From nature...
...to product. Past 600,000 years was an unending process for human beings to develop tools to solve everyday problems. However nature, which already dedicated 3.8 billion years of research on solving problems, have been a great source of inspiration for engineers and designers of today. The very first tool made by human that was discovered so far was a stone that was chapped in order to serve purpose of a knife. Even this stone also seem to be mimicking shape of a fang of a carnivore. Nowadays there is countless number of examples of biomimetics around our daily life; Velcro is a classic example, however not many are aware that airplane wings are coated with water-repellent nano-coating that was inspired by lotus leaves in order to prevent the wings from freezing.
Lotus and Lotusan paint
Nature-inspired design and engineering is a flourishing in the current design and engineering industry. The secrets of lotus leaf, which is hydrophobic and self-cleansing effect (as mentioned in the example above) was revealed by a German biologist Wilhelm Barthlott in the year 1982. He figured out that the delicate nano-structures on the surface of a lotus leaf made the water on its surface to gather into a drop, and ‘cleans’ the surface when the water drop rolls away. He named this phenomenon ‘lotus effect’ and developed and patented Lotusan paint. This type paint, which contains extremely small bumps, is now famous for not absorbing any water or filth even after decades. Another well-known and amazing example is ‘Fast skin’ swim suit worn by ten-olympic medals-winning swimmer Gary Wayne Hall. The secret of the sharks’ fast swimming is hidden in its skin. Microscopic ‘shield scales’ shaped like rows of teeth allow the water to pass through the holes and gaps at a high speed, diminishing the friction between its surface and water. This surface design also prevents barnacle and algae from being attached, thus a synthetic coating mimicking sharkskin is being developed for US Navy Army boats. Shinkansen trains in Japan also solved its problem of being too noisy when coming out of a tunnel (caused when an object moving in high-speed ‘hits’ the wall of air – think of sonic boom) by changing its frontal shape into a shape of a kingfisher’s beak. This change in design had not only helped the noise to decrease, but also decreased the amount of energy it needed to travel in high speed (the bell-shaped tunnel entrance and exit also helped the sounds to diminish as well).
Shark skin and swimsuit
Kingfisher's beak and Shinkansen
But are these technologies really necessary? Will biomimetics only serve as a luxurious technology that will help us improve previous designs so that we can become lazier? Some discoveries urge us that it would be a hasty judgment to say so; Andrew Parker discovered that a thorny devil, an Australian lizard leaving in driest desert, can absorb water with its feet use of capillary vessels between its scales, and ultimately deliver the moisture to its mouth. Experts found this mechanism very inspiring and are now working on a system that will help residents in dry climate to collect drinkable water. There is another marvelous study that has so much potential – scientists were able to mimic and develop a new type of adhesive looking at natural adhesive that mussels produce to attach themselves on a surface of rock. This adhesive is made of protein and is four times stronger than any other known adhesives that existed in the industry. This protein which contain ten amino acids have special feature that it becomes stronger as it gets more soaked, making this biomimicry a revolutionary product which can substitute thread that was used to sew up injuries after a surgery. Experts in US are also using mussels’ collagen protein to create artificial skin that is 5 times stronger and can be stretched 16 times more than the real human skin.
Since biomimicry have proven its worth so far, some may wonder what took designers and engineers so long to copy the answers that the nature had already answered. I believe it is only because humans didn’t have technology that is developed enough to analyze how things function in nature; now we understand enough to mimic the complex solution that nature has come up with. So are we finally at the top of technology now? Many experts say no to this question. Currently, Dr. Vincent estimates that that “at present there is only a 10% overlap between biology and technology in terms of the mechanisms used” – but the potential in this area only gets bigger when considering the fact that there still are numerous number of undiscovered species of animals and plants in the world (scientists estimate that we have only discovered about 30% of marine creatures there is on this planet). Lessons that nature taught us had raised the limit of technology used in design, giving more freedom to designers of today. Even the Eiffel Tower in Paris would have been impossible to build if the designer had not taken the technology that human body use to support our lean and tall body. I believe that it is safe to say that designers of today are very lucky to have so much more knowledge – thus freedom – to unfold their ideas into reality.
Lotus and Lotusan paintNature-inspired design and engineering is a flourishing in the current design and engineering industry. The secrets of lotus leaf, which is hydrophobic and self-cleansing effect (as mentioned in the example above) was revealed by a German biologist Wilhelm Barthlott in the year 1982. He figured out that the delicate nano-structures on the surface of a lotus leaf made the water on its surface to gather into a drop, and ‘cleans’ the surface when the water drop rolls away. He named this phenomenon ‘lotus effect’ and developed and patented Lotusan paint. This type paint, which contains extremely small bumps, is now famous for not absorbing any water or filth even after decades. Another well-known and amazing example is ‘Fast skin’ swim suit worn by ten-olympic medals-winning swimmer Gary Wayne Hall. The secret of the sharks’ fast swimming is hidden in its skin. Microscopic ‘shield scales’ shaped like rows of teeth allow the water to pass through the holes and gaps at a high speed, diminishing the friction between its surface and water. This surface design also prevents barnacle and algae from being attached, thus a synthetic coating mimicking sharkskin is being developed for US Navy Army boats. Shinkansen trains in Japan also solved its problem of being too noisy when coming out of a tunnel (caused when an object moving in high-speed ‘hits’ the wall of air – think of sonic boom) by changing its frontal shape into a shape of a kingfisher’s beak. This change in design had not only helped the noise to decrease, but also decreased the amount of energy it needed to travel in high speed (the bell-shaped tunnel entrance and exit also helped the sounds to diminish as well).
Shark skin and swimsuit
Kingfisher's beak and ShinkansenBut are these technologies really necessary? Will biomimetics only serve as a luxurious technology that will help us improve previous designs so that we can become lazier? Some discoveries urge us that it would be a hasty judgment to say so; Andrew Parker discovered that a thorny devil, an Australian lizard leaving in driest desert, can absorb water with its feet use of capillary vessels between its scales, and ultimately deliver the moisture to its mouth. Experts found this mechanism very inspiring and are now working on a system that will help residents in dry climate to collect drinkable water. There is another marvelous study that has so much potential – scientists were able to mimic and develop a new type of adhesive looking at natural adhesive that mussels produce to attach themselves on a surface of rock. This adhesive is made of protein and is four times stronger than any other known adhesives that existed in the industry. This protein which contain ten amino acids have special feature that it becomes stronger as it gets more soaked, making this biomimicry a revolutionary product which can substitute thread that was used to sew up injuries after a surgery. Experts in US are also using mussels’ collagen protein to create artificial skin that is 5 times stronger and can be stretched 16 times more than the real human skin.
Since biomimicry have proven its worth so far, some may wonder what took designers and engineers so long to copy the answers that the nature had already answered. I believe it is only because humans didn’t have technology that is developed enough to analyze how things function in nature; now we understand enough to mimic the complex solution that nature has come up with. So are we finally at the top of technology now? Many experts say no to this question. Currently, Dr. Vincent estimates that that “at present there is only a 10% overlap between biology and technology in terms of the mechanisms used” – but the potential in this area only gets bigger when considering the fact that there still are numerous number of undiscovered species of animals and plants in the world (scientists estimate that we have only discovered about 30% of marine creatures there is on this planet). Lessons that nature taught us had raised the limit of technology used in design, giving more freedom to designers of today. Even the Eiffel Tower in Paris would have been impossible to build if the designer had not taken the technology that human body use to support our lean and tall body. I believe that it is safe to say that designers of today are very lucky to have so much more knowledge – thus freedom – to unfold their ideas into reality.
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