Nature Inspired Innovation

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/01/nature-inspired-innovation-9-examples-of-biomimicry-at-work-image-gallery.php?page=1

This was a very interesting gallery that I found on the site treehugger.com. TreeHugger: A Discovery Company is a media outlet for "green" news, solutions, and product information. The site provides various examples of recent innovations that were inspired by something in nature. There is a picture of each innovation along with a picture of the aspect of nature that inspired it. The first innovation is Japan’s bullet train. The nosecone shape of the front is inspired by the kingfisher, a bird that dives seamlessly into water. The goal of this innovation was to eliminate the loud claps that were heard when the train emerged from the tunnel. Another example was Mercedes-Benz’s bionic car, which was inspired by the boxfish. Scientists noticed the aerodynamics of the boxfish’s shape and modeled the car after it. This resulted in a vehicle with a 65% lower drag coefficient than other cars at the time. Another rather interesting example is the innovations in hardwood plywood products which were inspired by mussels. Mussels have a great ability to stick to things, like rocks, and Columbia Forest products took note of this. They looked at the natural adhesive abilities of mussels and found a way to use soy-based formaldehyde-free technology when constructing hardwood plywood products. These and other forms of biomimicry are extremely interesting examples of very creative innovation.