Page 17 - Biomimetics : Biologically Inspired Technologies

Bar-Cohen : Biomimetics: Biologically Inspired Technologies DK3163_c001 Final Proof page 3 21.9.2005 6:40pm

Introduction to Biomimetics 3

all of the things that characterize biological systems. Biomimetic structures that are made of
multiple cells would allow for the design of devices and mechanisms that are impossible with
today’s capabilities. Emerging nano-technologies are increasingly enabling the potential of such
capabilities.
The beak of birds may have served as an inspiring model for the development of the tweezers
and the tong. While it is difficult to find evidence that it had inspired early humans, one can argue
that since nature invented this device first it was a widely known concept way before humans began
making tweezers and tongs. The mimicking of the beak is illustrated graphically on the cover page
of this book, where a virtual mirror is drawn to represent the inspiration of adapting nature’s
capabilities. Although enormous advances have been made in the field of biomimetics, nature is
still far superior to what we are capable of making or adapting. Given the limitation of today’s
technology, copying nature may not be the most effective approach. Many examples exist where
humans using nature as inspiration have used its principles to invent far more effective solutions;
flying is one such example. This book focuses on the technologies that resulted from both
mimicking and being inspired by biology.
Nature evolves by responding to its needs and finding solutions that work, and most
importantly, that last through innumerable generations while passing the test of survival to
reach its next generation. Geological studies suggest the presence of life on Earth as early as
3.8 billion years ago (Lowman, 2002). Specifically, in Greenland, a series of ancient metamorph-
osed sediments were found with carbon isotope signatures that appear to have been produced by
organisms that lived when the sediments were deposited. Furthermore, fossil evidence
indicates that ancient bacteria, Archea (Archaebacteria), have existed on the Earth for at least
3.5 billion years (Schopf, 1993; Petr, 1996). After billions of years of trial and error experiments,
which turn failures to fossils, nature has created an enormous pool of effective solutions. It is
important to note however that the extinction of a species is not necessarily the result of a failed
solution; it can be the result of outside influences, such as significant changes in climate, the
impact of asteroids, volcanic activity, and other conditions that seriously affect the ability of
specific creatures to survive. The adaptations of nature have led to the evolution of millions of
species — each with its own way of meeting its needs in harmony with the environment
(Research Report, 1992).
Through evolution, nature has ‘‘experimented’’ with various solutions to challenges and
has improved upon successful solutions. Organisms that nature created, which are capable of
surviving, are not necessarily optimal for their technical performance. Effectively, all they need
to do is to survive long enough to reproduce. Living systems archive the evolved and accumulated
information by coding it into the species’ genes and passing the information from generation to
generation through self-replication. Thus, through evolution, nature or biology has experimented
with the principles of physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, materials science, mobility,
control, sensors, and many other fields that we recognize as science and engineering. The process
has also involved scaling from nano and macro, as in the case of bacteria and virus, to the macro and
mega, including our life scale and the dinosaurs, respectively. Although there is still doubt
regarding the reason for the extinction of creatures such as the mammoth, it may be argued that
the experiment in the evolution of mega-scale terrestrial biology failed. While marine creatures
such as the whales survived, nature’s experiment with large size terrestrial biology ended with the
extinction of the prehistoric mega-creatures (e.g., dinosaurs and mammoths). Such creatures can
now be found only in excavation sites and natural history museums.
As the evolution process continues, biology has created and continues to create effective
solutions that offer great models for copying or as inspiration for novel engineering methods,
processes, materials, algorithms, etc. Adapting biology can involve copying the complete appear-
ance and function of specific creatures like the many toys found in toy stores, which are increas-
ingly full of simplistic imitations of electro-mechanized toys such as dogs that walk and bark, frogs
that swim, and such others. However, while we have copied or adapted many of nature’s solutions