Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature [Paperback]

 

 

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Before even reviewing the book, it seems as though I must explain its raison de'etre; for some negative reviews disclaim the very import of looking to nature as a model for life. For starters, nature runs on sunlight and creates no waste. To me, this alone is reason enough to mimic nature, since our profligate energy use has caused a global eco-crisis. Not only does the combustion of fossil fuels pollute the air breathe (leading to some 3 million deaths from air pollution annually according to the WHO), but it also floods the atmosphere with CO2, leading culprit in the greenhouse effect. Moreover, being that the supply of crude oil is finite, the very foundation of our economy will one day run dry. Nature, on the other hand, runs on the unlimited bounty of sunlight. Unlimited clean energy is just one example of the genius of nature which author Benyus points out in this book.

Nature does many other wonderful things we would do well to learn from. Arctic fish and frogs freeze solid and then spring to life, having protected their organs from ice damage. Black bears hibernate all winter without poisoning themselves on their urea, while their polar cousins stay active with a coat of transparent hollow hairs covering their skins like the panes of a greenhouse. Chameleons and cuttlefish hide without moving, changing the pattern of their skin to instantly blend with their surroundings. Bees, turtles, and birds navigate without maps, while whales and penguins dive without scuba gear. How do they do it? How do dragonflies outmaneuver our best helicopters? How do hummingbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico on less than one tenth of an ounce of fuel? How do ants carry the equivalent of hundreds of pounds in a dead heat through the jungle? How do muscles attach to rock in a wet environment? The answers to these questions may seem like trivia to non-expert, but "The difference between what life needs to do and what we need to do is another one of those boundaries that doesn't exist. Beyond mattes of scale, the differences dissolve."

Like every other creature, humans cause a lot of commotion in the biosphere: creating, moving, and consuming. But our species is the only one that creates more waste than nature can safely and efficiently recycle. Ours is only one that ignores ecological limits, exceeds the carrying capacity of the land, and consumes more energy than nature can provide. The ideology that allowed us to expand beyond our limits was that the world -- never-ending in its bounty -- was put here exclusively for our use. But after the topsoil blows away, the oceans go lifeless, the oil wells go dry, and the air and water we depend on are utterly fouled, what will we do? Will we be able to survive? Unlike the impact of a car, is crisis is cumulative. The mounting effects of this ideology are rising temperatures, decreasing grain yields, rising cancer rates, falling fish harvests, dwindling forests, worsening air pollution, and rising oil and water prices. A most resilient creature, I believe we (or some of us) will survive this ecololgical "bottle-neck" squeeze, to use Harvard scientist E.O. Wilson's phrase. But the questions this book seeks to answer is, can we flourish?

As mentioned by other reviewers, some parts were overly technical. However, much of it is written with the layperson in mind. Moreover, the book is rich in philosophy, like that of Wes Jackson, Bill Mollison, Masanobu Fukuoka, and writers Thomas and Wendell Berry (unrelated). And the main point of the book is simple enough for a child to understand. Does it run on sunlight? Does it use only the energy it needs? Does it fit form to function? Does it recycle everything? Does it reward cooperation? Does it bank on diversity? Does it utilize local expertise? Does it curb excess from within? Does it tap the power of limits? And is it beautiful? In order to right our wasteful and dangerously dysfunctional relationship with nature, these ten questions should serve as guiding principles for design and human interaction.

Although some of the science is now dated (e.g., hydrogen fuel cells are now a reality), this book will remain pregnant with philosophical and practical insights for years to come. It is far, far ahead of the times. My only criticism is that, much of the scientific history and intrastructure this book depends on actually helped create the eco-predicament we currently find ourselves in. The labratories she visits (not to mention the cars she uses to visit them) are not exactly eco-friendly. In other words, the author supposes more technology and "progres" will eventually help us out of this predicament.

This book is a landmark - and one hell of a good read. Dssential for anyone interested business, philosophy, ecology, science or engineering. And when combined with other books, like Lester Brown's ECO-ECONOMY, David Korten's WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD, Paul Hawkins' NATURAL CAPITALSIM, Hildur Jackson and Karen Svensson's ECOVILLAGE LIVING, and perhaps something on eco-education, it would fit well into my dream eco-philosophy course. Unfortunately, I'm not a teacher and very few universities have funding for such programs anyway.

In Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, the sophisticated *almost* pro-growth angle of Benyus shows the great potential profitability of copying some of nature's time-tested, nonpolluting, room-temperature manufacturing and computing technologies. The colors of Benyus, a splendid Stevensville, Montana writer with an eclectic grasp of quick-moving science, contain far more shades of green than chrome. Rhetorically at least, the ultimate attraction of technologies such as three-plus-billion-year-old photosynthesis that scientists are now trying to "biomimic" is that the techniques nature has evolved are more sophisticated and efficient, less disruptive and destructive than the Promethean pyrotechnics that have made humanity the new kid on the evolutionary block. Like someone who has made a fortune trading fast-growing speculative stocks but must now provide for her retirement by switching to safer, lower yielding bonds, ecologic suggests that the fossil fuel economies that have gotten us thus far will soon be bankrupt and that, if we don't switch to safer modes of sustenance, we will take a major hit, perhaps even extinction. Benyus is dead on: There *is* an artful science embedded in living nature that makes the realm of regular celestial motions, once believed to be perfect and divine, look robotically stupid by comparison. But science, whose great early advances came in uncovering the relatively predictable activities of inanimate objects, has lately found success in examining more complex and chaotic structures the shiniest example of which, of course, is life. Social critic Walter Benjamin pointed out that sometimes the extreme case rather than the average is exemplary. Likewise, theoretical biologist Robert Rosen suggests that biology may be the more generally instructive science of which physics is a local application And inventive Benyus shows once and for all the utter technological superiority of would-be "lower" life forms--the underwater superglue made by mussels, spider dragline silk which ounce-for-ounce is five times stronger than steel and five-times more shatterproof than bulletproof Kevlar, medicinal herb-collecting bears and chimps. Imagine an undiscovered planet in our solar system consisting of intensely advanced life forms that had perfected waste management, parallel shape-based molecular computing, and nanotechnological materials processing billions of years ago. Such a planet exists. It is our own. Benyus had the genius to recognize nature's own genius and make scientists' attempts to copy it the theme of a popular book. Brava. Amusingly, however, when she talks about "the living, breathing examples of sustainability" held up by biomimics as natural models we humans should now emulate, she uses a technological metaphor: at this crucial juncture in our evolution as a species, natural technology is "lighting the runway home." This can be read as an unconscious nod to the petroleum-based collossus involved at many levels in the printing and distribution of the book, and the standing irony that any truly powerful program to subvert the present "unsustainable" ecological impact of humans is likely to employ the very technology (such as petroleum-fed global transportation) it criticizes.

