designboom's ‘biomimicry’ article now online

gecko feet (photo via matthijs)

designboom explores the discipline of 'biomimicry', which takes its name from the greek words ‘bios’,
meaning life and ‘mimesis’, meaning to imitate. as its name might suggest, biomimicry involves the study
of nature’s designs and mimicking them to solve human challenges. janine benyus, one of biomimicry’s
pioneers defines it as, ‘innovation inspired by nature.’ while this new field may seem very scientific, it is
of great use and importance to today’s designers.

biomimicry operates on the principle that in its 3.8 billion year history, nature has already found solutions
to many of the problems we are trying to solve. based on the ideas and designs which nature has
demonstrated to be successful, biomimicry is able to provide a wealth of inspiration for those solving
problems, something designers do everyday.