What is Biomimetics?

The nature has always been the main source of inspiration for man’s inventions and discoveries. Centuries back Leonardo Da Vinci designed ships in the shape of fish. Men tried to create flying machines out of flapping wings like that of birds. The Wright Brother’s noticed that huge birds could be on flight even without flapping their wings and thus created the first aircraft based on their studies of bird’s and their flight mechanism. This dependence on nature for scientific inspiration has been classified into biomimetics science. This name has been derived from Bios which means life and mimetics meaning imitation. This simply means that the nature is imitated in this form of science. The name, biomimetics was given by the American biophysicist, Otto Schmitt and he developed the Schmitt trigger inspired from the squid nerve mechanism.

Biomimetics has been prevalent in the world since time immemorial and now even high end industries are making use of biomimetics to produce high-tech innovations. There are very many examples of nature paving way for remarkable creations. The human skeleton has been studied since the 1800’s and the complex structure was a mystery. Studies by Hermann Von Meyer revealed that the structuring of the femur bone of the thighs was a bit unusual and had ridges to support the body in right position. This femur balance was properly utilized by Gustave Eiffel in the Eiffel tower in 1889 and the 984 foot high tower of biomimetics example still stands tall and strong unshaken by any natural force.

Another simple example of biomimetics is the invention of Velcro. You wouldn’t believe that the idea of the Velcro stickers were derived from the dogs paws. It was the Swiss inventor George de Mestral who noticed that his dog had small seeds stuck onto its paws after a walk. Intrigued over this, he examined the paws, and found it to have tiny hook shaped burrs. He then developed the Velcro based on this same natural phenomenon, thus used the science of biomimetics. He then developed the two part Velcro sticker, which stuck to one another and could be used several times. The idea was later patented in 1955.

The floating leaves of the water lily (Victoria amazonica) became the source of biomimetics inspiration for botanist Joseph Paxton and he successfully built the great Victorian Crystal Palace in 1851. He observed that the floating leaves of this plant could hold the weight of a small baby and this was possible because of its ribbed underside which supported the leaf. This sparked the biomimetics idea of using simple lightweight material to support huge glass pieces. He then built a 108 feet tall building with over 200,000 glass panes and supported them using cast iron. He won the design competition without any engineering training and simply made use of the biomimetics knowledge. The scaled structure was tested for its strength and even 300 men umping onto it could not break it. The original Crystal palace was huge than the exhibit, but succumbed to fire in 1936.

Recently, the large binocular telescope in Arizona was built based on the biomimetics study in honey bee. The two large mirrors of the telescope have been supported using the honeycomb structure. Biomimetics have been applied in the production of  Swim suits and have been created which come with ridges as in shark skin and thus claim to reduce the drag that would be caused otherwise. The penguin feathers are now being studied extensively in biomimetics by the textile industry to create clothing material that can resist even coldest climate conditions. The opening and closing of the pine cone helps it to retain moisture foe the drier times. This phenomenon is now widely studies to create similar model clothing. There are several other natural phenomenon happening in the world around us and by proper biomimetics studies, they can be discovered and utilized