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Biomimicry: asknature.org
AskNature is a free, open source project, built by the community and for the community. The goal is to connect innovative minds with life's best ideas, and in the process, inspire technologies that create conditions conducive to life. To accomplish this, they have organised the world's biological literature by function.
Biomimicry
What is Biomimicry?
Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more.
Consciously emulating Nature's genius means viewing and valuing the
natural world differently. In biomimicry, we look at Nature as model,
mentor, and measure.
Model: Biomimicry is a
new science that studies Nature’s models and then emulates these forms,
processes, systems, and strategies to solve human problems –
sustainably.
Mentor: Biomimicry is a new way
of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what
we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it.
Measure:
Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of
our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, Nature has
learned what works and what lasts.