Which begs a brutal question. How will we get back to nature? Benyus evokes an ecological "canon" she says can be used as a template for our technology. A natural system should run on sunlight (but do cats?), it should use only the energy it needs (but even our cells store energy), it should fit form to function (do penguins?), it should recycle everything (but no single organism does), it should bank on diversity (but after fire, nuclear explosion and other crises certain organisms grow wildly, priming the area for followers), it should curb excess from within (ok, but excess creates the luxury which leads to new innovation), and it should be beautiful (why not?). This is a noble list. What needs to be clarified, however, is the larger evolutionary perspective. The ecological "canon" of emulatable processes displayed by nonhuman nature cannot be conflated with nature per se. We are about to embark on an oft-travelled ecological adjustment made by many organisms which, finding a formerly unused resource, grow wildly and then are forced to deal with the literal spoils of their victory. The energy from the sun which runs through all life is ultimately a Pandoran excess that cannot be closed up and kept tidy. The global environment, like Rome in its senescence, will always be open to organisms evolving new ways to plunder it. Like other pioneer species except on a larger, global scale, we must now temper our populousness and foment the diversity of biological maturity (leading to sensescence) not because of any intrinsic evil but because of the dangers, mostly to ourselves, caused by our own fabulously innovative growth. Billions of years ago, when cyanobacteria tapped into water as a source of hydrogen, the free oxygen they produced as waste was no evolutionary breath of fresh air. Rather, the reactive gas burnt the tissues of all organisms that had not evolved to tolerate or use it, especially the creators who found themselves in the gas's midst. Our puritanical hyperbole needs a Swift to kick it. "Power," as Nietzsche, who disparaged the use of mechanical over natural metaphors, observed over a century ago, "makes stupid." Our ability to tap into Earth's resources to power our own growth has brought us to something even more annoying than the brink of population or standard-of-living collapse: our own stupidity. Books like Benyus's-which should be required reading at corporations, I would imagine-reminds us that in the long run moderation pays.

As a few of the other reviews have pointed out, this book starts with some great ideas but does not provide many real answers. There are many anecdotes about quirky scientists, but few stories with actual success stories. The author's prose veers between fluffy new-age enviro-love letters and overly detailed technical descriptions of biological processes (that would have been better described using a few, clear diagrams). After reading the weak chapter on computer science (my area of study) with a suspicious eye, I question the accuracy of her other technical explanations.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Good subject but poor content
This book deals with an interesting concept which is 'biomimicry'. In summary, it says that Mother Earth offers many models on which we can base our innovation/creation. Read more

Published on Jun 3 2003 by kiwidav

2.0 out of 5 stars nonsensical environmental manifesto
A book that purports to be about taking inspiration from nature for our inventions sounds like a scientific book about genetic engineering or nanotechnology. It's not. Read more

Published on April 28 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Biomimicry
Biomimicry is an awesome book about how we as humans should mimic nature. In this book the author ( Jannine M. Read more

Published on Dec 16 2002 by Becky

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointed
I ordered this book with great expectations based upon the excellent reviews that it had obtained. Personally I could not finish the book. Read more

Published on Sep 30 2002 by Supratik

5.0 out of 5 stars Evocative and Charming
I immensely enjoyed this book. Maybe it was because it seems to have accomplished what it set out to do. Read more

Published on Jun 8 2002 by Emperor Penguin

2.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Science marred by Silly Thoughts
The Vancouver Sun says Benyus "Writes like an angel." That scared me. But they were right.

Unfortunately, it's not one of those no-nonsense Biblical angels. Read more

Published on Dec 21 2001 by Grimmy

3.0 out of 5 stars Biomimicry
Ms. Benyus's book was for the most part enjoyable to read giving many perspectives of this new emerging science. Read more

Published on Aug 12 2001 by James E. Foster II

2.0 out of 5 stars Overzealous and poorly planned
When I bought this book I had high hopes for what I would be reading. I thought this book would give many examples of varied uses (and future uses) of biological processes. Read more

Published on July 16 2001 by greglor

5.0 out of 5 stars Evangelical - in the best sense.
My curiosity about the book was piqued primarily because I believed I would learn about the latest and most inoovative methods of engineering that emulate natural engineering... Read more

Published on Jun 21 2001 by William Stern

4.0 out of 5 stars A fasinating new paradigm for science.
The way of thinking about the Earth in Western culture has been, "Take what we want from Earth; make things with toxic side-effects, farm the land to death, pretend there is... Read more

Published on Mar 23 2001 by Bruce H

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