Rakesh Reddy Kandula

TED talk on Biomimicry by Janine Benyus

December 2nd, 2008

This particular TED talk by Janine Benyus is all about Biomimicry wherein we imitate or take inspiration from nature to solve the human problems sustainably. The last few statements of the talk inspired me to write about this particular TED talk. It goes something like this – These organisms figured out a way to do the amazing things they do while taking care of the place thats going to take care of their offsprings. When they are involved in foreplay they are thinking about something very very important…..having their genetic material remain ten thousand generations from now. And that means finding a way to do what they do without destroying the place that’s going to take care of their offsprings and thta’s the biggest design challenge. Luckily there are millions and millions of geniuses willing to gift us with their best ideas…..good luck having a converstion with them. For people who haven’t seen the talk yet, when the speaker refers to organisms, she is actually referrring to the creatures around us on the planet and they are the geniuses she is referring to towards the end.

She illustrates her ideas with just 12 sustainable designs inspired from nature. In fact that’s the title of the video – Janine Benyus: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature. I liked the ideas so much that I was thinking of getting hold of a copy of her book also. A few of the ideas that she mentions in the talk are – a locust’s ability to avoid collision within a roiling cloud of its brethren informs the design of a crash-resistant car; a self-cleaning leaf inspires a new kind of paint, one that dries in a pattern that enables simple rainwater to wash away dirt; and organisms capable of living without water open the way for vaccines that maintain potency even without refrigeration — a hurdle that can prevent life-saving drugs from reaching disease-torn communities.

I think its high time that we start exploring alternative ways of manufacturing before all the fossil fuels are completely depleted and environment polluted to alarming levels. After watching the video I was just searching for more information on biomimetics and was surprised to see that there is so much going on in this field already. I found a nice featured article in NGC site as well that talks about biomimetics. That was a pretty long article and at the time of writing this post, even I haven’t read it completely .

Some other interesting TED videos that I came across can be found in my forum. I keep updating it whenever I find some good videos.

biomimetics, biomimicry, General, janine benyus, ngc, TED

Entry Filed under: General