Montana Scientist To Engineers: Nature Knows Best

By Kellyn Brown, 2-12-07

For answers to industrial-design challenges look outside the laboratory, past the pavement, past the edge of town, where the industrial world ends and nature begins.

That’s where Janine Benyus looks. And she continues to find answers for some of world’s biggest companies in unlikely places: on the leaf of a lotus plant; on the wing of a butterfly; in the home of a termite.

Benyus, of Stevensville, will lecture on biomimicry – a term she coined – in the Urey Lecture Hall, at the University of Montana at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13. There, the award-winning natural science writer and founder of The Biomimicry Institute in Missoula, will explain how industrial design can mimic nature; how the tiny bristles on a gecko’s foot not only allow it to walk on walls but inspire scientists to develop recyclable glue-free tape.

Biomimicry is a relatively new science, one based on the idea that nature knows best. Human-made designs are modeled after living engineering marvels. On Japan’s bullet trains, for example, designers turned to the kingfisher – a small, aerodynamic bird – for inspiration to lessen wind noise.

Innovators have turned to nature before for ideas, Benyus said in an interview Monday, but only recently have they been “able to emulate those ideas.” Companies are now looking for new ways to improve efficiency, save energy and cut down on waste. Along with buying their customers’ goodwill, Benyus said, “These guys do it because it’s profitable.”

She pointed to one of her first clients, Interface, Inc., which introduced a carpet line inspired by random pattern formations in nature. Now, the biomimetic product represents 40 percent of the company’s carpet tile sales.

The field of biomimicry is sprouting answers to all sorts of industrial snags. Moreover, those answers encourage sustainable living – something of a hot topic with global warming moving to the political forefront.

Take termite mounds. Engineers in Harare, Zimbabwe, have completed a shopping center inspired by the simple dwellings. The building has no air conditioning or heating, and instead uses a series of underground tunnels as a climate-control system, cutting 90 percent of its energy use.

Benyus’ next goal is to give nature a slice of the profits it creates. Say a company mimics a corral reef in a car design. If that model is a success, Benyus will ask some of the proceeds to be donated to preserving reef habitat. “I’m really psyched about that possibility,” she said.

Meanwhile, Benyus launched an institute in Missoula as a way to spread the word about the biomimicry. In 2004, Prince Charles invited her to spend two days. In March, she will address the ministers of the European Union about biomimicry. So, it seems, the word is spreading already.