"The Promise of Biomimicry" : Innovation and Design Inspired by Nature

Summary

The script explores biomimicry, a discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature's strategies. From the efficient energy conversion in leaves to the flow control in forests, it emphasizes nature's wisdom. Pioneer Janine Benyus, who authored 'Biomimicry' in 1997, shares her insights on innovation inspired by nature. The script also covers the Biomimicry Institute's educational efforts, the Ray C. Anderson Foundation's support for entrepreneurs, and various biomimetic projects like mosquito control devices and wastewater treatment systems, illustrating how nature's principles are applied to solve real-world problems.

Takeaways

• 🌳 Biomimicry is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature's strategies and forms.
• 🔬 The concept of biomimicry was popularized in the 1990s with the publication of Janine Benyus' book, 'Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature'.
• 🌡️ Nature's strategies for energy efficiency and feedback loops are highlighted as models for human innovation.
• 🌱 Janine Benyus and Dana Baumeister aimed to integrate biomimicry into culture and education to foster a new generation of inventors.
• 🏫 Biomimicry is best taught through practical design challenges, encouraging students to apply its principles.
• 💡 The Biomimicry Institute's student design challenge has been instrumental in nurturing the next generation of biomimetic innovators.
• 🌍 The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change recognizes biomimicry as a viable approach to achieving regenerative economies.
• 💧 Examples of biomimicry in action include mosquito control devices inspired by carnivorous plants, building cooling systems inspired by cacti and termites, and wastewater treatment inspired by cow stomachs.
• 🏗️ Biomimicry is applied across various industries, from architecture to water treatment, aiming to solve real-world problems with nature-inspired solutions.
• 🏆 The Ray of Hope Prize, worth $100,000, is awarded to the best biomimetic innovation to help bring these ideas to market.
• 🌟 The ultimate goal of biomimicry is to integrate its principles into mainstream design, leading to a more sustainable and nature-inspired world.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the video script?

The main theme of the video script is biomimicry, which is innovation inspired by nature, focusing on sustainable solutions and learning from the natural world.

What does the term 'biomimetics' refer to?

Biomimetics refers to the practice of looking to nature for design solutions and inspiration, aiming to create sustainable products, policies, and systems by emulating natural processes and structures.

When did Janine Benyus start collecting examples of biomimicry?

Janine Benyus started collecting examples of biomimicry in 1990, which culminated in her book 'Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature' in 1997.

What is the purpose of the Biomimicry Institute's student design challenge?

The purpose of the Biomimicry Institute's student design challenge is to teach biomimicry principles through practice and to encourage students to develop sustainable solutions inspired by nature.

How does the video script suggest we can learn from nature?

The video script suggests that we can learn from nature by observing its strategies, forms, processes, and ecosystem-level interactions, and then applying these principles to human systems design.

What is the Ray C. Anderson Foundation's connection to biomimicry?

The Ray C. Anderson Foundation is connected to biomimicry through its founder, Ray Anderson, who was inspired by Janine Benyus to learn from nature. The foundation supports the Biomimicry Institute's initiatives, including the student design challenge.

What is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's goal mentioned in the script?

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's goal mentioned in the script is to transition to regenerative economies sustained by resilient communities within 10 years.

What is the 'Ray of Hope Prize' and why is it awarded?

The 'Ray of Hope Prize' is a $100,000 award given to the best team in the biomimicry launchpad competition. It is awarded to incentivize and support the commercialization of biomimetic innovations.

How does the script describe the importance of nature's strategies in problem-solving?

The script describes the importance of nature's strategies in problem-solving by emphasizing how nature's feedback loops and efficient use of resources can inspire sustainable solutions to human challenges.

What are some examples of biomimetic innovations mentioned in the script?

Examples of biomimetic innovations mentioned in the script include a mosquito control device inspired by a carnivorous plant, a building cooling system inspired by cacti and termites, a wastewater treatment system inspired by a cow's digestive system, and a water pipe leak detection robot inspired by a squid.

What is the ultimate goal of biomimicry as portrayed in the video script?

The ultimate goal of biomimicry as portrayed in the video script is to integrate biomimetic design into everyday products and practices, leading to a more sustainable and nature-inspired approach to innovation.

Outlines

00:00

🌿 Biomimicry: Learning from Nature

The paragraph introduces biomimicry as a discipline that seeks sustainable solutions from nature. The speaker discusses how nature's strategies, such as feedback loops, prevent excessive energy expenditure. The concept of empathy is highlighted as a means to understand the interconnectedness of human and natural activities. The speaker's journey into biomimicry began in 1990, leading to the publication of a book in 1997. Biomimicry is presented as a method of innovation inspired by nature, focusing on efficient and life-friendly designs and processes. The goal is to create sustainable products, policies, and lifestyles by emulating nature's strategies.

