Mimicking Mother Nature

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Harman is tinkering with a number of bioinspired products: an impeller that reduces the need for certain chemicals now used in municipal water reservoirs; medical devices that can pump blood more rapidly without destroying blood cells; and near-silent air conditioners that are 25 percent more efficient than the average window unit. His company is also working with the largest manufacturer of residential ventilation products, Broan-NuTone, to devise quiet, energy-efficient kitchen and bathroom fans.

"If we could capture nature's efficiencies across the board, we could decrease dependency on fuel by at least 50 percent," Harman says. "What we're finding already with the tools and methodology we have right now is that we can reduce energy consumption by between 30 and 40 percent."

Despite these potential energy savings, Harman says, he's long faced stubbornness among industry engineers, who believed efficiency was synonymous with the sort of cookie-cutter design and manufacturing that's been around since the industrial revolution. It's only recently that mainstream companies have begun to equate biomimicry with the bottom line. DaimlerChrysler, for example, introduced a prototype car modeled on a coral reef fish. Despite its boxy, cube-shaped body, which defies a long-held aerodynamic standard in automotive design (the raindrop shape), the streamlined boxfish proved to be aerodynamically ideal and the unique construction of its skin -- numerous hexagonal, bony plates -- a perfect recipe for designing a car of maximum strength with minimal weight.

Companies and communities are flocking to Janine Benyus, author of the landmark book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (Perennial, 2002) and cofounder of the Biomimicry Guild, which seats biologists at the table with researchers and designers at companies such as Nike, Interface carpets, Novell, and Procter & Gamble. Their objective is to marry industrial problems with natural solutions. The Helena, Montana-based consultancy also offers a headhunting service for companies seeking inspiration from nature or to put biologists on the payroll. The guild, which presents companies with natural models in hopes of encouraging sustainable business practices, also flags substances that might soon be banned and presents companies with scientific research regarding benign, natural alternatives.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print