Introduction to Biomimicry

We are a very new species on Planet Earth. Our non-human neighbors have been around much longer than us, and we have so much to learn from them.

The beautiful and brilliant natural world is an endless source of inspiration, and through this blog, my podcast, and social media, I aim to explore what we can learn from life around us, share how this field is being practiced globally, and equip you all with the tools necessary to tap into nature’s genius. 

Before I jump into today’s topic, a little about me. I grew up in the Bay Area and also lived in the desert of southern California for a few formative years. I went to undergrad at University of California, Santa Cruz, where I majored in Environmental studies. During these years, I was an active member of the student environmental center and the sustainability office. I fell in love with the climate movement, and the community of people who were working so hard to create change. But I was also heartbroken by the state of the world, and often very frustrated and overwhelmed by it all. The doomsday narrative of climate chaos consumed me and felt hopeless. 

In 2014, I attended a Bioneers conference, and first heard about biomimicry. Sidenote about Bioneers – if you have the chance to go, definitely go. I’ve been every year since and it never disappoints. 

 One of the speakers was describing the Biomimicry Design challenge, where teams of students had created ingenious and important solutions inspired by other organisms. These ideas, some of which seemed so simple, and based on existing strategies found in nature, could change lives in communities around the world. A lightbulb went off for me. The fact that people were learning from nature to build and design a more sustainable world blew my mind. The realization that all of the solutions we need for our survival already exist in the natural world was both humbling and incredibly hopeful. I returned to campus with renewed joy and enthusiasm. During my junior year, I was part of an amazing program, called the Education for Sustainable Living Program, where I spent one semester creating a biomimicry course for other undergrads and learning facilitation techniques, and another semester teaching this course to students. We spent many days in the arboretum or redwood forest, deeply curious and cultivating an appreciation for the genius of life. This experience inspired me to write my undergrad thesis on “Integrating Biomimicry into Higher Education”, which is still floating around somewhere on Academia.edu.

This was the start of my biomimicry path, and it eventually led me to Phoenix, where I worked at the Arizona State University Biomimicry Center, and helped to launch one of the world’s first undergrad programs in biomimicry.

I was also completing the ASU Biomimicry Master’s program during these years, and cultivated an incredible network of biomimics around the world. I got to work with and learn from Dr. Dayna Baumeister, who is an incredible force of change in the biomimicry field, and one of the co-founders alongside Janine Benyus of Biomimicry3.8, the globally-recognized consulting firm. I am currently a visiting instructor at Pratt where I teach a course I created called “Biology for Biomimicry”, which always fills up with eager undergraduates. I live near Denver, Colorado and spend as much time as possible in the mountains hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, and birding with my husband and our sweet shelter dog Camus.

Alright. What is Biomimicry?

It’s an ancient practice and emerging field where we learn from nature's forms, processes and systems to inspire life-friendly human design. So people have been learning from nature for millenia, but only in the last 40 or 50 years has this practice made it’s way into formal (and *cough cough* western) academia. There are now a few undergrad programs as well as a couple master’s and doctorate programs globally. Students from every major are excited to learn and apply biomimicry methods to their career. Don’t worry I will have an entire episode dedicated to biomimicry in education, where I will share more about these programs. 

I think the best way to describe biomimicry is to showcase examples of it done well. One of the most common case studies is the Shinkansen train in Japan. This high-speed train was one of the world’s first, and can go up to 200 miles per hour, but it had a huge problem. When it went through tunnels at a high speed, it would cause a shock wave and tunnel boom. Nearby towns would hear an extremely loud explosion sound, sometimes multiple times a day. Luckily, the engineer on the team was a birder and noticed that the Kingfisher bird had a unique adaptation. These birds hunt fish and are able to dive into water without creating any splash. He translated this streamlined shape to the front of the train, which solved their noise limit issue. The Shinkansen train also adapted the efficient shape of owl wings to the attachment mechanism and penguin bellies to the button of the train. Together, these updates allowed the train to use 15% less power and go 10% faster! 

Like I mentioned in my definition earlier, there are three categories of biomimicry: form, process, and system.

