Biomimetic Engineering

Abstract

Humankind is a privileged animal species for many reasons. A remarkable one is its ability to conceive and manufacture objects. Human industry is indeed leading the various winning strategies (along with language and culture) that has permitted this primate to extraordinarily increase its life expectancy and proliferation rate. (It is indeed so successful, that it now threatens the whole planet.) The design of this industry kicks off in the brain, a computing machine particularly good at storing, recognizing and associating patterns. Even in a time when human beings tend to populate non-natural, man-made environments, the many forms, colorings, textures and behaviors of nature continuously excite our senses and blend in our thoughts, even more deeply during childhood. Then, it would be exaggerated to say that Biomimetics is a brand new strategy. As long as human creation is based on previously acquired knowledge and experiences, it is not surprising that engineering, the arts, and any form of expression, is influenced by nature’s way to some extent. The design of human industry has evolved from very simple tools, to complex engineering devices. Nature has always provided us with a rich catalog of excellent materials and inspiring designs. Now, equipped with new machinery and techniques, we look again at Nature. We aim at mimicking not only its best products, but also its design principles. Organic life, as we know it, is indeed a vast pool of diversity. Living matter inhabits almost every corner of the terrestrial ecosphere. From warm open-air ecosystems to the extreme conditions of hot salt ponds, living cells have found ways to metabolize the sources of energy, and get organized in complex organisms of specialized tissues and organs that adapt themselves to the environment, and can modify the environment to their own needs as well. Life on Earth has evolved such a diverse portfolio of species that the number of designs, mechanisms and strategies that can actually be abstracted is astonishing. As August Krogh put it: "For a large number of problems there will be some animal of choice, on which it can be most conveniently studied". The scientific method starts with a meticulous observation of natural phenomena, and humans are particularly good at that game. In principle, the aim of science is to understand the physical world, but an observer’s mind can behave either as an engineer or as a scientist. The minute examination of the many living forms that surround us has led to the understanding of new organizational principles, some of which can be imported in our production processes. In practice, bio-inspiration can arise at very different levels of observation: be it social organization, the shape of an organism, the structure and functioning of organs, tissular composition, cellular form and behavior, or the detailed structure of molecules. Our direct experience of the wide portfolio of species found in nature, and their particular organs, have clearly favored that the initial models would come from the organism and organ levels. But the development of new techniques (on one hand to observe the micro- and nanostructure of living beings, and on the other to simulate the complex behavior of social communities) have significantly extended the domain of interest.