Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.
The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more.
Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most importantly, what lasts here on Earth.
However, we humans have only really woken up to this in the last 20 years.
If we could only mobilise our consciousness (and media) at a global level, we would be both amazed and shocked to realize that the answers to our challenges are already embedded in nature, the same living super system that we too are deeply embedded in, except we have disconnected ourselves.
Time to awaken and reconnect.
Sam Stier: http://www.asknature.org
Learn more about biomimicry in video:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/janine_benyus_shares_nature_s_designs.html
And print:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2008/id20080211_074559.htm