Hooks on burrs and other seeds

Inspiration: Velcro-one look at your socks after a walk and you understand this biomimetic invention.

Abalone and conch shell nacre (mother of pearl coating)

Consists of alternating layers of hard and soft material so cracks in the hard part are absorbed by the soft.  Therefore this structure self-assembles and self-repairs.  Inspiration: the bodies of cars or anything that needs to be lightweight but fracture-resistant.

Ant colony network repair systems

When the colony is damaged ants are able to find a new optimal site and move resources efficiently and with limited communication.  Inspiration: Information Technology and computer specialists are looking to this model to scout out damaged computers and programs in systems and quickly reroute to limit breakdown.

Antlers, teeth, bones, shells

Nature constructs 3-D objects layer by layer using common minerals and nature’s blueprints.  Inspiration: ink-jet, and CAD technology .

Barnacle valve seals

When the tide ebbs the barnacle must seal in water to keep from desiccating in the drying wind and sun.  Inspiration: A help for heart surgeons and plumbers alike

Bat and marine mammal navigation

We are still trying to discover the intricacies of a bat's sonar.  And recent research suggests that other animals use a combination of magnetism, the sun, stars, and sight to navigate.  Inspiration: Sonar, and a walking cane has been created using fruit bat sonar techniques to aid the blind.

Blue mussel adhesive

 An adhesive that is able to set underwater AND can attach to any type of surface.  Inspiration: Could transform paints and coatings, and enable surgeons to use biodegradable “glues” instead of sutures.

Blue mussel byssus (The tether attaching the mussel to a solid surface)

This collagen/silk mix uses a blended boundary between the two materials therefore getting the best of both worlds and alleviating the weak spot that occurs at an abrupt interface. Inspiration: composite material science.

Blue mussel byssus sealant

While it is active it protects the thread, but when the time frame is over it degrades allowing for the entire structure to decompose.  Inspiration: Compost able cups and other dining wear.

Camouflaging Cephalopods

Cuttlefish and Octopus are able to change and camouflage with their environment using three types of color organs which allow it to create combinations of pigment and iridescence.  Inspiration: changeable clothing or furnishing gives the ability to have changes with out more stuff. 

Cell membranes

1) Inspiration: Desalination and chemical separation filters.

2) Specific receptor proteins in cell membranes also react to specific target chemicals.  Inspiration: Scientists want to use these simple and yet specific models to create detectors that will change from blue to red in the presence of a target substance.  This technology could be used to detect disease, chemical leaks and for other safety measures.

Chimpanzees

Chimps use plants with "secondary compounds” to self medicate.  Inspiration: Observing wild species could speed up our search time for new medicines.

Chlorophyll and enzymes

Photozymes-chlorophyll-like molecules that attract conduct and absorb light energy. Like enzymes they use available energy (sun) to aid needed chemical reactions. Inspiration: when added to water, photozymes can break down pollutants such as PCBs into harmless compounds using the sun’s energy.

Cockroach cuticle

A springy protein known as reslin found in cockroaches does not swell on contact with organic solvents.  Inspiration: Protective gloves or tubing would greatly aid out handling of fuels and other hydrocarbon based chemicals.

Crab shell

Chitin, the material the many arthropods exoskeletons are made of, is an exceptionally strong biopolymer nano-fiber mix.  Inspiration: Could be used for biodegradable casing, or implants that may resist rejection.

Crocodile Skin

Able to deflect spears, arrows and sometimes even bullets. Inspiration: protective clothing or coverings for cars etc.

Cyanobacteria

When there was an abundance of CO2 and Water, instead of thinking of it as waste, it was taken up as a resource of plenty.  Inspiration: Scientists are now working on biodegradable plastics from CO2 instead of  carbon-based petroleum.

DNA

DNA's shape-fitting and self-assembly powers allow it to solve mathematical problems that have so far stumped conventional computers.

Dolphin and shark skin, Narwhal tusk

This material deforms slightly to shrug off water/air pressure. Inspiration: Airplane or submarine hulls.  Speedo™ is already looking into a racing wetsuit/swim suit design

Elastin, the elastic protein in heart muscle

Inspiration: Intelligent materials such as fabrics that stretch and contract in response to heat, light, chemical changes.

Everything in nature which balanced by the natural recycling of biogeochemical cycles

Inspiration: “Cradle-to-cradle” green products that will be designed to have no waste from the first stage of design so that they can be used, reused, and then fully recycled.

Femur Bone

The lattice structure inside the human femur bone which both allows for strength as well as circulation.  Inspiration:  It certainly inspired the architect of the Eiffel Tower.

Filter feeders

Inspiration: Mussels, barnacles and other filter feeders could teach us a few things about cleaning water naturally.

 Fish antifreeze

Able to keep the tissue of fish from freezing in winter lakes and deep waters without harming life. Inspiration: New ways to freeze human transplant organs without injury.

Fly ear drums

Use a see-saw design to find sound directionally.  Inspiration: Could support us in hearing aid design.