05:03

📚 Integrating Biomimicry into Education and Culture

This section discusses the efforts to integrate biomimicry into education and culture. The speaker emphasizes the importance of teaching biomimicry through practice, such as design challenges, to encourage innovation inspired by nature. The narrative includes the story of Ray Anderson, a businessman who sought to make his company environmentally sustainable, and his connection to Janine Benyus, a biomimicry proponent. The paragraph also touches on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's goal to transition to regenerative economies within a decade, suggesting that biomimicry can play a significant role in achieving this.

10:05

🌍 Global Biomimicry Solutions for Climate Change

The paragraph showcases various global teams working on biomimicry projects to address climate change. Teams from different countries are developing solutions inspired by nature, such as a mosquito control device based on a carnivorous plant, a building cooling system inspired by cacti and termites, and a wastewater treatment method模仿 cow's digestion. Each team's project is designed to be sustainable and environmentally friendly, demonstrating the practical application of biomimicry principles.

15:05

🏆 Launchpad for Biomimicry Innovations

This section describes the Biomimicry Launchpad, a program that helps transform biomimicry ideas into commercial products. The program provides participants with business skills and mentorship to develop their innovations. The narrative includes the process of selecting teams for the Launchpad and the ultimate goal of awarding a $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize to the most promising project. The prize aims to incentivize the development of biomimetic innovations and attract further investment.

20:07

🌱 The Future of Biomimicry

The final paragraph envisions a future where biomimicry is a standard part of good design, with nature's wisdom guiding everyday products and solutions. The speaker expresses gratitude for the progress made and eagerness to see future innovations. The paragraph concludes with a hopeful outlook on the integration of nature-inspired designs into mainstream culture and the potential for these designs to contribute to environmental conservation and sustainability.

Keywords

💡Biomimicry

Biomimicry is the practice of looking to nature for design inspiration to solve human challenges. It is a central theme in the video, where it is presented as a method for creating sustainable solutions by emulating nature's strategies. For instance, the video mentions studying leaves to improve solar cell efficiency, showcasing biomimicry in action.

💡Sustainability

Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The video emphasizes sustainability as a goal, with biomimicry serving as a means to achieve it by creating products, policies, and systems that live in harmony with nature.

💡Nature's Designs

Nature's designs refer to the structures, forms, and processes found in the natural world that are efficient and life-friendly. The video discusses how these designs can inspire human inventions, such as studying how leaves gather sunlight to improve solar energy technology.

💡Innovation

Innovation in the context of the video is about creating new solutions inspired by nature. It's not just about technological advancement but also about developing ideas and methods that are in tune with natural systems, leading to more sustainable and efficient outcomes.

💡Feedback Loops

Feedback loops are processes where the output of a system affects its input, which in turn influences future outputs. The video mentions how nature uses feedback loops to regulate itself and avoid expending too much energy, suggesting that humans can learn from these natural systems to create more balanced technological solutions.

💡Empathy

Empathy, in the video, is used to describe the approach of understanding and relating to nature's processes and strategies. It's about seeing the interconnectedness between human activities and natural systems, which is crucial for mimicking nature effectively.

💡Ecosystem

An ecosystem refers to a community of living organisms interacting with their physical environment. The video discusses learning from ecosystems to understand how organisms interact to enhance their environment, which can inform human designs for more sustainable living.

💡Ray of Hope Prize

The Ray of Hope Prize is a significant award mentioned in the video, given to the best team in the biomimicry challenge. It symbolizes the recognition and encouragement of innovative ideas that successfully apply biomimicry principles to real-world problems.

💡Biomimicry Institute

The Biomimicry Institute is an organization highlighted in the video that promotes the study and application of biomimicry. It runs challenges and educational programs to foster a new generation of innovators who can apply nature's wisdom to human design.

💡Design Challenge

A design challenge, as mentioned in the video, is a method used to teach and practice biomimicry. It involves setting a problem and encouraging participants to find solutions by looking to nature, thus integrating learning with practical application.

💡Regenerative Economies

Regenerative economies are economic systems that aim to restore and revitalize natural resources. The video connects biomimicry with the goal of transitioning to regenerative economies, suggesting that designs inspired by nature can help achieve this by inherently being resilient and sustainable.

Highlights

Life runs on information and sunlight, and nature influences movement through shape.

