CONTENT

Biomimicry:

 What is biomimicry?
 Early examples of biomimicry
1. Rock-cut Architechture
2. Silk
3. Pyramids
4. Myths and legends
 Why teach biomimicry?
 Some examples of biomimicry
1. Velcro
2. Sleek shark skin
3. Diatoms as cheap solar cell
4. Beetles show the way to water conservation
5. Gecko's grip and adhesive
6. Umbrellas
 Advantages of Biomimicry
 Conclusion
 Bibliography

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12TH BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY PROJECT(2024-25)

 WHAT IS BIOMIMICRY?
Biomimetic or biomimicry is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of
nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. A closely related field
is bionics.

Living organisms have evolved well-adapted structures and materials over

geological time through natural selection. Biomimetic has given rise to new
technologies inspired by biological solutions at macro and nanoscales. Nature has
solved engineering problems such as self-healing abilities, environmental
exposure tolerance and resistance, hydrophobicity, self-assembly, and harnessing
solar energy.

Biomimetic could in principle be applied in many fields. Because of the diversity

and complexity of biological systems, the number of features that might be imitated
is large. Biomimetic applications are at various stages of development from
technologies that might become commercially usable to prototypes.

EARLY EXAMPLES OF BIOMIMICRY:

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 While humans have only studied biomimicry for the past half century, the earth
has been developing efficient methods of life for 3.8 billion years. Our planet is the
oldest and wisest teacher we could ask for. However throughout our extremely
short history we have not exactly seen eye to eye with the earth. It is because of
this that we are experiencing changes in the climate that will prove detrimental to
our future. This project is designed to open the minds of the reader to a new form
of innovation. Biomimicry, innovation inspired by the natural processes of earth.
This timeline highlights examples of biomimicry that hopefully enlighten you and
inspire anew way to create.

Rock-Cut Architecture: 6000 BCE

Caves have been used as shelter since the monolithic era 6000 BCE, so it makes
perfect sense that in India Buddhist temples and shrines were actually carved into
caves and mountain sides. These temples eventually doubled as trade posts on the
Silk Road.

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 Silk: 3000 BCE

Silk is one of the first examples of biomimicry that we see in human history. Use of
the material is dated back to 4000 BC, making it one of the first fabrics invented
by humans. It is common knowledge that silk comes from silkworms, and the
Chinese were the first civilization to learn from the brilliant worm. This invention
was the reason that the Silk Road got its name. 6,000 years later we are still using
silk all around the world.

Pyramids: 2470 BC

While there are hundreds of theories about who or what actually constructed the
Egyptian pyramids, until an extraterrestrial force is proven to have played a part,
one would assume they were man made. And one theory that makes sense is that
they were designed after mountains.

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 Myths and Legends:

The wonders of the earth have always captured our imagination. One myth that
captures our wonder of the earth is the story of Daedalus and Icarus, father and
son respectively. Imprisoned on the island of Crete for a crime against his nephew,
Thalus, Daedalus was instructed by King Minos to build a labyrinth to contain the
Minotaur. This story ends with Daedalus inventing bird wings made of feather and
wax to fly out of the labyrinth and out of Crete. However Icarus, his son, flies
against his father’s advice, too close to the sun and his wings melt and he falls to
his death. Daedalus was regarded as a great inventon.

WHY TEACH BIOMIMICRY?

Learning not just to identify different trees, or that they are used as building
material and fuel, but how they are an amazing technology that stores energy from
the sun, moves gallons of water a day without pumps, creates materials out of
carbon in the air, and provides countless ecosystem services. When we learn to see
this kind of technology in nature, our eyes are opened to new possibilities for our
own designs. This is the power of biomimicry education at any age.

Biomimicry today is not just influencing design, it’s also revolutionizing education
– offering a teachers a compelling way to teach biology, STEM subjects, creative
problem-solving, and systems thinking. Biomimicry in education can provide:

 A compelling way to present science, technology, engineering, and math

subjects.
 An interdisciplinary platform to connect subjects to one another, and to the
real world beyond classroom walls.
 A tool to enhance creativity and problem-solving skills through design and
project-based activities.

