Biomimicry

1. Biomimicry And the effect it has on todays living

2. Stems from the Greek words ‘bios’, meaning life and ‘mimesis’, meaning to imitate • Is the study of nature’s designs and mimicking them to solve human challenges • Operates on the principle that nature has already found solutions to many of the problems we are trying to solve • Provides a wealth of inspiration for those solving problems

3. Janine Benyus • One of biomimicrys pioneers • defines biomimicry as, ‘innovation inspired by nature.’ • 1997 she solidified the science of biomimicry

4. Differences • Not based on what we can extract from organisms and their ecosystems • Based on what we can learn from them • Instead of harvesting from organism, biomimics consult organism • Biomimics are inspired by an idea • Borrowing the idea is like copying the original

5. Two approaches • Biology-to-design Nature inspired design • Design-to-biology Design inspired by nature

6. Biology-to-design • a biological phenomenon that suggests a new way to solve a human design challenge. • Wilhelm Barthlott of the Nees-Institute, University of Bonn studied how leaves such as the lotus manage to remain free of contaminants without the use of detergents. • His papers described how a landscape of small bumps and waxy crystals cause water to ball up • Dirt particles balance on the nano-mountains and are easily picked up by water • replicated the geometric profiles of the lotus into commercial products such as a building façade paint that exhibits a nano-rough surface when it dries. Rainwater cleans the building. • Today, dozens of self-cleaning products such as glass, roofing tiles, and textiles bear the Lotus-effect symbol

7. Design to biology • Innovators begin with a human design challenge, identifies the core function, and then reviews how various organisms or ecosystems are achieving that function • Peter Steinberg of the University of New South Wales used a characteristic biomimicryapproach as a new way to reduce microbial growth without causing antibiotic resistance • Identified an environment that was teeming with microbes • Searched for organisms within that environment that had no biofilm on their surfaces • Found a "champion adapter" Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a red sea kelp, which remains free of microbes by releasing furanones molecules • When bacteria are "jammed" by furanone, they are unable to receive a quorum of signals from other bacteria, and without positive "quorum sensing" they don't begin biofilm formation

8. Levels of biomimicry • Inventions based on a biomimicry approach operate on three levels. Not necessarily reaching all three levels

9. 1st level • is the mimicking of natural form. • For instance, you may mimic the hooks and barbules in an owl's feather to create a fabric that opens anywhere along its surface • Imitation of the frayed edges that grant the owl its silent flight

10. 2nd level • The mimicking of natural process, or how it is made • The owl feather self-assembles at body temperature without toxins or high pressures, by way of nature's chemistry. The unfolding field of green chemistry attempts to mimic these benign recipes

11. 3rd level • Is the mimicking of natural ecosystems • The owl feather is gracefully nested---it's part of an owl that is part of a forest that is part of a biome that is part of a sustaining biosphere • In the same way, our owl-inspired fabric must be part of a larger economy that works to restore rather than deplete the earth and its people • If you make a bioinspired fabric using green chemistry, but you have workers weaving it in a sweatshop, loading it onto pollution-spewing trucks, and shipping it long distances, you've missed the point.

12. 15 coolest cases

14. 1. Velcro • Invented in 1941 from the idea from the burrsstuckingtenaciouslyto dog'shair

16. 2. passive cooling The high-rise Eastgate Centre buildingin Harare, Zimbabwe wasdesigned to mimic the waythatthosetower-buildingtermites in Africaconstructtheirmounds to maintain a constanttemperature

19. 3. Gecko Tape • Everwanted to walk up walls or acrossceilings? Gecko Tape maybe the way to do it. The tape is a materialcovered with nanoscopichairsthatmimicthosefound on the feet of gecko lizards.

22. 4. WhalePower wind turbine • Inspiredby the flippers humpbackwhalesuse to enabletheirsurprising agility in the water, WhalePower has developed turbine blades with bumps calledtubercles on the leadingedgethatpromisegreaterefficiency in applications from wind turbines to hydroelectric turbines, irrigation pumps to ventilation fans

25. 5. Lotus EffectHydrophobia • Theycall it "superhydrophobicity," but it'sreally a biomimeticapplication of what is known as the Lotus effect

28. 6. Self-Healing Plastics • The new compositematerialsbeingdevelopedarecalledself-healing plastics. Theyare made from hollow fibers filled with epoxy resinthat is releasedif the fibers sufferserious stresses and cracks. This creates a 'scab' nearly as strong as the original material. Suchself-healing materialscouldbeused to make planes, cars and evenspacecraftthatwillbe lighter, more fuelefficient, and safer.