Nature uses feedback loops to prevent overexpenditure of energy.

Biomimicry involves collecting ideas from nature for innovation.

Biomimicry is a new way of inventing by looking to nature for inspiration.

Nature's designs are energy efficient and life-friendly.

Biomimicry aims to emulate nature's strategies for a sustainable world.

Biomimicry has spread throughout design and engineering communities in the last 20 years.

The biomimicry discipline is naturalizing in culture and building institutions.

Biomimicry tools include nature-inspired methodologies and innovation matchmaking services.

Biomimicry should be taught through practice, such as design challenges.

Ray Anderson, founder of Interface, was inspired by biomimicry for environmental sustainability.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change sees design inspired by nature as a means to regenerative economies.

Arooga Technologies mimics the Venus flytrap to control mosquito populations.

A product is being developed to lower building temperatures using a passive system inspired by nature.

Wastewater treatment technology is inspired by the cow's stomach to operate without power.

A robotic tool inspired by squids is used to identify water pipe leaks.

Self-cleaning surfaces inspired by nature are applied to water treatment membranes.

The Biomimicry Launchpad helps turn biomimetic ideas into real products and businesses.

The Ray of Hope Prize of $100,000 incentivizes bringing biomimetic innovations to light.

Biomimicry technologies aim to bring nature to everyday people and products.

In 20 years, biomimicry will be seen as just good design, integrating nature's evolved solutions.

Transcripts

[Music]

you know what life runs on information

and sunlight

[Music]

how does nature influence movement

through shape

[Music]

how does nature redirect fluid flow

redirect that's interesting

you know how when you walk it gets

really windy and filled and then you

walk into an forest what happens

so those feedback loops are what

constantly keep nature from going

overboard on stuff or expending too much

energy so there's so many strategies but

what you have to do is get form of

empathy which is we start with what are

your lives like what are you doing and

then realize there's no separation

between what they're doing what we're

doing that's a false battery they just

do it under for doing that we're trying

to do I started collecting for

biomimicry in 1990 the book yeah I began

to see these is sort of faint signal in

the scientific literature that people

who are studying leaves for instance

we're starting to work with solar cell

manufacturers right to to say you know

how does how does a leaf gather the

sun's energy so so well and turn it into

chemistry's and when I saw that happen I

collected it that started in 1990 and it

culminated in biomimicry innovation

inspired by nature of the book in 1997

so biomimicry is innovation inspired by

nature and it's a new way of inventing

by looking to the natural world for our

inspiration how and asking before we

design anything um what would nature do

here when we're doing biomimicry is

we're looking for nature's designs you

know its structures and its forms

because they're so elegant they're so

energy efficient

we're looking at its processes its

recipes than the chemistry's that are so

life friendly and then we're also

looking at its strategies on an

ecosystem level right how do all these

organisms interact in a way that

enhances this place and by looking to

the natural world for our models and as

our mentor

what we're trying to do is emulate that

to create a more sustainable world more

sustainable products policies makes new

ways of living that will allow us to

live more gracefully on this planet and

how we're using too many materials too

much energy too many toxins how does

nature do it it's a way to seek

sustainable solutions and it still is a

fairly new it's a fairly new way of

inventing in the last 20 years it's

spread throughout the design and

engineering communities you know it's

the beginning of its jury

it's an exciting emerging discipline and

we've begun to naturalize it in the

culture

[Music]

when Dana Baumeister and I were first

starting and we realized you know when

there's an emerging discipline where do

you where do you start to naturalize it

in the culture and to build all the all

the institutions that are emerging

discipline needs and what we said was

that you know ultimately what we're

trying to do is take the ideas from the

natural world the wisdom from the

natural world and let it flow into human

systems design design of everything and

so we needed to create a flow structure

that's how nature would do it right

something that would use that would that

would easily flow from one to the other

and the most important impulse was to

get people to ask how would nature do

this and then once they asked we had to

make sure that they would have a way to

find an answer and that became tools

like ass nature methodologies about

going outside and how you look and how

you observe ways to go through the

biological literature ice I called it

there needs to be some sort of an

innovation matchmaking service right

because I realized that the people who

make our world

you know the engineers and product

designers they don't take biology in in

school it just doesn't happen so they're

creating creating a pump that's run by

an internal combustion engine but

they've never learned about the whale

heart which is an incredible pump that

pumps you know 65,000 miles of arteries

capillaries biologists know about it but

the people who make pump stuff so it's

creating this

this place where biological knowledge

and intelligence could easily be

accessed at the moment of creation that

became a snitcher

[Music]

one of the things we said was let's get

biomimicry into the educational process

and what we learned was the way that

biomimicry is best taught is through

practice so that's when we went to this

idea of a design challenge as a way of

teaching because biomimicry is not a

body of work that you download that you

read in the textbook if you have to do

it actually and then you get it so it's

starting to happen we're starting to put

that into place with with this design

challenge

[Music]

