Frequently Answered Q’s

EDUCATIONAL FAQ

• Who is teaching biomimicry at the university level?
• Can I get a degree in biomimicry?
• Are there any biomimicry videos available?
• Could you tell me what I should do to become a bio-inspired biologist that finds great stuff
  in nature to help human problems?

OUR NEW BRAND FAQ

• What’s the word?
• What does Biomimicry 3.8 mean?
• Why the change?
• Is this uncharted territory?
• Does The Biomimicry Institute have a new name, as well?
• How does this integration benefit the separate entities?
• Will this new structure change anything about the Institute and the non-profit education work we’re doing in this arena?
• Did we actually “Ask Nature” about all of this?
• What does Janine (Benyus) think about all of this?
• If you want to donate to the non-profit, will all of your donation go there or will some go to the other areas of Biomimicry 3.8?
• What else is in the pipeline for the future?
• Want to talk about any of it?

How can I request a biomimicry speaker?

Click to our Speaker Request Form and enter the details of your event including date, audience profile and size, honorarium, and any other particulars. Your request will be sent to the appropriate person and they will contact you.

Do you have a list of recommended readings on biomimicry?

As you can learn from this website, biomimicry is interdisciplinary. There are numerous fascinating books and articles and websites related to various aspects of biomimicry on topics ranging from mechanics to architecture to art to business, and of course biology. A list of recommended readings and links can be found in the Resources section of this website.

Is there a biomimicry publication that I can subscribe to?

Yes. You may visit the Newsletter section to view current and archived biomimicry newsletters.

Biomimicry has changed my life! What can I do to help?

Join the crowd!  Biomimicry is changing the world view of an increasing number of people; it provides hope — and a tool — in a world that can seem desperately unsustainable.

The Biomimicry Institute does not have formal internship or volunteer programs in place yet; however please check out our Get Involved page where we will post new opportunities as they arise. We also invite you to learn as much as you can via this website and the list of recommended readings. Deepen your understanding of biomimicry by trying to apply Life’s Principles to everything you do. And of course, ask nature…

Is genetic modification a form of biomimicry?

Genetic modification is a form of using biology – what we call “bio-assisted” – rather than learning from it. In bio-assisted processes we domesticate the producer. In biomimicry, we emulate the producer. For example, in biomimicry you would study the spider’s “manufacturing process” for silk and then figure out how to emulate that process.

So biomimicry is about learning the recipe of the spider’s brilliant creation, rather than combining spider and goat genes to make some sort of super silk. In addition, there is still a lot to learn about “unintended consequences” of genetic modification. It is still a relatively young science, and despite how wide-spread its reaches are today, we should be cautious with how we use it. David Suzuki, a well known geneticist, wrote this piece (PDF) that you might find interesting.

What about mimicking other aspects of nature, like the hydrologic cycle? Is that biomimicry?

We can learn a lot from the world around us! It might be totally appropriate to develop a design based on the hydrologic cycle or the way sand particles move down a beach, but we wouldn’t call that biomimicry. Biomimicry, as the name implies, is emulating the strategies of life. The core of biomimicry is that it uses nature as mentor, model, and measure, as articulated in Life’s Principles. It is just one tool (we think a very good tool) for developing sustainable designs – designs conducive to life – but it is not the only tool. There are other tools out there to help achieve sustainability, and we encourage you to seek them out.

I don’t believe in evolution. Doesn’t that undermine the basis of biomimicry?

Biomimicry is firmly rooted in science and is based on the scientific research that suggests that life present on earth today reflects the results of 3.85 billion years of evolution. We look at evolution as 3.85 billion years of trial and error, research and development, and rigorous quality control testing that resulted in a 99.9% failure rate, so that the estimated 30 million different species of organisms living on earth today are success stories. They have figured out materials, forms, processes, systems, and strategies needed to sustain themselves in the conditions on earth as it is today – the very same conditions in which we must sustain ourselves.

Although biomimicry is founded on the scientific concept of evolution, perhaps you may be able to replace the concept of evolution or “nature’s genius” with a concept or belief that results in the same idea – that life on earth today embodies a virtually infinite reservoir of sustainable solutions.