31. 7. The Golden StreamliningPrinciple • Development of air and fluid movementtechnologiesbased on beautifuland recurringnatural designs as the Fibonaccisequence, logarithmic spirals and the Golden Ratio • Theseshapesalign with the observation that the path of leastresistance in thisuniverseisn't a straight line. Put all thistogether and youget the "StreamliningPrinciple," beingapplied to fans, mixersand suchthatmove air and liquidsaround in systems • Suchfans on motors, compressors and pumps of all sizes and in all applicationscould save at least 15% of all the electricityconsumed in the US

33. 8. ArtificialPhotosynthesis • is envisioned as a means of usingsunlight to split waterinto hydrogen and oxygen for use as a cleanfuel for vehicles as well as a way to useexcesscarbondioxide in the atmosphere • The processcouldmake hydrogen fuelcells an efficient, self-recharging and lessexpensiveway to create and store energyapplicable in home and industrialsystems

35. 9. BionicCar • DaimlerChrysler has developed a new conceptcar from Mercedes-Benz based on the shape of an oddtropicalfish- the BionicCar • Using the shape of the tropicalboxfish, designers achieved an aerodynamic ideal thatboasts 20% lessfuelconsumption and as much as an 80% reduction in nitrogen oxideemissions • Gets 70 miles per gallon, and can run just fine on biodiesel fuel

38. 10. Morphing Aircraft Wings • MorphingAirplane Wings changeshapedepending on the speed and duration of flight • Differentbirds have differentlyshaped wings useful for the speeds at whichthey fly, as well as for sustainingflight speeds over long distances using the leastamount of energy

40. 11. Friction-ReducingSharkskin • One of the bestways to reducereliance on fossil fuels is to achieve more efficientuse of the energywe do consume • Inspiredby the ability of shark’s skin to reduce drag by manipulating the boundarylayer flow as the fishswims, researchers aredeveloping coatings for ship'shulls, submarines, aircraft fuselage, and evenswimwear for humans • US swimmer Michael Phelpsused a swinmsuitbased on thistechnology at the Beijing Olympics to reach his recordeight gold medals in thatcompetition, and the rest of the team as well

43. 12. DiatomaceousNanotech • Theycallit Biosilification, and it's the geneticengineering of the tiny, single-celledalgaeknown as diatoms in order to massproducesilicon-basednanodevices and nanotubes for specificuses • Livingdiatomsreliablymanufactureworkingvalves of variousshapes and sizesthatcanbeused in nanodevices to deliver drugs to specifictargets in the body, as chemostats in chemicalengineeringapplications, and in colonies as nanotubes for solar collectors and artificialphotosyntheticprocesses • Theirsiliconskeletonscan provide specialized sensors and filters for uses in chemicalengineering and defenseapplications.

45. 13. Glo-Fish • Glow-in-the-dark aquariumfishmaynot fulfill a needfulecologicalrole at the present time, but they're a fun - and lucrative - application of fluorescent proteins discovered in jellyfishwhile researchers arebusilydevelopingfurtherbiochemicaltools • The protein canbeattached to othermolecules of interest so theycanbefollowed for understanding of theirfunctions in livingorganisms, veryuseful in medicalresearch

47. 14. Insect-InspiredAutonomousRobots • Humansareprobably not the bestbiological model for reallyusefulrobots • For mobility, insect-likeability to cover variedterrain, climbsurfaces and provide stabilityseems to workbetter • Insecteyes offer greater resolution and panoramic range for exploringplacespeoplecannot go, and the ability to quicklyadapt to changingenvironments (or even to spy on enemiesundetected)

49. 15. Butterfly-Inspired Displays • By mimicking the way light reflects from the scales on a butterfly's wings, Mirasol Displays have beendevelopedthatmakeuse of the reflected light principle with an understanding of how human beingsperceivethat light. • The display usesnear-zero power whenever the displayed image is staticwhile at the same time offering a refresh rate fast enough for video • Perfect for 'smart' hand-held devices • http://brainz.org/15-coolest-cases-biomimicry/