I'm John Lanier the executive director

of the RACI Anderson foundation

my grandfather was Ray Anderson ray

founded interphase the world's largest

carpet tile manufacturing company and he

spent the last 17 years of his life

trying to make his business as

environmentally sustainable as possible

along that journey that he and the

company took he was always looking for

teachers people who could help him along

the way towards sustainability Janine

Benyus was one of those teachers and

then she taught ray to learn from nature

biomimicry is such a big part of what my

grandfather's story was about and when

he passed away left his estate to this

family foundation we very strongly

believe that we need more entrepreneurs

to understand that nature really is the

best teacher it's something that that

ray understood very well when we learned

that the biomimicry Institute had been

doing a student design challenge for

some time that was the beginning of a

much bigger idea because there are so

many people who have the entrepreneurial

bug but have not yet learned how to be

expert bio-memories if we can empower

them you begin to see the makings of

systems change people begin to realize

that what nature has to teach is more

than we've ever imagined

[Music]

the UN Framework Convention on Climate

Change says we have 10 years to

transition to regenerative economies

sustained by resilient communities

design inspired by nature is inherently

regenerative inherently resilient making

it a viable means to meet those goals

now we're using too many materials too

much energy too many toxins how does

nature do it

[Music]

my name is paulina Villa Crassus I'm

from Ecuador and my name is Ana gannets

I'm similar co-leaders from India I'm

Tyrone Kumar from Bangalore India my

name is Albert Gonzalez

I'm Timmons lo my name is Joe and this

is Angela my name is Joe Pew gar I'm the

CEO and co-founder of arooga

technologies my name is AAM's

I'm an architect I'm wincing I come from

China

my name is Bruno Richmond my name is

Pedro Ho Chi Minh and from nuclear

company yeah

so we started with this problem of

climate change we identified the

population of mosquitoes were increasing

in some areas of the world so that's

where we really started with that

problem of mosquito populations we

decided to ask nature what can we do to

trap unwanted population we found that

there's this latter word or Utrecht

Eulerian Bulgari's it's a carnivorous

plant that it's under water and

basically has these hairs that are very

sensitive so when a larvae is closer to

these hairs their trap opens and it

traps the larvae and then through

photosynthesis it digests the larvae and

turns it into nutrients so inspired on

that we wanted to mimic that behavior

and so we created that you pod which is

a mosquito control device that is solar

paneled

and it has two compartments an air

chamber and a water chamber what it does

it has a pump that triggers a trapdoor

through a smart sensor that lets water

and larvae in and once the water chamber

is full their trap door closes and

basically the larvae are left with no

oxygen supply and they drown the trap

system resets

its cycle and the water and larvae are

expelled in new water in new larvae

come into the water chamber and that's

how it functions

[Music]

we're working on a product that would

help lower the lure the temperature

inside buildings being able it would be

retrofitted onto the face of the outside

exterior of a wall it would lower the

temperature inside and it's a passive

system that doesn't require the use of

electricity so actually every layer of

our project uses separate creatures to

mimic the first layers is inspired by

the cactus the wavy pattern that's on

the front of our device creates a shade

reduce heat and then we have a second

layer that is very porous allows for air

that get brought into the system to cool

it down and that one's inspired by the

termites and our final layer is a water

layer that uses the same technique that

we use as simple up the water so that

that water can then evaporate and also

pull down the surface of the wall from

the front of it to the back of it we

know it cools up to about 30 degrees we

got some tests that went a little higher

when it got hotter but like on average

is about a 30 degree difference and it's

only about 3 inches thick so it's really

right now and this is like macro scales

so we could actually build it and test

it so if we were to manufacture it would

probably be only like 1 or 2 inches

thick and hopefully would have the same

result

we work on wastewater seaweeds

treatments we direct the technology to

treat wastewater civets without using

power with that's what every we do what

we do is we've taken inspiration from

the stomach of a cow and try to

replicate that underground so what we do

is we treat the wastewater without power

or machinery using anaerobic bacteria

that is present in the cow's stomach as

well so it's a digestive system for the

wastewater what we're trying to do is

treat sewage in the more decentralized

way closer to the source without

machinery chemicals and safeguarding the

lives of operators and also the sludge

that is being created carries a lot of

pathogens in conventional STPs

unlike anaerobic systems like ours that

actually eats and digests all these

things and we've came out the solution

and we are hoping to make a difference

[Music]

