Biomimicry
Organizations
Biomimicry Report By Samuel Zadow
What does Biomimicry mean?
What does biomimicry mean? Biomimicry- The word biomimicry is a compound word, (a word which is made of 2 different word) which consists of the words bio and mimicry. I believe the word bio means natural life and the way nature works though the Oxford dictionary defines the prefix bio as just life. And the Meaning of mimicry for me is copying something or someone for purposes like entertaining someone, etc. Though the Oxford dictionary defines the word mimicry as the action or skill of imitating someone or something, especially to entertain or ridicule. And if we put them together it for me basically means copying or mimicking natural life thought the Oxford dictionary defines the word biomimicry as the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modelled on biological entities and processes.
The History of biomimicry
Early example
One of the very first examples of biomimicry was the leaning or study of flying creatures, like birds to make one of the very imaginary human need possible which was human flight. Unfortunately, the most discussed man in history of biomimicry, Leonardo Da Vinci couldn’t invent the world’s first human flight invention but was very interested in the anatomy of bird flight. He made uncountable sketches and recorded many of the observations and tried to use them to make a flying machine.
Who and How came across biomimicry?
Biomimicry was first invented or discovered by the American Biophysicist (The Oxford dictionary defines the word biophysicist as: the science of the application of the laws of physics to biological phenomena) and Polymath (The Oxford Dictionary describes the word polymath as: A person of wide knowledge and learning) Otto Schmitt during the year 1950. He came across this beautiful word during his doctoral research when he developed the Schmitt trigger by researching the nerves and the nerve system of a squid. He tried to engineer a device that copied the nerve propagation of that squid. His interest in devices that copied or mimicked natural systems grew and by the year 1957 he had different and developed way to look at biophysics and he named that view as biomimetic.
Transdisciplinary Theme
Our ‘transdisciplinary’ theme for this term is how the world works and under that transdisciplinary theme we have chosen biomimicry and under the big tree of biomimicry we have chosen to follow the following lines: An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; The interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; Under those 2 lines our central idea is nature can help solve human problems. Under our central idea, we have form and function as our key concept. Under the key concepts, our line of inquiry is how understanding nature can help solve human problems.
Human Problem
We need plants to make oxygen so that we can breathe. With deforestation there are less plants around and we are in danger of not making enough oxygen in the atmosphere. Also we are unable to travel into space or live on planets that do not have oxygen as we need to bring tanks of oxygen to survive. The problem is how can you imitate the way plants work in nature to make an artificial device that produces oxygen in the same way?
Solution
We could use the properties of plants in the way they go through photosynthesis and do this on an artificial device. Plants have chloroplasts inside them which are plant cells that absorb sunlight then they use carbon dioxide and water to make oxygen. Chloroplasts are called organelles and were discovered by Julius von Sachs (1837-1897). The main role of chloroplasts is the process of photosynthesis. The pigment chlorophyll inside the chloroplast takes energy from the sun and stores it while releasing oxygen.
The chemical reaction is:
6 CO2 + 6H2O + sunlight → C6H12O6+ 602
Using the concept of biomimicry we could create artificial plants that have chloroplasts inside them that complete this process so that we are able to manufacture oxygen using carbon dioxide, water and sunlight.
This has been attempted by Julian Melchiomi who made a silk leaf from a matrix of protein taken from silk and chloroplasts. When the fake leaf was provided with water and sunlight it allegedly produced oxygen. So the artificial leaf was able to mimic the process of making oxygen that is normally done by a living plant.
The advantage of using a fake plant is that it would be easier to maintain, you could move it around, and you might be able to control how much oxygen it produces and when.
This concept could be extended further to manufactured products like umbrellas, walls inside planes, paint in houses, and space communities on other planets. The only problem is that there would still need to be water and sunlight provided so there would either need to be enough water in the atmosphere or it would need to be supplied (carried in a tank for example). There would also need to be enough light from the sun or an artificial light to provide enough light for the chemical reaction to occur.
Copying the natural processes used by plants could help humans to keep manufacturing oxygen when possibly in the future there may not be enough oxygen to breathe, or to travel long distances in space. Using biomimicry in this way will help the world keep up supplies of oxygen, which is very important to sustain life.
And a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very big thanks to these websites for information.
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