Mimicking Mother Nature

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Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI), a global network of scientists, entrepreneurs, and educators, has initiated ecoindustrial projects that attempt to find ways to reuse all wastes as raw materials for other processes. Storm Brewing in Newfoundland, Canada -- in one of a growing number of projects around the world applying ZERI principles -- is using spent grains, a by-product of the beer-making process, to make bread and grow mushrooms.

As industries continue to adopt nature's models, entire manufacturing processes could operate locally, with local ingredients -- like the factories that use liquefied beach sand to make windshields. As more scientists and engineers begin to embrace biomimicry, natural organisms will come to be regarded as mentors, their processes deemed masterful. And our culture at large will be more likely to see nature not as an exploitable resource, but as a source of information that's worth protecting.

More Biomimicry Examples

Based on spiral shapes like the nautilus shell and the vortex of a tornado, Australian inventor Jay Harman's impellers move air and liquids up to 40 percent more efficiently than traditional propellers.

The tiny bristles that allow geckos to walk on walls inspired British scientists at the University of Manchester to develop a glue-free adhesive tape. Products held together with gecko tape could be recycled without the pollution associated with chemical adhesives.

At high speeds, most of the noise from Japan's bullet trains is caused not by the wheels against the tracks but by wind resistance from the vehicle's body and rooftop pantographs (electricity-collecting arms). To reduce wind drag, engineers turned to birds, modeling the train's nose after the aerodynamic head of a kingfisher and the pantograph after the silent wing of an owl.

The lotus flower manages to stay remarkably clean despite its murky environs because the microscopic structure of its skin causes dust particles to stick to raindrops and fall away. Using this "lotus effect," a British company has developed a line of paints that, when they're dry, create self-cleaning surfaces.

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