Biomimetics Inspire Environment Friendly Product
Mimicking Nature Produces Profits -- Think Velcro
Oct 20, 2009
Andrew Parker, evolutionary biologist associated with the Natural Museum of London, examines a thorny devil, in the sands of Australia near Alice Springs. The little lizard covered with thorny outgrowths stands only about an inch high.
What interests Parker is that this little creature drinks through its feet. The reptile has adapted to its desert environment by absorbing moisture from the sand, through its feet, up across its body and into its mouth. By closely watching and examining the thorny devil, Parker learns nature’s secret of the lizard’s survival. When he finds how the natural wicking works, Parker will then utilize the process for human adaption to survival in dry habitats.
Companies Jump Onboard
Parker is not alone in his research. The field of biomimetics or applying designs from nature to solve problems in engineering and technology, is rapidly growing as more and more companies realize the benefits.
Proctor & Gamble and Yves Saint Laurent hired Parker to make cosmetics that mimic the natural sheen of diatoms – the ‘things’ that produce iridescence in butterflies and beetles. Parker’s research into the anti-reflective coatings in the eyes of moths has led to brighter screens for cellular phones and secret anti-counterfeiting techniques.
Biomimetric History
Through the years scientists and inventors have watched nature for inspiration – a rock rolling down hill inspired the ‘round’ wheel; apples falling helped Newton figure out gravity, birds in flight invited man to take to the sky. But with biomimetics man looks at nature’s solutions that have been honed by millions of years of trial and error and the competition of natural selection. Waste and inefficiency have been culled from nature and have a much better success rate than man-made items. For example the man-made combustion engine is only 20 percent efficient.
Probably the best known example of biomimetrics came about in 1948. A Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, took a closer look at the burrs clinging to his dog’s coat. He saw the burrs’ nature-made hooks and this led him to invent Velcro, now a multi-million dollar success story.
Three Areas of Study
Basically biomimetric research takes place in three areas of biology. 1. Replicating the natural manufacturing methods found in plants and animals. 2. Mimicking nature’s mechanisms such as Velcro. 3. Imitating social behavior and organizational principles in such natural groups as ants, bees and even microorganisms.
For example abalone creates a crack-resistant shell twice as tough as man-made ceramics by means of biomineralization using calcium found in seawater. This little shellfish ‘manufactures’ a shell that rivals Kevlar. The bee version of organization infiltrated every aspect of business producing a whole library of books on the subject.
Nature's Inspirations
Nature’s wonders are truly all around us. Trees produce a cellulose from sunlight, water and air that is a sugar stronger than nylon. Paul Hawken, Amory and L. Hunter Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (an environmental think tank add, “The trees bind this to wood creating a natural composite with a higher bending strength and stiffness than concrete or steel.”
Daimler-Chrysler work to fashion a car to mimic the aerodynamic shape of a boxfish and Bell Laboratories study deep sea sponges Euplectella or Venus’s Flower Basket that create super strong strands from simple materials. Scientists find this useful in the manufacture of commercial fiber optic strands.
The list of nature inspired products continues to grow as man finally bonds with nature and looks to the environment for answers.
For more information about Biomimetrics, visit the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath or read Tom Mueller's article in National Geographic online.
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