Lessons From Nature

Lessons from Nature Scientists are always trying to find more effective ways of making high performance materials with minimum consumption of energy and resources, minimum waste production and, of course, maximum functionality. In other words, they are trying to make materials that are economically viable, environmentally friendly and versatile. Living organisms are examples of design that consume the least amount of energy and materials. They are designed strictly for function, yet they excel in engineering. For an increasing number of scientists, biological materials in nature represent future innovations for material synthesis in terms of complexity and functionality. What captures the imagination is the way relatively simple building blocks can be constructed into highly precise functional hierarchical structures. In fact, there are numerous design examples in nature that engineers have only been able to dream about until now. As scientists more closely examine the cellular and molecular workings of nature, they are starting to find information which they can apply to everything from advanced optics to robotics. The result is a new field called biomimicry, biomimetics, or biologically- inspired design. Biomimetics is the application of methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The conscious copying of examples and mechanisms from natural organisms and ecologies is a form of applied case-based reasoning, treating nature itself as a database of solutions that already work. The innovations implemented in nature have the potential to improve the way we do everything, from desalinating water, gluing things together, to streamlining cars. Where there is a design problem, there is a solution for it in nature created by nature’s Designer. We can distinguish the levels in biology that technology can be modeled after as i) mimicking the natural methods in the manufacture of chemical compounds