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  A new way for young people to view and value the natural world; to see
nature not just as something to learn about, but as something to learn from.
 A unique and powerful way to think and learn about sustainability.

SOME EXAMPLES OF BIOMIMICRY:

VELCRO:

George de Mestral was inspired to invent Velcro after noticing how easy it was for
burrs to stick to his dog’s hair. Upon studying them under a microscope, he
noticed the simple design of tiny hooks at the end of the burr’s spines. These were
able to catch anything with a loop, such as fur and fabric, and he went on to
replicate this synthetically. His two-part Velcro fastening system uses a strip of
loosely looping nylon opposite a strip of tiny hooks, and has since been prolific in
its range of applications and popularity.

SHARKSKIN-INSPIRED SWIMSUITS:

Sharkskin-inspired swimsuits received a lot of media attention during the 2008

Summer Olympics when the spotlight was shining on Michael Phelps.

Seen under an electron microscope, sharkskin is made up of countless overlapping

scales called dermal denticles (or "little skin teeth"). The denticles have grooves

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 running down their length in alignment with water flow. These grooves disrupt the
formation of eddies, or turbulent swirls of slower water, making the water pass by
faster. The rough shape also discourages parasitic growth such as algae and
barnacles.

Scientists have been able to replicate dermal denticles in swimsuits (which are
now banned in major competition) and the bottom of boats. Scientists are applying
the technique to create surfaces in hospitals that resist bacteria growth — the
bacteria can't catch hold on the rough surface

DIATOMS AS CHEAP SOLAR CELLS:

The ability to produce low-cost, hierarchically-structured and Nano patterned

inorganic materials could potentially revolutionize the way we fabricate
photovoltaic, energy storage, and optoelectronic devices. In nature, many
organisms carry out the hierarchical assembly of metal oxide materials through
cellular and biochemical processes that replicate periodic micro- and nanoscale
features by a bottom-up approach at ambient conditions. For example, single-
celled algae called diatoms produce a nanostructured amorphous silica skeleton
called a frustule. The insertion of other metal oxide materials such as titanium
or germanium dioxide into the nanostructure of the diatom frustule could

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 potentially be utilized to fabricate new dye-sensitized solar cells, nanostructured
battery electrodes, and electroluminescent display devices. The exploitation of
diatom Nano biotechnology for the development of novel device concepts in these
areas is overviewed.

BEETLES SHOW THE WAY TO WATER CONSERVATION:

Certain species of darkling beetles that live in the Namib Desert are able to
harvest water vapor using an ingenious series of tips and bumps on their wing

scales. The water droplets start to form on the tips and then flow off the waxy
bumps to be collected by the beetle. This structure allows the beetle to survive in
an incredibly arid environment. It could also be used by engineers to develop a
similar system for collecting water for humans. Students should use this and other
plants and animal phenomenon to start designing their own solutions to human

problems.

GECKO’S GRIP AND ADHESIVE:

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 Geckos have long inspired scientists and super-hero fans alike with their ability to
scamper up vertical walls and cling to ceilings with a single toe. In recent years,
people have attempted to create materials that match those spectacular abilities, in
the hope of creating new advanced adhesives, or even car braking systems.

Now US chemists claim to have made one based on nanotubes that it is 10 times
stickier than some gecko feet. Even more impressively, like a real gecko foot, it can
also be easily unstuck with a tug in the right direction.

Gecko’s superhero toes are covered in microscopic hairs, known as setae, with
even smaller branches at the tips, called spatulae.

These ensure that a gecko’s foot has a large surface area in contact with any
surface, maximising the weak but ever-present attraction between adjacent
molecules known as the van der Waals force.
UMBRELLAS : 3 CE

The first Chinese umbrellas were invented 1700 years ago by a man named Lu
Ban, who is now revered in Chinese history. The idea for the umbrella sprouted
when Lu Ban saw children using lotus leaves to shield themselves from the rain.
He decided to mimic the flexibility and effectiveness of the leaf and create a
product of his own. The first umbrellas were, in fact, made of silk.

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 BENEFITS OF BIOMIMICRY AS A FRAMEWORK FOR INNOVATION:

By using the Biomimicry DesignLens as a framework, looking to Life’s Principles

and bringing ecologists and biomimics to the table, design teams can bring new
perspectives to their projects.

