mr. Allenby also said, “The
Industrial Revolution as we now know it, is not sustainable. We cannot keep using materials and resources
the way we do now…At present, our system will collapse on itself. It is currently linear using virgin raw
materials and creating unusable waste.”
He goes on to talk about “no-waste economy” where there is a web of
closed loops. Very little raw material
goes into the system, and very little waste escapes from it. This is already happening around the world.
One example of a
“no-waste economy” is in Kalundborg, Denmark.
They call it an “ecopark”. Four
companies have come together in this community; they are linked, dependent on
one another for resources or energy. The
power company pipes some of its waste steam to power the engines of two of the
other companies: a refinery and a pharmaceutical plant. Another pipeline delivers the remaining waste
steam to heat thirty-five hundred homes in the town, which has eliminated the
need for oil furnaces. The power plant
also gives it’s cooling water (which is now warm) to a nearby fishery which
makes the water a perfect temperature for the fish to thrive. The pharmacy’s nitrogen-rich slurry which
used to be dumped into the fjord, is now donated to nearby farmers to be used
as fertilizer. The list goes on of waste
products that are now recycled into useful resources for others in this
community. Much like a redwood forest
would do.
We
do not live in splendid isolation.
- Janine Benyus-
One place to find this community of
eclectic, earth-friendly, solutions-seekers is on the web site,
“AskNature.org”. It contains the world’s
most comprehensive catalog of nature’s solutions to human design problems. It is a continuously growing body of
information of over 1,800 natural phenomena and hundreds of bio-inspired
applications. Who browses this
library? Designers, architects,
engineers, chemists, and biologists, to name a few. It is a collaborative effort where people
seek information and share information.
Cross-pollination between disciplines is encouraged and naturally
happens at this online meeting place. The
global biomimicry community seeks to make the act of asking for nature’s
advise, a normal part of everyday inventing.
I am relieved beyond words. Not
only are there answers to our questions regarding these issues, there are people who are already
taking those answers and implementing them into viable solutions. Ask me what I Google search now! My spirits soar as I see example after example
of biomimicry in action. I am mesmerized
and enthused. Blessed Nature. Blessed Askers of Nature.
Virtually
all native cultures that have survived without fouling
their
nests have acknowledged that nature knows best, and have had the
humility
to ask the bears and wolves and ravens and redwoods for guidance.
- Janine Benyus-
Works Cited
Benyus, Janine
M. Biomimicry. New York: William Morrow, 1997.
Deldin,
Jon-Michael, and Megan Schuknecht. "The AskNature database: enabling
solutions in biomimetic design." Biologically inspired design.
Springer London, 2014. 17-27.
Kotler,
Steven. “Move Over Genetic-Engineering;
Biomimicry Seems The Better Bet For Solving Global Hunger.” (2011)
Worden, Keith, William A. Bullough, and Jonathan Haywood, eds. Smart technologies. World Scientific, 2003.
Worden, Keith, William A. Bullough, and Jonathan Haywood, eds. Smart technologies. World Scientific, 2003.
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