I have mentioned a few times in this Blog that we can learn a lot from nature. Think about it for a minute. The natural world has been adapting and modifying itself for over 3.8 billion years and is still doing so. That’s a lot of research and development time. Despite our recent marvelous advances in human technology we still use a process of heat, beat, and treat to make everything. If a man from ancient Greece was transported to 1870, he would understand the principles of technology as being very similar to what he knew. If he were then transported to 2018, the world would seem more magical. Indeed, for most people on this planet, the understanding of modern technology might as well be magical. They don’t know how it works but only how to work it. Fortunately, modern engineers have a wealth of understanding about the underlying aspects of technology, yet, the processes to make our ‘stuff’ are still primitive. We still use extensive and destructive mining to acquire the ores we need for all the metals and materials, then we use toxic manufacturing processes to get the materials that are then machined into the products we use. All through this is generated a massive amounts of waste, much of it toxic. It has been estimated that 95% of the materials and energy going into making a gadget end up as waste.
In 1997, Janine Benyus, coined the word Biomimicry – “the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes.” When you consider how much life there is on earth and how little waste is apparent, you can appreciate that nature has managed to do what we cannot. Indeed, we have a lot we can learn from nature. Leonardo da Vinci was already observing natural processes in many of his early inventions, but at that time he did not have the more advanced technologies to take them further. That required a jump in technological understanding that occurs with the industrial revolution. Alas, that involved the use of fossil fuels to move us forward. Now is the time for a third era of technological advancement. That of biomimicry.
There are three types of biomimicry – one is copying form and shape, another is copying a process, like photosynthesis in a leaf, and the third is mimicking at an ecosystem’s level, like building a nature-inspired city……The truth is, natural organisms have managed to do everything we want to do without guzzling fossil fuels, polluting the planet or mortgaging the future. Janine Benyus
Today, Benyus has a website where engineers with a problem to solve can link up with a biologist that can explain the biological mechanisms inherent in that process. The engineer can then rethink what they want to do using the natural knowledge already there. If you are new to this idea, then a few examples to clarify – sometimes it is the engineer that explains the process to a biologist.
The strongest material we have is Kevlar. This is a difficult to make material that gives toxic byproducts. Yet weight for weight it is still not as strong as spider thread, which is five times stronger. The spider makes its thread as it goes from a biochemical called Tubulin produced in its body. It can also eat the thread if it wants as a food source should the web not produce a good yield of insect victims. Biologists for the longest time thought the bumps on the pectoral fins of a Hump Back Whale were simply anomalous growths, but when models of these fins were tested in a flow dynamics Chamber were found to reduce drag by up to one third and also provide lift up to 8% more. When bumps were placed on wind tower electrical turbine generating blades and other applications that used dinning blades, efficiencies of 20% or better are seen. Nature apparently does not create things that are not better adaptations. The Japanese Shinkansen bullet train had a problem with noise. When the fast electric train runs through tunnels at speeds of 300 Km/Hr along its route, on exiting the tunnel there is a loud sonic boom as the air compressed by the nose of the train escapes from the tunnel – a product of harsh turbulence. Naturally, people living along the route were not pleased. Interestingly, one of the design engineers was a bird watcher and wondered if the ability of the Kingfisher bird to drop from air into water, with little turbulence or splash, could be applied to the problem. By redesigning the nose of the train with the shape of the Kingfishers beak, the train was able to displace the air more smoothly thus eliminating the noise problem. As a added benefit, the train also gained about 15% electrical efficiency and some 10% increased speed from the reduced drag.
These examples are just the tip of the ice-berg of what is possible. Natural systems as marvels of efficiency and harmonic design. We are only just starting to realize the possibilities for improving our technologies to be less harmful and more efficient. And it isn’t just individual products that mimic natural form and design, it also stretches to how we live sociologically. From economics to social groupings, nature has more to teach us if we are ready to learn. The planet is a model of sustainable living if we are ready to choose it.
TBC…….
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