Biomimicry
Designing the Next Golden Age—from & of Nature
Every year I've attended the annual Bioneers environmental Conference, I'm inspired beyond words or reason by the passionate works, ground-breaking research/education, the courageous committed actions, and philosophies of the diverse and authentic individuals and organizations mindfully present and wholeheartedly participating. The conference brings together and holds the space for fertile (non-GMO) cross-pollination of these innovative solutionaries—countless visionary leaders and engaged citizens—who are all making a very real difference to create a future environment of hope.
In his opening address at the most recent Bioneers conference, cofounder Kenny Ausubel outlined his vision: “Dreaming the future can create the future. We stand at the threshold of a singular opportunity in the human experiment: To re-imagine how to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. It's a revolution from the heart of nature—and the human heart.” “We're entering an age of nature. It calls for a new social contract of interdependence. Taking care of nature means taking care of people, and taking care of people means taking care of nature.” He continued and highlighted biomimicry as “arguably the single most important design strategy to shoot the rapids (…challenges) of the next ten years.” The principles and work that has become known as biomimicry served as one of the inspirations during the founding of the Bioneers..
Biomimicry, a term coined by Janine Benyus in her book of the same name, is a new science that studies nature's most successful solutions and then uses what it learns from these solutions to address human problems. Built on the premise that after 3.8 billion years of research and development, nature has already solved many of the problems that face human technology, biomimicry consciously looks to natural systems as models, measures, and mentors for innovation. (Other related terms include bioinspired and biomimetics.)
With biological knowledge doubling every five years, biomimics look to nature for answers to questions such as:
* How can we more effectively and more cleanly harness and renew energy?
* How can we manufacture materials using less energy and with less waste?
* How can we identify organic strategies to live healthy, remain healthy, and return to health in the face of illness or injury?
* How can we efficiently store increasingly larger amounts of information in increasingly smaller spaces?
* How can we conduct profitable, innovative, sustainable businesses without cannibalizing the planet's natural capital?
Nature has already determined what is successful and sustainable. Industry now has the scientific knowledge and instrument technology to emulate nature's technology.' (Excerpt from an interview with Janine Benyus; courtesy The Biomimicry Institute)
During Janine Benyus' plenary speech, she reminded us with vivid examples from Nature that despite what might seem like a time of scarcity (crisis: economic, environmental, etc.), that if you looked at the real world, “life is hugely abundant.“ “A couple years ago, we (the team at Biomimicry Guild) were privileged to be able to have the resources to filter feed through the biological literature. We had a list of life's greatest sustainability challenges on our left hand, and in our right hand we had scientific papers. We found over 2100 phenomenal ideas.” Many of these ideas are anticipated to be published in an upcoming book, “The Nature's 100 Best.””
We watched visuals illustrating some of these wonders from Nature, as Benyus explained the attribute of the animal or plant that inspired development of products or processes, which spanned almost every industry sector. Below are only a few of the amazing examples shared.
“CO 2 –to mollusks, to corals, CO 2 is not a problem. It's a feedstock. Corals create; they're doing CO 2 sequestration. They use CO 2 to make their corals. There are some companies and people who are actually doing this work who have studied biomineralization. The scientist who started this company studied bones and corals, and now is finding a way to make cement that uses half of the CO 2 that we normally use. Cement creates 6-8% of all CO 2 emissions around the globe. So this is a huge one—to think of CO 2 differently, and to borrow the recipe of corals to put it into a building material.” “Plants don't think of CO 2 as a problem. They take it and they put it into long-chain polymers called starches, sugar, cellulose. Novomer has found a catalyst that takes CO 2 and makes it into biodegradable plastics.”
“Termites are natural ventilators. There's a building in Zimbabwe that is based on their channels inside their termite mound that uses ten percent of the electricity of conventional buildings because it has no air conditioning. It doesn't need it.”
Energy: It's the sun—the major energy system on the planet. There's actually thin-filmed solar cells now that are based on how photosynthesis works. They're based on dyes, and they don't have the toxic chemicals that other solar cells have. They're so thin they can be put into fabrics to make beautiful reading blankets from Sheila Kennedy at Harvard.
Full scale textile designs integrate ancient Mesoamerican weaving traditions with digital light from high brightness semi-conductors (HBLEDs), flexible thin film photovoltaics and polymer batteries to create completely self-contained, portable, off-the-grid light engines that can be deployed at a global scale where ever energy-efficient electrical power and illumination are needed. This project creates new applications to serve the large number of people—more than 2 billion—who do not have access to electric light or power.
“Biopower is a company from Australia that's learning to harness wave energy the way giant kelp do, because holding yourself in a stream, especially if it's an ocean, is a good way to get broken. So they've learned to create wave energy harvesters.”
“Biosignal is learning from the red algae, which keeps its surfaces clean of bacteria without killing the bacteria. It jams their communication signals, repels them, doesn't get them mad enough to have them hack in immunity, so there's no antibiotic resistance. It's a very, very subtle way, a very ingenious way, really, of managing bacteria.”
“Humpback whales know how to move through water gracefully, and they're teaching Whale Power how to have wind turbines move at very low speeds. It's how you manage turbulence. We know about 23 new ways to manage turbulence.” The flippers of the humpback whale channel flow and increase aerodynamic efficiency due to tubercles or bumps.
Water:
There's all kinds of organisms that get water from fog and water from vapor.