Food  webs

Inspiration: Vietnamese permaculture model of rice paddies has a cycle of: carp, ducks, rice, snails which all now depend on one another for food and waste.  The farmers are part of the web.

 Forests

An interrelated system in which resource partitioning and recycling of waste with in the system allows for sustained diversity in one place. Inspiration: Farming practices and edible landscapes using multiple layers of cropping.  Better ways of urban and community planning.  Eco-industrial complexes.

Forest Floor

The mixed yet complimentary outlines allows for any intermixing of elements to create pattern.  Inspiration:  interchangeable carpet tiles which can be changed out as sections fade so that entire carpet does not need to be reinstalled. 

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits can be over 97% water and yet they don’t slosh or spill because the liquid is held in a cellular matrix.  Inspiration: storage of dangerous liquids

Fungi

Acting as nature’s Internet mycelia mats connect forests, share nutrients, communicate information, filter water, reduce run-off and recycle matter.  Mycelia are experts and breaking hydrocarbon structures, and fortunately that includes our problematic creations such as pesticides, PCB’s and jet fuel.  Inspiration: Mycoremediation and mycofiltration has shown promise in cleaning up everything from petroleum-based waste, nerve gas, and dangerous E.Coli

 Gecko toes

Geckos are able to walk up walls and ceilings even of smooth glass using molecular van der Waals forces.  Inspiration: Applications for non-marking adhesives, closures, and of course rock-climbing gloves.

Hibernating bears

Bears are able to go for months without urinating, and yet don't poison themselves. Inspiration: Clues to fighting diabetes.

Horses Teeth

Studies of horses teeth have revealed new bonding agents. Inspiration: Could help with hip replacements.

House Fly

Can hover, fly backwards, soar sideways and land upside down.  Inspiration: Dexterous flying machines.

Human tongue and ear drum

A classic (Bell’s) biomimetic story.  Inspiration: Telephone speaker and receiver

Hummingbirds

Able to fly 35mph and travel 2,000 miles per year.  They have to make long over water flights on very little fuel (600 miles on 2.1 grams!) and the process by with they fuel up pollinates, in other words, contributes.  Inspiration: More efficient and biologically based fuel systems and flight technology could be discovered.

Iridescent feathers and butterfly wings

Create fabrics with structural color instead of needed dyes. 

Inspiration: Iridigm.com™ is using this to create PDA screens that you can read in the sunlight.

 Jewel Beetle

Can detect a forest fire 50 km away using infrared pits under legs.  Inspiration: Gives us clues to an infrared detector that requires no special cooling and operates at room temperature.

Kelp

Stabilized bromine coating of kelp keeps of harmful marine microbes.  Inspiration: Nalco has borrowed this recipe (Staybrex™, a chlorine alternative used in plumbing.  Meanwhile other red kelp use proteins, called furanons, to interrupt bacterial communication.  Has applications in reducing the spread of cholera, staph and TB which are quickly producing stains resistant to our current antibiotics.

Leaves

The center of photosynthesis in plants, they are design to efficiently capture and process the sun’s energy depending on the surrounding conditions.  Inspiration:  "Pentads are solar batteries that mimic the leaf's reaction center. Molecular in size, they could one day be used to split water into clean-burning hydrogen gas and oxygen. Or, they could be used as computer switching devices that shuttle light instead of electrons. Or, they could be the light-activated "power packs" that help catalysts assemble and dissemble chemical compounds. Imagine doing chemistry in pure water, using sunlight and no toxins.” (Biomimicry.org)

Lemurs and many other primates

Studies of primates diets reveal that they always eat what their body needs and what is good for them. Inspiration: Lead us to nutritious native plants and medicines.

Lobster

Able to crawl along rocky shoreline without being swept away by currents and surf.  Inspiration: Guide for robotics for amphibious craft, land mine clearing or space exploration.

Lotus Flower

Lotus flowers have always inspired awe for their ability to emerge from the mud a pristine beauty.  Microanalysis revealed that the petal surfaces had tiny mountains and valleys that resulted in water drops picking up all dirt when it rained.  Inspiration: These self cleaning surfaces have already stimulated a German paint company ISPO, to create Lotusan™ products.

Mangroves, and other marsh plants

Turn saltwater into fresh.  Inspiration: Desalinization plants that are less energy intensive.  Non toxic treatments of irrigation and other water pipes to prevent corrosion.

Mantled howler monkeys

Howlers regulate their own reproduction, and even the gender of their offspring, by eating certain plants. Inspiration: Can lead us to plants that have an effect on fertility.

Marshes

Act as a natural filter of water while also being a sponge to reduce flooding and a nursery for many animal and plant species.  Inspiration: Constructed wetlands-sewage treatment facilities that clean a community's water while doubling as a wildlife refuge.

Microtubules

The inner lattice structure creating an “endoskeleton” for our cells.  Inspiration: “Signaling array-Optic computing network which self-assembles into a light-signaling array.” (Biomimicry.org)

Namibian Beetles, Redwood Trees/ Western Hemlock

Each of these organisms has an adaptive back or needle to catch fog and transfer the water vapor into a water source. Inspiration: (Fog nets in Chile and Peru).