The Shinkansen train is an excellent example of form-focused biomimicry - where the engineer learned from the shape of birds to design a more efficient train. An example of biomimicry that is process focused is Mussel Polymers Glue. This company was inspired by how Mussels attach to rock underwater, which is a feat even our toxic-chemical-laden glues have a hard time doing. There is a multi -step process for how mussels attach, and it contains some chemistry so hang on tight. First, it’s foot appendage reaches out and finds a good place to land on a substrate. Then it secretes some proteins, called lysa and dopa, in a specific order that prime the rock and form a hard surface for it’s byssel threads to grab onto. Lysa joins the party first and essentially clears the way for dopa to work it’s magic. Dopa is known to stick easily to many surfaces (even nonstick surfaces) because of how it chemically bonds. Basically every molecule of dopa shares some electrons with the substrate it “sticks” to, which forms a very strong bond. The company Mussel Polymers has developed a non-toxic and high performance adhesive known as PCS which mimics these proteins that mussels use underwater.  PCS is 300% stronger than other underwater adhesives, and can bond to a huge range of substrates. There are SO many uses for a product like this, this company is first focusing on getting the product to market for coral restoration, solving a massive need for conservation groups that are working to re-grow coral reefs and need them to stay in place in the marine ecosystems.

As you can probably sense by now, each level of biomimicry from form to process to system, increases complexity. For systems-level biomimicry, one must understand not only how an ecosystem functions, but the roles that each organism plays in that system and operating conditions that impact it - like sunlight, water availability, soil health, and so much more. For example, there are a few companies working to mimic how wetland ecosystems filter water, although this is a daunting task. Restoration projects are also a common application for systems-level biomimicry. There is a ton of potential in the agriculture space as well, and one company called the Land Institute is looking to the nutrient cycling and biodiversity of prairie ecosystems to inform new large-scale growing operations. Biomimicry on the systems level is extremely fascinating and multifaceted.

By the way, a GREAT resource and tool for biomimicry is AskNature.org. This site is an interactive collection of biological strategies and innovations inspired by them, as well as some really great educator resources. AskNature is a wonderful way to explore how nature works and learn how companies are applying these time-tested solutions to ideas and products. I highly recommend adding AskNature to your bookmark tab if you haven’t already. You can thank me later. 

One big thing to note is that biomimicry is about FUNCTION. AKA what does the organism, process, or system do, and how does it do it? Function will be a common term used throughout future conversations and interviews. It helps to think of function as the part of the sentence that would complete “How does nature ___ (blank)”. Such as “How does nature communicate”, “How does nature share resources”, “How does nature create color”, or “How does nature physically assemble”? Communicate, share resources, create color, and physically assemble are all FUNCTIONS. 

There are also mal-adapted and well-adapted applications of biomimicry, which lie on a spectrum. Mal-adapted biomimicry is still inspired by nature and functions like nature most of the time, but it is not life-friendly. This means it could be made with petroleum products that require extractive mining or lots of toxic chemicals to make. Well-adapted biomimicry is really hard to do. Mostly because the systems we have in place for things like material manufacturing or transportation at a large scale require fossil fuels or exploiting workers, just to name a few examples. Anyway, as you can see biomimicry is a complex and wonderful field full of topics that we will explore here. 

One last thing I want to mention is biomimicry’s three elements. These are part of the curriculum and methodology guidelines that Biomimicry 3.8 has developed over many years and are core to this practice. Emulate is the element most often talked about, because it’s associated with the designs we see in media and in the news. It’s the act of translating nature's genius to an idea and product. Reconnect is about our deep connection to nature. It’s about recognizing our recent disconnection and realizing the desire to live in relation to nature. This is a crucial component, as it requires us to acknowledge that we ARE nature. The reconnect element focuses on going outside to observe the natural world around us, as this can reveal so much about our non-human neighbors, the ecosystems in which we live in with them, and even discoveries about ourselves. Ethos represents the philosophy that is at the core of biomimicry: it’s about turning to nature as mentor and measure in all aspects of life, not just the products we create. Together, these three guiding elements give biomimicry a holistic and powerful foundation from which the seeds we sow in this practice can take root and grow. 

Biomimicry is a deep, complex, and beautiful field that you can explore further in my podcast Learning from Nature!!!