Biomimicry: Solving Problems by Copying Nature

Core Idea

Plants and animals have body parts that help them survive, such as burrs that stick to fur, beaks that slip into water, and feet that grip. People can study how these parts work and copy the idea to solve human problems. This is called biomimicry. The hook-and-loop fastener (Velcro) was invented after an engineer looked closely at burrs stuck to his dog's fur.

How It's Best Learned

Give children a real burr, a feather or a pine cone and a magnifying glass, and ask what the part does for the plant or animal. Then ask them to think of a human problem the same idea could solve, and to draw or build a simple model. Comparing the original with the invention makes the copying clear.

Common Misconceptions

• Inventions that copy nature look exactly like the animal or plant. (People usually copy how a part works, such as the tiny hooks on a burr, and not its whole shape or color.)
• Plants and animals were designed to help people. (Their body parts help them survive in their own habitats; people notice these parts and borrow the ideas.)
• Only animals give us ideas. (Plants give ideas too, such as burrs for fasteners and the self-cleaning surface of lotus leaves.)

Explainer

Have you ever walked through a field and found little prickly balls stuck to your socks? Those are burrs. A burr is a seed case from a plant. Its job is to hitch a ride on an animal so the seeds travel to a new place.

In the 1940s an engineer from Switzerland named George de Mestral came home from a walk with his dog. Both of them were covered in burrs. He wondered why they stuck so well, so he looked at a burr under a microscope. He saw hundreds of tiny hooks. The hooks caught on the loops in his clothes and in his dog's fur. That gave him an idea. He made one strip covered in tiny hooks and another covered in tiny loops. Press them together and they hold. Pull hard and they come apart. Today we call this a hook-and-loop fastener, and the brand name is Velcro. You might have it on your shoes.

Copying nature to solve a problem is called biomimicry. "Bio" means life, and "mimic" means copy. People look at how a plant or animal part works, and then they build something that works the same way.

Here is another example. A kingfisher is a bird that dives into water to catch fish. Its long, pointed beak lets it slip into the water with hardly a splash. In Japan, a fast train called a bullet train made a loud boom when it rushed out of tunnels. An engineer who liked watching birds remembered the kingfisher. The train's nose was reshaped to look more like the bird's beak. The new train was quieter and used less energy.

Plants give ideas too. Lotus leaves stay clean in muddy ponds, because water drops roll off and carry dirt away. Scientists have studied the tiny bumps on the leaf to make paints and fabrics that stay clean in the same way.

Notice that a Velcro strip does not look like a burr plant, and a train does not have feathers. People copy only the part that does the job. To try biomimicry yourself, pick a problem, think about a plant or animal that has the same problem, and look closely at how its body solves it.