Nature is so altruistic that we depend on it for every minute thing in life, yet it never ceases to influence us along the timeline. Early man had seen fire erupting due to friction and he rubbed stones to create fire. Every organism in nature has its uniqueness and its ability to change its capabilities according to the situations is a striking phenomenon where we can derive motivation from. A very popular example — Wright Brothers have closely observed pigeon and bats while flying which flashed the idea to design aircraft with wings.
Deriving inspiration from nature for invention to a complex human problem is called BioMimicry. The term ‘biomimetics’ was coined in 1950s by American biophysicist and polymath Otto Schmitt. He has worked on neural system in squid and certain findings of his work led him to the invention of an amplifier. Later, Biomimicry was popularized by scientist and author Janine Benyus in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. She defines biomimicry as “new science that studies nature’s models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems”.
If you have seen the leaves of Lotus, the adhesiveness of the leaf with water particles is really low. This ultrahydrophobicity which means the leaf does not allow water to stay on it due to its versatile architecture of having wax crystals like small buds that trap air. When a droplet falls on it, the arrangement in its cells allow it to have minimal contact area with the droplet and repel the drops instead of making it wet. This idea has led to the invention of dust proof paints and water proof cloths.
Termites are not widely known for their excellence in creating impressive ventilation systems for cooling. They build intricate connections to pass on air flowing rather than stuck at a place and cause hot suffocated air in the room. This has stirred the idea in many architects to have elaborate ventilation system to keep buildings cool minimizing electric energy consumption.
Having transparent glasses in tall buildings is a beauty of architectural fineness but birds flying at that height cannot really see the glass as its completely transparent and might die by hitting them. Architects have found a way by observing spider web which shines in light that can draw attention of birds. They have designed special shiny glasses that can alert birds but they look like a normal transparent glass to us. They are known as spider glasses.
If you have ever observed the pace at which wood pecker drills a tree then you might afraid with the pace it drums the surface of a tree with its nose. It can beat 22 times per second with a deceleration of 1200g and a tolerating deceleration of humans is less than 80g. Scientists then observed via CT scans and found that Wood pecker has nearly 4 muscle structures around its neck so as to bear with the mechanical shock while pecking. This has sown the seed of an amazing invention of shock absorbers in automobiles.
To protect from any injuries while pecking at fast pace where there is a high chance of injuring its head, but its skull is wrapped with a soft tissue of bones which will reduce the effect of hitting hard. This observation was inspired to design helmets.
Sun light is a renewable source of energy which made solar electricity a sustainable source of energy. Many of us might have seen solar panel arranged using a lot of space and they are faced at the direction of sun rise mostly. We know that Sun flower moves according to the direction of Sun light and its petals are arranged in such a way that they are separated and not overlapped to receive enough sun light. This has inspired a new design of solar panel which takes minimum space setup and with the panel that changes its direction as the sun moves along its path.
Japan has designed worlds first bullet speed train. They were a huge success in many other parts of the world too. It had a problem while it passes through tunnels in the mountain ranges which are so common in Japan. Due to its speed while passing through tunnel, it made deafening noise that caused trouble to people living near by. Scientists have researched a lot on this and one cannot believe that the bird kingfisher has provided a solution to this!! Yes that’s right! Kingfisher has its nose narrow and pointed. It just dives into water to catch fish with very little splash and noise. One of the engineer who is a bird watcher observed this and wondered if this redesign to face of the train that looks similar to kingfishers beak would reduce the loud boom. Luckily with positive results, the noise reduced and also brought down energy consumption to 15%.
Prey trapping mechanism in pitcher plant has provided a solution to design s net that traps insects. The capability of LED lights is maximized by understanding Fireflies mechanism. Qualcomm’s Mirasol display has microscopic reflective units that drew inspiration from colorful butterflies. These screen produce light using reflection and not by producing in the screen itself. These screens has reduced the usage of energy.
Not only in technology, there are numerous examples where we derive insights from nature to treat diseases. We know there is no vaccine yet for AIDS. An extensive research is going on to increase immunity power in humans by observing alligators that are present in bay area of Louisiana which have extraordinary immune system that can fight hazardous diseases like HIV AIDS. Researching on mosquitoes to design thin needles for extracting blood for diagnosis and operations is another interesting development going on.
There are several instances where Biomimicry is shaping innovative solutions to solve real world problems. This field is soaring high in developments to provide Millions of jobs in next 10 years with Billions of revenue. There is an institute founded by Janine Benyus to welcome researches to expand this field that has a great potential in giving rise to significant innovations. After all, we all need an easy life :)
Hope you learnt a new thing today! Thanks for your time!!
