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Biomimicry: definition & examples (explained with drawings) - YouTube
Channel: Sustainability Illustrated
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Hi Alex here. In today's video we're
going to talk about biomimicry. What is it?
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Bio means life; Mimicry means imitate; so biomimicry is the practice of imitating life.
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It looks to nature to provide
inspiration and direction to sustainably
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solve our most pressing challenges. It
is innovation inspired by nature.
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Human beings are clever. We've created city's, economies and whole societies
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but at the same time and without meaning to
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we've also created massive sustainability challenges for future generations
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and ourselves. Biomimicry is a way to
address these problems by creating
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policies, products and processes that are
adapted to life on Earth. The idea goes like this...
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Plants, animals and microbes are
amazing. They have spent billions of years
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engineering and testing ways to thrive
on the planet.
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Three point eight billion years to be precise. That's a lot of research and development!
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After all this R&D, what did not work does not exist anymore and what surrounds us
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has learned to survive. Solutions to
challenges large and small are all around us.
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We just need to look. Here are
two examples:
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Sustainable energy provision is a massive sustainability challenge. The race is on
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to find economically viable sustainable energy solutions. Biomimicry asks
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"what could we learn from nature that could help us
produce sustainable energy or make more
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efficient the current alternative technologies that are already out there?"
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Seemingly large and unwieldy humpback
whales display surprising agility in the water.
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This is due mainly to their flippers
which have large irregular bumps
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called "tubercules" across their leading edges. Inspired by these flippers, a company
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called WhalePower has developed turbine
blades with bumps called tubercules
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on the leading edge. These blades promise greater efficiency in many applications
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from wind turbines to hydroelectric turbines,
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to irrigation pumps, to ventilation fans. In
fact, using these blades to catch wind
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could provide up to 20% increased
efficiency, making this type of
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alternative energy competitive with
other energy sources.
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Thank you humpback whales! Here is another example of Biomimicry in action.
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The Shinkansen bullet train is one of the fastest trains in the world. Offering high-speed
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travel between several of Japan's
metropolitan areas, it used to travel
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over 200 miles per hour.
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But every time the train emerged from a
tunnel, air pressure changes made a
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sonic boom like a large thunderclap
causing people one quarter mile away
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who lived along the train line to
complain.
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Japan has strict noise pollution laws so this had to be solved.
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The train's chief engineer was a dedicated birdwatcher.
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He asked himself: "is there
something in nature that travels quickly
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and smoothly between two different
mediums?"
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The Kingfisher dives from the air into water to catch fish and produces almost no splash at all
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compared to similar sized birds or
animals. Modelling the front end of the train
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after the beak of Kingfishers
resulted in a quieter train,
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one that uses 15 percent less electricity while traveling 10 percent faster.
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By emulating nature, the bullet train designers were able to solve
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an important problem.
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Imagine what other problems might be solved by turning to the world around us and asking...
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what would nature do?
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Check out biomimicry.org and asknature.org to learn more about
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this exciting practice of innovation inspired by nature
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as well as stories and examples.
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If you found it useful please subscribe.
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