Biomimicry Institute
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Biological Systems and Agricultural Engineering Design Green Design and Sustainable Engineering Industrial Design |
| Special Topic(s): | |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Community - General |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
Organization:Biomimicry Institute |
| Description: | "The mission of The Biomimicry Institute is to nurture and grow a global community of people who are learning from, emulating, and conserving life's genius to create a healthier, more sustainable planet. Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a new science that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example of this "innovation inspired by nature." The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what lasts here on Earth. This is the real news of biomimicry: After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. Like the viceroy butterfly imitating the monarch, we humans are imitating the best and brightest organisms in our habitat. We are learning, for instance, how to grow food like a prairie, build ceramics like an abalone, create color like a peacock, self-medicate like a chimp, compute like a cell, and run a business like a hickory forest. The conscious emulation of life's genius is a survival strategy for the human race, a path to a sustainable future. The more our world looks and functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone." |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | biomimetics biologically-inspired design |
| Has Components: |
Biomimicry Institute - Education and Training Biomimicry at the University Level Case Studies in Biomimicry |
| References: |
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature |
| Usage Tip | |
| Related ABET Criteria: |
(c) Design a system, component, or process (h) Understand global, economic, environmental, and societal context |
| Use of Resource: |
Great resources for teachers and designers at all levels. |
| Difficulty: |
Medium |
| Interactivity Level: |
Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | May 2009 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/ |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
CARES
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