Lab+7-+Biomimicry

The idea that designers and engineers-people that build our world can inspire their design ideas from nature and life- represents the domain of bio mimicry. Janine Benyus is a biologist that has written a book explaining the potentials of the process of designers and biologist collaborating on projects to make sure that all things produced in our world support life, not hinder it.

1.Bio mimicry can be used in avionics. Japan's 500 Series Shinkansen bullet train can achieve speed of some 200 mph. It was designed with the the most quiet bird in the world in mind- the owl. Namely this was achieved by making the pantograph - the overhead less noisy by mimicking the serrations in the owl. Another feature was inspired by another animal is the shape of it mimicking the whales shape to achieve speed and smoother travel. Also this train is designed with a nose, front that looks like and has the benefit of kingfisher's beak`s nose shape- more efficiency when transferring from air to water for the animal, and less "sonic boom" for the train when it passes from a tunnel into the open air.

2. The skeleton key is a very impressive development. It mimics the natural lines of the human body, more specifically mimics the structure of bones.The congeniality in this product is in that even though it looks hollow and rather fragile, it is very strong and reliable. The prototype was build with aluminum and it was made under the a computer program. This design can be used in many different areas where people are seated, be that a car, office chair etc.

3.Carbon sequestration is a process that engineers have developed to take remove the CO2 emissions in the air. The bio mimicry comes in place where a point is made that animals do not see it as a threat, they need it to make starches and glucose out of it. This idea was used in the development of flue scrubber that can do the same process in a rather efficient manner- it can take the CO2 and all the toxic waste from the air and convert it to nontoxic powder.

4.//Sound foresight// is a company that is producing aids for visually impaired individuals. It used the idea of the bat to produce a device that helps the vision impaired individuals to navigate at night. The specific instance taken from nature was the ability of bats to smoothly navigate during night without any collision. The technology developed as a result is sonar technology and is utilizing the power of sensors to let the individual using the product that they are approaching an object or a person.

Janine Benyus is a biologist that has developed her life to research and both non for profit and profit efforts to bring a revolutionary idea up front- that all design needs to be inspired by life and nature. She has written a book in which she outlined various different instances of the nature offering a vast design idea plain field. She proposes the concept be embraced by corporations and even small companies in their process of greening their companies. The way this can be done is by bilogists and engineers, architects collaborate on the process of outlining ideas and executing them in a manner that would confine to all standards nature imposes. As herself says, life forms conditions conducive to life.

The emphasis that Janine makes is that in terms of technology, engineers have learned a lot from nature on the side of the software, not on the hardware side though. She points out that computers are communicating in neural networks, have immune system to protect themselves against viruses, have hierarchy and etc. The technology side however, doe n`t as much take advantage of what nature and what nature would consider success, because there is a lot of carcinogenic material in chips. For example, according to Janine, there is bio silicone.The bio silicone is a diotemes made out of silicates- a product of a bio mineralization process.

As a final thought of such an inspiring works she has, the greening process of companies can and needs to take broader scope than just simply recycling and producing products out of recycled materials. In this manner, we can try not only to preserve some of the resources that we are running out of, but also improve efficiency in our lives, have a more healthy environment and potentially lead a more healthy life in complete piece and sync with nature.