Biomimicry as an Introduction to Mans Reservoir of Knowledge - Essay Example

Biomimicry I. Introduction Ever since the Industrial Revolution began, scenarios have been revealing the poisoning of the Earth's atmosphere and itsbeing heated by greenhouse gases. Forests, too, are being denuded, chemicals are polluting the waters and industrial wastes pour onto fields; massive crops fail due to pesticides, and incompetent industries flood the markets with substandard non-quality foods.1 With a different breed of scientists thinking that the future can be far better if we mimic the highly efficient ways of nature, we can now take control of our future heredity, character, and environment, instead of creating unpleasant future conditions for ourselves.2 II. Biomimicry Nature can teach us a lot to improve our systems. This is the idea explored by Biomimicry,3 a new science espoused by Montana writer Janine Benyus. Biomimicry also known as biomimetrics, investigates prototypes from nature and then mimics these designs and processes in the solution of human problems. Defined as "taking ideas from nature and implementing them in engineering, design, computing, and the like," interest started to gather momentum recently as science can now cope with the requirements to exploit biomimicry.4 The new science is said to help us find out from nature how to feed ourselves, heal ourselves, make things, and conduct business, and each of these is answered with a natural model, perhaps a leaf, a forest, a spider, a cell.5 Engineers now are in fact, borrowing more and more processes from nature from robot design to materials science. A Swiss inventor in the 1940's was reported in The Economist 6 as having noticed how particular plant seeds fastened themselves to his clothes. He observed this was on account of a unique 'hook and loop' system which led to him to inventing 'Velcro.' Designers are now working on highly maneuverable robot fish with fins rather than propellers, commercial optical fibers based on flower baskets, sophisticated lenses inspired by the distributed eye structure of the starfish, and new sticking plasters based on the Gekko lizard's ability to walk up walls.7 Science observer Benyus further points out what more could be mimicked: The sea creature called abalone has its inner shell twice as tough as high-tech ceramics; spider silk is five times stronger than steel; mussel adhesive works underwater and sticks to anything, even without a primer. Moreover, hummingbirds cross oceans with virtually no fuel; ants carry loads the equivalent of a hundred pounds in heat; the double helix of DNA could shame our most powerful and most advanced Pentiums.8 The new methodology is said to have evolved between the disciplines of biology and engineering and is spreading throughout the applied sciences and beyond. The questions then are likely - What can purple bacteria teach computer scientists What can spiders teach us about manufacturing What can the life cycle of salmon teach us about investment, equity and banking in general In short, what can we learn from nature 9 Benyus then has spurred the evolution of a new type of science that is studying nature's best ideas and then imitating these designs and processes to solve human problems.10 Biomimicry seeks to mimic rather than manipulate nature. Getting its inspiration from plants and animals that innovate their "tools for living," humans are finally discovering that these organisms' tools are oftenmore sustainable, and benevolent. 11 Biomimicry now finds pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs. At the Land Institute in Kansas, researchers are said to be breeding perennial native plants. In the search for new medicines in the world's rainforests, some have begun to study the "self-medication" behavior of chimps. And physiologists are imitating the photosynthesis process in the laboratory, building simple non-toxic molecules in the hope of turning the sun's rays into energy for human use.12 In the quest for antibiotics, a new genetic approach has allowed the discovery of plectasin, a peptide identified in a fungus found in northern European pine forests.13 An international team of researchers working on this said it possesses as much power as penicillin as well as vancomycin. But further examination revealed that this defensin called plectasin, resembles defensins found in spiders, scorpions, dragonflies and mussels.14 Biomimicry is said to have the potential to change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal ourselves, store information, and conduct business.15 Systematization is now taking place at a Biomimicry Guild database16 and is considered an open source that may link biomimicry concepts to known problems including sectors working on a product or application. Serving as clearinghouse for new scientific discoveries and making research easily available across disciplines, it may be available for industries to use. 17 As biomimicry promises an earth-friendly future, biomimicry is not biotechnology. There is a great