Biomimicry is the quest for innovation inspired by nature. Biomimics are scientists and inventors who study nature's greatest achievements - spider silk and tallgrass, seashells and brain cells, photosynthesis and forests - and adapt them for human use. Their findings are revolutionizing how we invent, compute, heal ourselves, harness energy, repair the environment, conduct business, and feed the world. In Biomimicry, science writer Janine M. Benyus names and explains this phenomenon that has been unfolding in all the science disciplines. She takes us into the lab and out into the field with the maverick thinkers who are stirring vats of proteins to unleash their signaling power in computers...analyzing how spiders manufacture a waterproof fiber five times stronger than steel...watching electrons zip and pop in a leaf cell, converting simple sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second...discovering miracle drugs by noting what chimps eat when they're sick...studying the hardy prairie as a low-maintenance model for agriculture...and much more.
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The natural world, says Benyus ("Beastly Behaviors"), has an enormous amount to teach us, if only we would "tune in"--as some scientists are beginning to do--before it's too late. Touring the laboratories of a wide array of researchers, she reports on the emerging race to mimic natural processes (hence "biomimicry") in the business-driven quest for better products, environmentally sound technologies and miracle drugs. The scientists speak with palpable excitement, explaining the principles behind a utopian future of unlimited possibilities: energy harnessed by simple, non-toxic molecules modeled on the principles of photosynthesis, so efficient they put the best solar cells to shame; an organic computer, thousands of times faster and more powerful than the most advanced Pentium, that emulates the principles embodied in DNA; farms with abundant yields requiring virtually no pesticides, fertilizers or "energy inputs, " mimicking a natural ecosystem--and more. Benyus's shotgun approach can be disorienting, but the possible breakthroughs, the technologies behind them and the scientists themselves are invariably fascinating.
--"Publishers Weekly"
--"Publishers Weekly"
Innovations, whether in farming, composite science, or computing, are a product of human creativity. Science writer Benyus uses these subjects and others to demonstrate how nature's solutions to situations have been the creative jumping-off points for individuals seeking solutions, developing, or simply revitalizing processes or products. The first seven chapters are a prelude to the final chapter, which tackles industrial ecology. Here, Benyus proposes ten lessons that an ecologically astute company, culture, or economy could practice topromote a healthier existence for us all. There is no grandstanding, just readable language and a simple awe at human creativity and the uses to which it can be put. For popular science collections.
--"Library Journal"
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It's not ordinary for a bare-chested man wearing jaguar teeth and owl feathers to grace the pages of The New Yorker, but these are not ordinary times. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It's not ordinary for a bare-chested man wearing jaguar teeth and owl feathers to grace the pages of The New Yorker, but these are not ordinary times. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I wanted to like this book, but it does not do anything like justice to the important ideas it is trying to introduce, and I had to stop reading it. I would not recommend it, especially to anyone with a scientific background as it is badly written, imprecise, subjective and bulked out by irrelevant and lame descriptive information, an infuriating mess through which the reader must struggle to pick out the facts. When trying to explain scientific concepts such as photosynthesis, the author seems to think that this can be done by mixing as many metaphors as possible. The author should have decided whether she was writing a book about a personal voyage of discovery or an objective factual book.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Halfway finished, I am putting this book down. It's very rare that I don't finish a book. If you have a strong science background, you will be very disappointed in what this book has to offer. The alleged topic is fascinating, and I think I will go find a book that really discusses it.
The photosynthesis chapter screams for pictures and diagrams, but the author has provided none. The reader will read thousands clumsy words trying to describe complex geometries, waiting for a clarifying picture that never comes.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
The purported subject of this book is facinating, however most of the book seems to be about something else. The author lectures about current poor ecological practices (which were "news" about ten years ago). I found very little in this book regarding actual progress in technologies that were inspired by biological systems. Rather disappointing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book! Highly recommended!
Have just finished reading this book. It's fantastic. The chapter on 'How will we feed ourselves now? Read more
Published 10 months ago by NPF
5.0 out of 5 stars
A source of inspiration
This book is no scientific cookbook that will give you a recipe for your company to go green (for real, not only for the marketing... Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2011 by Bigmach
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspires us to look to nature for solutions
Where can we find the best solutions to the many technical, environmental, social and economic problems that beset us? Read more
Published on 16 July 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspires us to look to nature for solutions to our problems
Where can we find the best solutions to the many technical, environmental, social and economic problems that beset us? Read more
Published on 16 July 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Realistic, innovative solutions for a sustainable world
With the eloquence of an angel, Janine Benyus captures and describes the rapidly emerging field of biomimicry. Read more
Published on 13 July 1999
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightening. The human race may have a chance after all
Biomimicry gives an insight into where future technology could take us without getting too technical on it's explainations. Read more
Published on 23 Nov 1998
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating topic, dissappointing book
Solar cells modeled after green plants, fibers stronger than steel, chemical factories without pollution, ceramics as hard as abalone shell. Read more
Published on 27 July 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book will make you excited.
The details are complex but well explained, making for a very exciting and satisfying read. Biomimicry is elegantly written (not just a collection of separate chapters), with a... Read more
Published on 28 May 1998
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