INTRODUCTION
Imagine youve just bought an immensely detailed model airplane kit. How do you set about putting all the hundreds of tiny parts together? First, no doubt, youll examine the illustrations on the box. Then, following the instructions inside shortens the whole process of putting a model together in the best way possible, making no mistakes.
Even lacking any assembly instructions, you can still manage the task if you already possess a similar model airplane. The first planes design can serve as an important guide in assembling any later one. In the exact same way, using a flawless design in nature as a model provides shortcuts to designing technological equipment with the same functions in the most perfect possible manner. Aware of this, most scientists and research and development (R&D) experts study the examples of living things before embarking on any new designs, and imitate the systems and designs that already exist. In other words, they examine the designs God has created in nature and, then inspired, go on to develop new technologies.
This approach has given birth to a new branch of science: biomimetics, which means the imitation of living things in nature. This new study is being spoken of more and more often in technological circles and is opening up important new horizons for mankind.
As biomimetics emerges, imitating the structures of living systems, it presents a major setback for those scientists who still support the theory of evolution. From an evolutionists point of view, its entirely unacceptable for men—whom they regard as the highest rung on the evolutionary ladder—to try to draw inspiration from (much less imitate) other living things which, allegedly, are so much more primitive than they are.
If more advanced living things take the designs of primitive ones as models, that means that well be basing a large part of our future technology on the structure of those so-called lesser organisms. That, in turn, is a fundamental violation of the theory of evolution, whose logic maintains that living things too primitive to adapt to their environments soon became extinct, while the remaining higher ones evolved and succeeded.
The concept of biomimicry, first put forth by Janine M. Benyus, a writer and scientific observer from Montana, was later taken up and begun to be used by a great many others. One of their accounts describes her work and the whole development of biomimicry:
David Oakey is a product strategist for Interface Inc., one of the firms making use of nature to improve product quality and productivity. On the subject of biomimicry, he has this to say: Nature is my mentor for business and design, a model for the way of life. Nature's system has worked for millions of years... Biomimicry is a way of learning from nature. 3
Designs in nature ensure the greatest productivity for the least amount of materials and energy. Theyre able to repair themselves, are environmentally friendly and wholly recyclable. They operate silently, are pleasing in aesthetic appearance, and offer long lives and durability. All these good qualities are being taken as models to emulate. As the journal High Country News wrote, By using natural systems as models, we can create technologies that are more sustainable than those in use today. 4
Janine M. Benyus, author of the book Biomimicry, came to believe in the need for imitating nature by considering its perfections. Following are some of the examples she cites, which led her to defend such an approach: * Hummingbirds' ability to cross the Gulf of Mexico on less than 3 grams of fuel, * How dragonflies are more maneuverable than even the best helicopters, * The heating and air conditioning systems in termite mounds—in terms of equipment and energy consumption, far superior to those constructed by man, * Bats high-frequency transmitter, far more efficient and sensitive than radar systems created by human beings, * How light-emitting algae combine different chemical substances to give off light without heat, * How arctic fish and temperate-zone frogs return to life after being frozen, with the ice doing their organs no harm, * How anole lizards and chameleons change their colors—and how octopi and cuttlefish change both their colors and patterns in a moment—to blend in with their surroundings, * Bees, turtles and birds ability to navigate without maps, * Whales and penguins diving underwater for long periods without scuba gear, * How the DNA helix stores information in all living things, * How, through photosynthesis, leaves perform an astounding chemical reaction to create 300 billion tons of sugar every year.
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This documentary is better than that of national geographic & discovery channel.
BEAUTIFUL !!!!
wellwisher106 1 year ago