our company is about helping water

utilities to fund leaks similar water

pipes save water and protect their

infrastructure

we use a robotic tool that we can use to

put into water pipes and help those

world companies identify the location of

leaks before those leaks become

catastrophic failures we all started as

traditional engineering major students

which by all traditional engineering

principles it turns out none of them

worked so we had to take a radically

different approach and that's when we

started looking at soft material robot

then we build a robot that works very

much like a squid they can squeeze

through water pipes and then measure

leaks through a suction force and this

is our inspiration from nature to solve

this particular problem we can transform

that interesting point from the nature

to the industry point that's quite

inspiring for us with

we actually look to how our own native

arteries in our own body remain so clean

from blood clot and other platelets that

would accumulate on the surface normally

so what we've actually discovered

through histology or the study of veins

and we've seen this pattern in other

places in nature such as dolphin and

shark skin or even mussels in the ocean

is that this is a self-cleaning surface

and that different animals and organisms

use this in order to keep themselves

clean in harsh adhesive environments so

separately or one of the applications

were really driving for has been in

water treatment reverse osmosis or

desalinization the hope would be to put

these self-cleaning features on

membranes used for the filtration

process and by having a self-cleaning

surface here in proving the lifetime of

these filters as well as making them

more effective we had we had done the

design challenge for several years and

the ideas were amazing but people

graduated they went on they didn't have

the business help to be able to know how

to make it into an actual business or a

service or product and and we knew that

that there was a gap there we would like

to take these amazing ideas turn them

into real products commercialize them so

the launch pad or the people out of all

of our applications these are the people

who we believe have the best chance to

make a business out of their ideas so

they are learning not just biomimicry

but they're also learning business

skills

[Music]

they're getting a mini MBA here in how

to come up with a business model how to

come up with a business plan how to

present your materials for investors we

also we're asking them to get to the

prototype stage which is a lot more than

just ideas on a CAD CAM program or on

paper both these teams the winner will

be presented with $100,000 ray of hope

prize that's at a point where investors

might say okay this looks like something

that might work

so that hundred thousand dollars should

attract other money as well and we'll

get folks to even the next level of

their work and we've seen that happen

we felt that by creating a grand prize

but we call the the ray of hope prize

$100,000 to the best team but that

creates an incentive bringing a

biomimetic innovation to light now

please help me congratulate the winners

of the 2018 ray of hope

first prize brothers Bruno and Pedro

rootin pan young Kelly of nuclei Rio in

Brazil

[Music]

now I'd like to invite all six of the

teams from the biomimicry launchpad on

stage please join me in congratulating

all of them

[Music]

anyone yeah we are super proud for sure

that the price will help help a lot in

our development in our next steps new

Clarice basil and inspired by nature and

ours our users are the trees are the

small trees the seedlings but not only

the trees but the few the workers - yeah

we are improving the food workers life

the biggest bottleneck at the forest

erosion process is the maintenance we

need a lot of Labor and those heroes

they are working every day at the fields

but we want to improve their labor

because the demand for for saturation is

huge so we will put their jobs just to

be plenty increase we are supplying them

with a new technology a new device - so

with that they can plant the faster

smarter

and cheaper to living this year business

and the biomimicry and design itself so

yeah we learn a lot of that I am mimicry

at scale this transformation coming here

it was really nice to meet a bunch of

people who also design and look for new

solutions in nature the walk on the

Blackfoot River I loved every minute of

it

it was really nice just to see like

Janine's personal take on it and how

much it meant to her and it was it just

inspiring all around and and also

learning from the other participants so

we are just kind of completing each

other's work and and it's really good to

be a part of this network but what I

think is a great opportunity and what I

are really excited about especially in

biomimicry technologies is what we're

doing is we're bringing nature now to

the everyday person and at the end of

the day there's that beautiful flow

and there's more sustainable products

there's people who know how to practice

biomimicry but even more importantly to

me there's a whole group of people who

have a heightened respect for the

natural world this way of inventing you

know in 20 years we look back and this

is just good design it's not biomimetic

design it's just good design it mimics

the amazing things that have been

evolved over 3.8 billion years at that

point we will have fulfilled this

mission right and hopefully there's a

amazing amounts of systems of solutions

all of which you can say thank you to

for the idea right and those organisms

habitats are being conserved because

we're just so grateful and we want to

see what the next genius idea is gonna

be right that's what I would love in 20

years

[Music]

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