I have gone gaga for biomimicry

This semester I had big research assignments for two different classes:  Creative Non-Fiction (CNF), and University Foundations 300 (UF 300, which is a required general education class).  I decided to double dip and use the same topic for both classes.  Cheating?  I thought so at first, but it turns out that each project helped to deepen the other and hence, both were enhanced.

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.