| For centuries Man has looked to the wonders of | | | | fabric experts to achieve a practical solution, which |
| nature for inspiration. Leonardo Da Vinci designed | | | | consisted of two strips of material; one with |
| ships with hulls based on the shape of fish and, less | | | | thousands of tiny plastic hooks and the other made |
| successfully, flying machines with the flapping wings | | | | from a fibrous felt. When pressed together, the two |
| of birds in flight. It took the Wright brothers to | | | | materials formed a strong bond and yet could be |
| notice that large birds are unable to flap their winds | | | | used many times over. This remarkable imitation of |
| repeatedly and glide instead, an observation that led | | | | nature is still popular fifty years after it was finally |
| them to design successful aircraft with fixed wing | | | | patented in 1955. |
| structures. In ancient times, the Chinese spent many | | | | Like the Eiffel Tower, the Victorian Crystal Palace |
| years trying to produce a synthetic silk after | | | | owed its existence to the natural world. Designed and |
| remarking on the incredible strength of the spider's | | | | built in 1851 to house the Great Exhibition, the |
| web. | | | | eighteen acre glass construction was designed, not |
| Drawing on nature for inspiration is a recognised | | | | by an engineer but by botanist Joseph Paxton. His |
| science known as biomimetics, taken from the Greek | | | | studies had brought to his attention the enormous |
| words bios (meaning life) and mimesis (meaning | | | | floating leaves of the water lily, victoria amazonica, |
| imitation). Innovators have recognised that the world | | | | which could hold the weight of a small child. The |
| around us is an unlimited resource of intricate ideas | | | | ribbed support structure on the underside of these |
| just waiting to be copied. While modern industries use | | | | leaves helped Paxton to devise a lightweight method |
| this concept to produce ever more high-tech | | | | for supporting huge areas of glass. He used this to |
| inventions, there are some famous examples of | | | | conceive a 108 foot high building containing over |
| biomimetics that we can all appreciate. | | | | 200,000 panes of glass and despite his lack of |
| In the 1850s, an anatomist, Hermann Von Meyer | | | | architectural or engineering training, won the Crystal |
| studied the workings of the human skeleton. He | | | | Palace design competition. Some experts feared that |
| noticed that the head of the femur (thigh bone) had | | | | huge crowds attending the exhibition could produce |
| an unusual structure, allowing the weight of the body | | | | resonant vibrations in the iron girders of the roof, |
| to be supported slightly off-centre by the leg bones. | | | | causing the whole structure to collapse. Three |
| Further work by engineer Karl Cullman confirmed that | | | | hundred men were instructed to jump in unison inside |
| the ordered lattice of ridges within the femur made it | | | | a scale model of the proposed building and as Paxton |
| perfect for supporting an off-centre load. When | | | | had promised, the supports barely moved. Work |
| Gustave Eiffel built his tower in 1889, he imitated this | | | | began immediately on the real Palace, which proved |
| complicated bone structure in the now familiar arches | | | | to be a triumph of design and would probably be |
| at its base. Using a series of wrought iron braces and | | | | standing today if a fire hadn't destroyed it in 1936. |
| studs, he managed to reproduce nature's ingenuity. | | | | Science continues to look to nature for new ideas. |
| The resulting 984 foot high tower has resisted | | | | Recent examples of biomimetics include the new |
| strong winds for over one hundred years and still | | | | Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, one of the |
| stands today. | | | | most powerful telescopes ever constructed. Here |
| One of the most prevalent examples of biomimetics | | | | engineers have borrowed the hexagonal structure of |
| is the invention of Velcro. In the early 1940s, Swiss | | | | the common honeycomb to provide the strength |
| inventor, George de Mestral, took his dog for a walk | | | | needed to supports its two large mirrors. A leading |
| in nearby fields. Returning home, he noticed that | | | | swimwear manufacturer has just developed a |
| many tiny burdock seeds had stuck firmly to his | | | | revolutionary sports swimsuit that imitates the ridges |
| trousers, a problem familiar to many dog owners and | | | | on a shark's skin, reducing the drag in the water. The |
| a device used by nature to spread new plants. | | | | clothing industry is working to create a fabric that |
| Intrigued by this phenomenon, he studied the burrs | | | | not only has the insulating properties of penguin |
| under the microscope and discovered that they each | | | | feathers but mimics the opening and closing of a pine |
| possessed several tiny hooks, the secret of their | | | | cone to release and retain moisture. Throughout |
| sticky behaviour. Realising that this simple idea could | | | | history humans have proved themselves to be |
| be replicated, he developed a fastener called Velcro, | | | | ingenious and resourceful but, as biomimetics |
| derived from the French words velour and crochet. | | | | illustrates, Mother Nature has been a wonderful |
| De Mestral worked for several years with cloth and | | | | teacher. |