1. Disrupt traditional thinking:

Start by asking, “How would nature solve this challenge?” Assuming the team has
the adequate knowledge to answer, or works with our biomimics to assist you on
this - this framing gives project teams an opportunity to explore new solutions and
brainstorm opportunities to solve challenges in new and innovative ways. It
combines the best of systems thinking and design thinking and the ability to
reverse engineer solutions tested over millions of years.

2. Accomplish multiple objectives with a single gesture:

In nature, there are no single-purpose tools. For example, trees provide shade
with their leaves, which also generate energy, and bark, which also help to protect
and cool the moving water beneath the surface. Imagine surfaces and systems that
could accomplish multiple functions with one simple, multi-functional design.

3. Adapt to context and climate:

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 Rather than fighting against the context by using energy and resources to hold
nature at bay, nature leverages cyclic processes and builds with readily-available
materials and energy. These elements also can make the achievement of
sustainability goals much more achievable. Understand true sustainability from
nature itself – not only creating but continuing to nourish and heal the systems
that create conditions conducive to life. Fitting in not just on the Earth.

4. Embody resilience:

The ability to identify and apply principles and recipes for adapting to change is
key. Life on Earth is the epitome of resilience, adapting and changing to fit its
context over billions of years. By looking to how nature confers resilience on its
systems — incorporating diversity and embodying resilience through variation,
redundancy and decentralization, integrating rapid feedback loops — we can
create human-built systems that are inherently resilient to change and
disturbances.

5. Nourish curiosity:

We are all innately curious. Biomimicry provides the opportunity to feed our
curiosity and be in wonder and awe about nature’s genius water, energy and
material-use strategies. This perspective broadens the solution space to bring new
solutions to the table.

6. Leverage collaboration:

Rethinking our re-imagining our products, processes and systems with nature as
model, measure and mentor – cannot be done in siloes. Everything in nature is
interconnected and as we learn to emulate nature’s genius we find the greatest
opportunities in leveraging our interconnectedness too. Biomimicry processes are
inherently interdisciplinary and collaborative. This collaborative approach not

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12TH BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY PROJECT(2024-25)

 only enables cross-pollination and innovation, and organizational benefits but
cultivate collaborative relationships that save resources, energy and cost for the
project and the company at large.

CONCLUSION:

Biomimetics or biomimicry have been used and advanced even without formal
research in many areas. Accumulating creative ideas as a foundation, mankind
has accelerated the speed of development and evolution of civilization. Such rapid
industrialization has resulted in environmental pollution and a shortage of natural
resources that is threatening the survival and future of humanity. As a result, it has
become critical and urgent to find alternative methods to engineer materials,
products, and services. Biomimetics is potentially the best method to help us cope
with future development of civilization, environmental pollution, and resource
shortage threats.

As with many great ideas, biomimetics started from simple imitation of natural
organisms. Over time, it has evolved through integration and combination with
modern science and engineering to help us discover new materials, ways of
combining nano/microstructures, applications, and alternative ways of production.
Biomimetic has developed from mere imitation to a stage where we are using the
structures and functions of nature to create. Soon, we will be able to take ourselves
to the next stage, where we can apply the newly discovered principles of
biomimetic to help us create an economy that better follows natural evolution and
development. By building technology in such a manner, we hope to create a more
stable and productive future where products are more biodegradable and more
compatible with nature, rather than being destructive.

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12TH BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY PROJECT(2024-25)

 BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimetics
 https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/biomimicry-a-history
 https://architecturever.com/2019/09/07/levels-of-biomimecry-and-its-
importantance-part3/
 https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2011/ee/c0ee00306a#!
divAbstract
 https://medical-technology.nridigital.com/medical_technology_mar20/
spider_silk_a_sticky_solution_to_traditional_sutures
 https://www-sciencefocus-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/
www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/biomimetic-design-10-examples-
of-nature-inspiring-
 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tape-inspired-spider-webs-
could-revolutionize-surgery-180973450/
 https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14902-gecko-grip-material-aims-to-
be-the-end-of-glue/
 https://stemazing.org/biomimicry-powerpoint-presentation/

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