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Learning from mother nature's designs becomes scientific mainstream

A new scientific discipline biomimicry (also known as biomimetrics) is gaining a lot of attention.

Defined as "taking ideas from nature and implementing them in another technology such as engineering, design, computing, etc."

"The concept is very old - the Chinese wanted to make artificial silk 3 000 years ago; Daedalus' wings was one of biomimetrics early design failures."

Interest started to gather momentum recently because only now can our science base really cope with the advanced techniques and technologies required to exploit biomimetrics.

“In fields from robot design to materials science, engineers are increasingly borrowing mechanisms from nature - an approach known as biomimetrics. Nature’s designs are after all, the results of millions of years of trial and error”

Economist Technology Quarterly, June 11, 2005-06-11

The Economist reports how a swiss inventor in the 1940’s noticed how particular plant seeds attached themselves to his clothes. Under closer examination he observed this was due to a unique ‘hook and loop’ system which led to him inventing our much loved ‘Velcro’

Today designers and engineers are developing highly manoeuverable robot fish using fins rather than propellers, commercial optical fibres based on venus flower baskets, sophisticated lenses based on the distributed eye structure of the starfish and new sticking plasters based on the Gekko lizards amazing ability to walk up walls to name just a few

From ‘Hit and Miss’ to ‘Point and Click’

Researchers at Bath University in the UK believe that biomimetrics is far too dependent on serendipidy to get a match and that the whole discipline needs to be put on more systematic and technological foundations.

As a result they are developing a searchable database of biological patents. This currently contains some 2500 patents on database however the hope is this will quickly grow with the support of an active online community

'Bioteamming' is biomimetrics for group behavior

The main focus of biomimetrics (or biomimicry) is engineering and learning from individual living systems.

However my experience of bioteams tells me that an equally profitable focus will be to help us learn from nature's groups as well as its individuals and looking at how they cooperate as well as how they are engineered.

Tags: biomimicry, bioteams, virtual teams

Bioteams Books Reviews

The Starfish and The Spider

October 6, 2007 | article by Ken Thompson in Book Reviews (37)

The Book "The Starfish and The Spider" uses the amazing capabilities of starfish to survive and regrow damaged limbs as a powerful metaphor for leaderless organisations.

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

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Click here to check all Bioteams book reviews

Related Bioteams Features Articles

Biological teams live

June 4, 2007 | article by Ken Thompson in Bioteams Features (88)

Much of the foundation of bioteaming is based on the organisation, communications and behavior of social insect societies. The BBC has a wonderful series Life in the Undergrowth narrated by David Attenborough with a whole programme dedicated to Supersocieties and Super-organisms.

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Wired Magazine features Bioteams

August 19, 2008 | article by Ken Thompson in Bioteams Features (88), News & Media (150)

Are you smarter than a goose? Sure you are -- one on one. But when it comes to working efficiently, you and your colleagues can't touch the gaggle. According to author Ken Thompson, geese and other animals that naturally form groups have a lot to teach us about business. In a theory he calls organizational biomimetics, Thompson lays out the principles underlying nature's management strategies. So what can you learn from a bird or an ant? Take a gander. Katharine Gammon at Wired Magazine reports.

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What teams can learn from spiders

May 12, 2008 | article by Ken Thompson in Bioteams Features (88)

Our old friend the spider gets a lot of bad press. For example he/she has been used as an example of the weakness of centralised leadership models versus so-called "leaderless organisations" in The Starfish and The Spider. However spiders can teach teams, enterprises and networks two very important lessons: Strategic Readiness and Appropriate Response.

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