difference accordingly due their almost opposite approaches. According to Benyus - "Spiders can spin thin fibers that are five times as strong as steel. Biotechnologists might figure out the genetic configuration that provides that web-building capacity, and then splice those genes into goats in order to produce the fiber more productively in milk. Biomimicry advocates would study how the spider breaks down raw material, like bugs, at low body temperatures to form a strong new material with almost no waste, with the objective ofreplicating that same process in a factory. The latter approach is strongly advocated because biotech's genetic manipulation of organisms is getting dangerously out of hand." 18 The notion then that biotechnology improves upon nature must now take the back burner. Biomimicry, while imitating nature, does more than increase human powers and gratify human ambitions.19 Rather than dominate nature then, it teaches us how to live in harmony with it so that our highly artificial and exploitive technologies may not render the earth unfit for life. 20 Conclusion Biomimicry is a fortunate introduction to man's reservoir of knowledge and a welcome respite to the world of species. Firstly, because it is not biotechnology, it now precludes the gene-configuration-gene-splicing that so pervades the practice of biotechnology. Expectedly, we no longer have to splice genes from an animal into another animal kind or to a plant, or splice genes from man into an animal or vice versa. Second, biomimicry affords us the respect in the way we categorize organisms properly as man, animal or plant and will be careful in our interventions following this new paradigm. Third, directing our evolution in biomimicry means consciously being in line with nature and not extracting from it in our efforts to improve our heredity, our character, and our environment. Fourth, pharmaceutical companies may now place their scientific efforts in discovering how we can live lightly and sustainably by learning from nature. Fifth, the supposed engineering and controlling of human life of pharmaceutical companies is now shifted and expanded to researchers and businesses seeking new technologies for farming, feeding, manufacturing, healing and even conducting the world's corporate businesses in the new information age. As Benyus said, "By deliberately looking for creatures that awe us, we may just stumble upon a whole new chemistry - the spoils of survival." 21 End Notes 1"Biomimicry explained." A conversation with Janine Benyus. 2 Benyus, Janine (1997). 3 Leyden (2002) 4 Thompson (2005) 5 "Defining a scientific movement by Michelle Nijhuis," High Country News, July 06, 1998 (Vol. 30, No. 13). In: Perlman (1998). 6 Economist Technology Quarterly, June 11, 2005-06-11. In: Thompson 7 Thompson 8 Perlman, Publishers Weekly, May 19, 1997.Review of Janine M. Benyus and William Morrow 9 "Biomimicry: Genius that Surrounds Us." By Ed Hunt, Tidepool (Northwest Environmental News). In: Perlman 10 Ibid. 11Janine Benyus, Conversations (In:Leyden 2002) 12 Ibid. 13 Champeu (2005) 14 Ibid 15 Friend (2005) 16 Biomimicry Guild Database [Prototype for alpha-testing] can be accessed at http://database.biomimicry.org/ 17 Friend 18 Janine Benyus (1997) 19 Ibid. 20 Bryce Christensen, In: Perlman 21Fried References Biomimicry explained. A conversation with Janine Benyus. Retrieved November 2, 2005, from http://www.biomimicry.net/faq.html. Biomimicry: An introduction. Biomimicry.net. Retrieved November 2, 2005, from http://www.biomimicry.net/biom_project.html. Biomimicry: An Introduction. Front Page. Manila site. 17 Dec 2003. Retrieved 03 Nov 2005 from http://futurepositive.synearth.net/2003/12/17print-friendly=true. Benyus, J. (1997). Biomimicry. Retrieved November 1, 2005, from http://www.biomimicry.net/intro.html. Champeau, R. New class of antibiotics effective against drug-resistant bacteria discovered in fungi. [Georgetown University Medical Center]. Eurekalert.org. 12 Oct 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2005, from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/gumc-nco100605.php. Fried, R. A Business Built on Biomimicry. June 17, 2004. Retrieved November 2, 2005, from http://www.tidepool.org/original_content.cfmarticleid=120228. Friend, G. The Best New Books on Business and Sustainability. Review. Retrieved November 3, 2005 from http://www.greenbiz.com/news/printer.cfmNewsID=28883. Thompson, K. Learning from mother nature's designs becomes scientifc mainstream. Virtual teams, biomimicry, and biometrics. The Bumble Bee. June 15, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2005 from http://www.bioteams.com/2005/06/15/virtual_teams_biomimicry.html. Leyden, P. Biomimicry, Not Biotechnology. A Conversation with Janine Benyus. June 2002. Retrieved November 2, 2005 from http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srvaid=145. Perlman, D. (1998). Business and Nature in Productive, Efficient Harmony. Review. Retrieved November 3, 2005 from http://www.biomimicry.net/reviews_text.html. Read More