 Native grazers

Wandering buffalo and other native ungulates used to graze the prairie while fertilizing and aiding in seed dispersal and planting. Inspiration: Managing cattle to graze and then rotate mimics the natural systems and therefore feeds cattle and can serve as restoration of habitat.

Natural disturbance

Fires and other natural disasters generate succession patterns and regeneration in forest ecosystems creating a mosaic of ecosystems.  Inspiration: Forestry which follows the natural selection model mimicking a mature forest.

Natural selection

Inspiration: “Genetic algorithm software that "evolves" its own solutions, getting better and better with each generation of ideas.” (biomimicry.org)

 Nautilus shell, lily bud unfurling, human pore, water down a drain

(Fibonacci spirals)

The natural spiral shape has long been a favorite repeating pattern of nature and mathematics.  Inspiration: Now employed as the Lilly Impellor® a fan/propeller which requires 50% less energy, 75% quieter: therefore it reduces turbulence and reduces excess heat with half motor for same size fan. (Implications: hydroelectric dams without so much fish damage, reduction space needed for computer fans, reduced energy costs)

Neurons and other kinds of cells

Our organic molecular systems are based on the lock-and-key partnerships.  Inspiration: Jigsaw computing would blow our digital, silicon model away.

Old field succession/ Prairie

One grows up in the shade of another, roots with different depths, and legumes as nitrogen fixers means -no fertilizing, weeding, or tilling necessary. Inspiration: Do-nothing farming-Japanese method that sows rice, barley, and clover together in one field or modeling grass and legume varieties after native grasslands in order to grow silage for cattle feed without tilling, and other perennial polycultures. 

 Orb-weaver spider silk

Spiders are able to make multiple types of fibers for various uses at body temperature and out of food.  The web constructing fiber is stronger than Kevlar while also being more temperature resistant and elastic than any material we can produce.  Inspiration: Protective clothing, parachute cord, suspension bridge cables, sutures, biodegradable fishing lines and nets, safety fencing, etc.

Penguin insulation

Penguins live in the Antarctic and despite cold temperatures and major loss of body fat during nesting season they are able to stay warm using air pocket and feather networks.  Inspiration: Wouldn’t this be great for cold weather clothing?

Porcupine quills

These strong cylinders are both sturdy weapons and able to allow motion.  Inspiration: Design could help agronomists breed better wind resistance in wheat and barley.  Potentially good packaging.

Prairie dog burrows

Inspiration: Building homes into earth for natural cooling and heating.  Or adobe of same thickness as burrow is deep.

 Rhinoceros horn

This composite material is both compressively and laterally strong and because of its integrated nature is almost self-healing.  Inspiration: A way to build a safer car bumper or highway guard rail. Durable and ultimately biodegradable packaging.

Sea Cucumbers

Contain dynamic elastics using the cross-linking of fibrous material allowing them to rapidly extend their length 400% Inspiration: easily stored travel items, packaging, travel cup…?

Sharks, anemones, and other marine creatures

Sharks heal from nasty wounds rapidly and are not known to get cancers as we do. Marine creatures, which live surrounded by pathogens in the sea, are full of novel defenses. Inspiration: New antibiotics, fungicides, a cure for cancer?

 Slug mucous

This natural lubricant can absorb up to 1500 times its weight in water. Inspiration: flood control, clean up of spills.

Snake Fangs

Able to penetrate skin and inject material into the blood stream.  Inspiration: The engineering inspiration for the hypodermic needle

Sphinx moth

Ability to detect tiny amounts of scents and navigate accordingly.  Inspiration:  Military studying these abilities which could be applied be to reconnaissance or detect pollutants or small amounts of TNT from leaking mines

Sponges

The spiracles of sponges have fiber optic abilities, but more flexible and tougher. Inspiration:  non-toxic hardier light and information transfer

 Tuna

 Inspiration: “Robo-tuna: A new seagoing vehicle that is very efficient.” (biomimicry.org)

 Venomous snakes

Assemble noxious chemicals in tiny amounts right when and where they are needed.  Inspiration: manufacture necessary chemicals at the assembly line, so they do not need to be store or ship in dangerous quantities.

 Vulture wings

It is aerodynamically designed to allow for lift, gliding and changing of direction and altitude.  Inspiration: Wright brothers learned a lot about airplane design from birds.

Whale Blubber

Flotation, insulation, compact food reserve, and elasticity and recoil saves  20% of effort on each stroke for locomotion.  Inspiration:  Multi-use substances like blubber increase efficiency on multiple levels at once:

Whale tubicles

Those bumps on the fins of whales actually improve hydrodynamics.  Inspiration:  Tried on airplane wings increased fuel efficiency by 32%

Woodpecker

Scientists are studying the design of the skull of woodpeckers to see how they withstand such impact force.  Inspiration:  Applied to helmets, car safety, and maybe even the boxers will take a lesson?