Biodiversity Benefits: Natural R&D
Kristopher UrieJanuary 12th, 2009
Hi, I’m Kristopher Urie, the biodiversity informatics specialist in the Biodiversity Synthesis Group, a component of the EOL. I have a B.S.E. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and a M.S. in computer science from DePaul University. I’m currently working on developing new tree visualization tools for phylogenetic trees.
Happy New Year and welcome to the Year of Science! This year, scientists from every discipline are getting together to celebrate and promote public understanding of science. The theme this month is The Process and Nature of Science. The first, and sometimes most difficult, step in that process is inspiration. Where do scientific ideas come from? Often, just from observation of the natural world around us.My post today is about how nature has inspired breakthroughs in fields as diverse as materials science, renewable power generation, robotics and computer science.
One of the tough things about being an engineer is that you don’t have an infinite amount of time or resources to design anything. Evolution, on the other hand, very nearly does. It’s building and testing billions of prototypes of millions of products at any given time. Not surprisingly, this has lead to some weird and wonderful results. Throughout history, man has looked to the natural world for technological inspiration. Now, with the Encyclopedia of Life, everything we’ve learned about life on earth will be gathered in one place, more accessible than ever before.
A design for a flying machine by Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1488 | A Mexican free-tailed bat |
For most of human history, many animals have been faster than us, stronger, more numerous, more resilient and often much more deadly. We’ve taken direct advantage of these adaptations for a long time, but lately we’ve really started to tap into nature’s R&D lab and use individual biological adaptations in technology, engineering and materials science. Here are a few examples:
- Squid Beaks and Soft/Hard Interfaces:Study of the gradation from hard chitin in the squid’s beak to the softer material that connects it to the mouth could lead to better prostheses.
- Abalone Shell Composite:Composite materials based on the structure of the abalone shell are both stronger and less brittle than existing man-made composites.
- Gecko’s Foot Adhesive:Researchers have discovered that the complex nanoscale structure of the gecko’s foot uses the Van der Waals force and capillarity to stick to almost any surface, and have begun to develop strong, reusable adhesives based on this structure.
- Termite Mound Air-Conditioning:Termite mounds are kept in a very narrow temperature range by a natural air-conditioning system. When the same principles were applied in a Zimbabwe office building, the cooling cost was reduced by 90% over conventional systems.
- Whale Flipper Turbine Blades:The leading edge of a humpback whale’s flipper isn’t smooth, but has regularly spaced bumps. When engineers used a similar bump pattern on wind turbine blades, they found that it significantly increased lift, decreased drag, and improved the stalling behavior, leading to more efficient renewable power generation.
- Tuna Tail Tidal Power Generation:The swimming motion of a bluefin tuna is being put to work for efficient tidal power generation.
- Artificial Intelligence:The study of the structure of the brain and the process of biological evolution has led to computer software that can learn and adapt to solve problems.
TED talk: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature (Janine Benyus)