Imagine gathering water from the fog in San Francisco . Imagine purifying water with something that's in every cell of your body. There's these hourglass shaped pores in every cell of the Namibian beetle; they let water through and they don't let anything else through. It's been here all along, and finally, people are saying, can we make a membrane like that?
Aquaporin—they're called.
Qualcomm's Mirasol™ displays bring living color to technology by applying one of nature's most remarkable innovations-the butterfly's wings. These highly developed structures reflect light so that specific wavelengths interfere with each other to create nature's purest, most vivid colors. By studying and mimicking nature's processes and structures, Qualcomm engineers have developed the nature-inspired Mirasol™ display solution - the launching point for the new IMOD technology, and color electronic screens viewable under any light condition (reference Qualcomm's website for complete citation and product info)
AskNature.org is one of the latest developments to support this design revolution. It's an online inspiration source (a free, open source project), built by and for the biomimicry community. With partner, Encyclopedia of Life, they've created an absolute first of its kind—organizing the world's biological literature by function. It's where biology and design cross-pollinate, where designer, architect, engineer, or chemist can exchange ideas and info, so bio-inspired breakthroughs in technologies can be born.
One of the global projects that will provide a large-scale testing ground for many biomimetic designs is the partnership between HOK (leader in sustainable design/green building) and the Biomimicry Guild, to design a series of villages in Lavasa , India , on over an area of 21 million square feet.
Recent studies have estimated that nearly half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to building energy use and building materials, and as much as 75 percent of global energy use is needed to power buildings. As a result, greening the planet's buildings has become a key element of the design and architecture worlds. As GreenBiz.com reported: The goal, according to Dayna Baumeister, the cofounder of the Biomimicry Guild, is “to move beyond just looking like nature to actually performing like nature.”
And on a more local note—home to many well-respected research and academic institutions who are engaged in biotech, clean tech and high tech sectors, San Diego is considering itself the natural hub for biomimicry. With our world-famous S.D. Zoo, research center, and its residents of animals and plants, a living library is available to view and study. Benyus also mentions that “…we should design university courses that teach biomimetic design.”
Locally the S.D. Zoo, the City of S.D., and High Tech High are helping biomemetic inspired seed ideas to sprout and take root. The S.D. Zoo entered into a year-long partnership with High Tech High in which students are designing biomimetic invention based on plants or animals. They also sponsored students from High Tech High to attend the Bioneers conference to learn more about how biomimicry is being applied in industry.
Nationally and locally recognized as a multiple award/grant recipient for his teaching, research and academic projects, Jay Vavra, Ph.D brings his rich educational, field, and background experiences into the Biotechnology Program at S.D.'s High Tech High (HTH).
Vavra shares that his students have been “partnering with numerous business and organizations, such as: the S.D. Zoo, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, Qualcomm, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Joan Embery, and the S.D. Natural History Museum. Their work with the S.D. Zoo involves developing educational resources for biomimicry, as well as collaborating in the production and publication of the 5th book in a series on the urban ecology of S.D. Bay .
This book will address 15 different environmental problems occurring in and around the bay, highlighting the innovations the students are currently in the process of developing which address: invasive species, oil pollution, heavy metal pollution, noise pollution, habitat loss, nature deficit syndrome, antifouling coatings, boat design, alternative energy, water reclamation, sewage treatment, invasive species, debris in storm drains, and more!”
Meet Vavra, his students, and learn more at the S.D. Science Festival, April 4 in Balboa Park ; see the YOUR PLANET section for their booth: “Influence of the Bountiful Bay on Science in San Diego .”
“We have the students focused on three basic tenets of sustainability: All energy is solar, all waste is food, and biodiversity is maintained. Loss of biodiversity is a great concern for me and one of our mentors on this project, E.O. Wilson. We are working on a new text book together called Life on Earth . This is being done with an amazing team of scientists, animators, and former text book publishers. Wilson talks about the value of biodiversity and its relation to our survival.
This concept has inspired us greatly and our current project of biodiversity which is all about developing applications of diverse characters from diverse forms of life. I encourage my students to go out and describe to others how we need the organisms we share this biosphere with,” says Vavra.
The Biomimicry Institute has also started a program called Innovation for Conservation , which asks the companies that are doing this biomimetic work to donate a percentage of their proceeds to conserve the habitat of the organism that inspired them.
“Stewardship of wild and settled places should be the natural outgrowth of a biomimetic worldview. Once we see nature as a source of inspiration, a mentor, our relationship with the living world changes. We realize that the only way to keep learning from nature is to safeguard naturalness, which is the source of those good ideas.” Benyus emphasizes that “Life's most innovative design is that it creates conditions conducive to (all) life.”
Ask the Planet: This lively and enchanting CD, a recent winner of the Parenting Award, will have you imagineering at any age. The music and lyrics in Ask the Planet are designed to reconnect children to nature, create a sense of awe for the environment and teach them about the concept of biomimicry. They include a well-planned section, “Tools for Teachers”, with guides and downloads. Visit http://asktheplanetcd.org , to learn more and link to audio samples.
Our appreciation for their assistance goes to: The Biomimicry Institute, The Bioneers, and Jay Vavra.
Jennifer Joe's interests include being passionate about organics, healing, sustainable peace and restorative practices for the people and the planet; jjoe@eco-creation.us
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