Biomimicry –
Growing Green With Nature
By John Mancuso
Director of Naturalist Education and Graphics
Greenburgh Nature Center
Introduction
What do a gecko, a burr, a kingfisher, a termite mound
and a lily pad all have in common?
They’re all examples of things that
have inspired people to develop new
products to meet human needs.
The process of looking to nature as
the inspiration for innovation is
called “Biomimicry.”
A Closer Look
[Bi-o-MIM-ic-ry – from the Greek bios, life and mimesis, imitation]
Biomimicry as a concept is based on the belief that we can find the
solutions to all our needs as passengers on Planet Earth by learning
from the plants, animals and natural processes that are all around us.
How Does Nature Work?
Nature …
• runs on sunlight… that’s why we call it the “solar
system”
• uses only the energy it needs… and stores the rest
• fits form to function… consider the lilies of the field
• recycles everything… what happened to all those leaves
that fell in the forest last fall?
• rewards cooperation … like nectar for honeybees
• banks on diversity… e pluribus Unum
• demands local expertise… knowing what’s at hand
• curbs excesses from within… the essence of
sustainability
• taps the power of limits… optimizing not maximizing
Janine M. Benyus
Can you tell what product was
invented from this
biomimicry lesson?
Those hooks on the burr plant
gave the idea to create VELCRO
Solving Nature’s Mysteries
Energy – The Mighty Power of Leaves
Leaves convert sunlight into energy.
Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity (energy). Basically, when
light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor
material. This energy is then formed into an electrical current.
Biomimicry - Solar Energy
Sharkskin – Nature’s Speedo
Shark
close-up 28 out of 33 gold
At the 2000 Olympics
inskin
Sydney,
medalists wore Speedo’s Fastskin Allovers. These
suits improve a swimmer’s speed by as much as
7.5% by reducing the drag in the water, as
compared to the old-fashioned human flesh.
Solving Nature’s Mysteries
The Wright brothers
The forest/woodland
habitat on the Nature
Center’s grounds is
Mimicking
by its very nature a
self-sustaining,
Natural Systems
“closed loop” system.
For
A More Can we get ideas
from how a forest
Sustainable Future
works to become
more self-sustaining
ourselves?
Filters will recycle most of the water used
This retrofit will reduce electricity and water
An example of systems biomimicry
consumption
by 90
and natural
gas
use by
The
factory will burn
thepercent
leftover sludge
to create
methane
istopercent.
the
new potato/corn
chip
gas
runproposed
the plant’s
boiler
80
Greenhouse
gas emissions
willfactory
be cut
being
developed
by
Frito-Lay
in
Arizona.
by
50
percent
to
75
percent.
Solar concentrators behind the plant will generate solar power
The estimate for total human performance at 100 million
MIPS (million instructions per second).
Deep Blue, the chess machine that bested world chess
champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, used specialized
chips to process chess moves at a the speed equivalent
to a 3 million MIPS universal computer.
This is 1/30 of the estimate for total human performance.
Garry Kasparov beat Deep Blue with a very close, 2 -1 )
What product might be created
that mimics the human brain?
Ant Foraging and
Communications Technology
Ants work together in support of their collective nest. Individually,
ants may be “stupid,” but put enough of them together and they
manage to build nests, grow fungus as food, farm other insects,
and even weave their own shelters.
Scientists are creating computer programs that mimic the behavior
of ants to find novel, efficient ways of tackling tricky
computational and organizational problems.
When ants forage, they randomly wander the forest or jungle floor
and lay a trail for nest-mates to lead them to a source of food.
Many individual ants may discover different routes to the same
food but the shortest path that leads to it will have the strongest
concentration of pheromone, a chemical indicator laid down by the
ants.
Rhino horns were the idea behind
developing self-healing material
that is both compressively
and laterally strong
What products might be created
that mimics a rhinoceroses horn?
?
What products might be created
that mimics a gecko’s foot?
NASA has been working on microCan we learn anything from studying
robotics as a future use in space
the “micro-workings” of a dragonfly
travel
It turns out
Nature is FULL
of good ideas
for how to solve
human
challenges!
What possibilities can you
imagine?
What creatures will inspire you?
Can YOU
look
to nature
For
inspiration?
Here are Some Ways to Start
•
•
•
•
•
•
Go take a Hike!
Sit quietly outside and OBSERVE
Ask questions
Stay in School
Read books about the natural world
Do research on your favorite creature
and all its cool functions, for yourself!
• Go to college and study Biology and
Design
Remember, the world is in your hands…
Let’s see what
we can
learn from
mother nature..