Is biomimicry the same as bionics, biomimetics, and bio-inspired engineering?

Biomimicry shares much with the other bio-inspired fields that draw inspiration and innovation from nature. It is our understanding that biomimicry is unique in that the biomimicry method intends to result in sustainable design solutions.

Can biomimicry be applied to policies and politics?

Each organism is beautifully adapted to its place and its conditions. Part of our adaptation is this incredible social structure. You can look at the creation of policies, laws, and systems of reward and incentive as creating habitat conditions. An ecologist thinks about habitat conditions in terms of things like temperature swings or the number of predators or prey you have available, it’s the opportunities and the limits and the rules. Different habitat conditions bring forth different strategies for survival. Herman Daly has said that as a species, our habitat conditions have changed as we’ve grown in number, but our strategies have not.

When we were a small population in a very large world, we acted very much like a Type I system. That’s a pioneering system, like annual plants in a newly plowed field. They hardly put down any roots because they’re not going to stay long—in a few years, their seeds will blow to the next opening. Their strategy is to spread out, get everything they can, and put energy into seeds. What comes in next would be the berry bushes. They put down roots and begin to build a more stable community; they build closer networks with one another. That’s Type II. Then, finally, the Type III system is the mature forest that finally comes after the berry bushes. That system isn’t going anywhere. It’s going to stay on that site until the next big fire or hurricane—hundreds of years in some cases.

When you are staying for a while, you have different strategies. Herman Daly says we are now a large population in a limited world so need to start acting more like a mature forest that isn’t going anywhere. In the forest economy, very few material resources come in, and no waste goes out. There’s an incredible transfer of energy and information, however. There are deep roots, symbiotic relationships, much more mutualism, much more cooperation, tighter feedback loops, because there’s nowhere else to go. The species that are in that place are hooking up in ways that keep on making the most of the limited pool of resources.

How can we encourage cooperative strategies? If we truly believed there was nowhere else to go, perhaps we’d start acting like Type III organisms and we’d put in place the laws and policies—habitat conditions—that would bring forth that behavior.

What does biomimicry offer in our world of food?

The agriculture example of mimicking a prairie is exciting. You have to ask, “What would be growing here, naturally, if we weren’t here?” Ask the land what it will support and what it will help you do, as Wendell Berry says. If we were in the tropics, where multi-canopied forests are the norm, we should ask, “How can I emulate the structure of this jungle?”  In the Midwest, the prairie was the natural model. Wherever you are in the world, the simple question of how nature grows abundantly here is the question to ask.

How do you expect plants manipulated by humans, which have been domesticated to function in this idealized natural society, to produce enough to feed all of us?

The really hard thing for many scientists to conceive of is how we can perennialize our annual crop plants. The work of Wes Jackson at the Land Institute has to do with making edible perennials. For years we believed there was a trade off, that plants only had so much energy and if they put energy into roots and became perennial, they wouldn’t have enough energy left to make enough seeds for us [to eat.] That became mythical fact in plant biology until Wes Jackson’s daughter, Laura Jackson, did the work that showed there is no trade off. There’s energy for roots AND large seeds. They have now perennialized wheat, rye, and sorghum.

As far as polyculture goes, that is the idea of planting crops in mixtures. They have found that you don’t need hundreds of species to get the companion-planting benefits of a prairie. You can have as few as eight different species in the field that will be harvested at different times of the year, with different kinds of machinery. They are finding that in a polyculture, these plants are actually over-yielding because they’re not in head-to-head competition with each other. And of course, there is less pressure from pests because it is not a single-species, “all you can eat” restaurant.

Can the perspective of man’s dominion over nature, as it is expressed in sacred texts, be compatible with the idea of learning from nature?

There is a faith-based group called “Caring for Creation” that has a very different reading of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. They see it as completely compatible with their reading of the Bible to be better stewards of the land. To us, stewardship without “studentship” is yet another example of hubris.

EDUCATIONAL FAQS