Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature | 
 enlarge | Author: Janine M. Benyus
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 7551
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0060533226
Dewey Decimal Number: 577
EAN: 9780060533229
ASIN: 0060533226
Publication Date: September 1, 2002
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Product Description
This profound and accessible book details how science is studying nature's best ideas to solve our toughest 21st–century problems. If chaos theory transformed our view of the universe, biomimicry is transforming our life on Earth. Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature – taking advantage of evolution's 3.8 billion years of R\'9126D since the first bacteria. Biomimics study nature's best ideas: photosynthesis, brain power, and shells – and adapt them for human use. They are revolutionising how we invent, compute, heal ourselves, harness energy, repair the environment, and feed the world. Science writer and lecturer Janine Benyus names and explains this phenomenon. She takes us into the lab and out in the field with cutting–edge researchers as they stir vats of proteins to unleash their computing power; analyse how electrons zipping around a leaf cell convert sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second; discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when theyᱥ sick; study the hardy prairie as a model for low–maintenance agriculture; and more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Nature Revelation May 1, 2008
This book is an exellent read that provides insightful commentary on the work of several leading scientists and communities. Our understanding of current industralized communities is explored, and the effects on nature are considered. Alternative solutions in various fields are investigated that allow people from all walks of life to connect with the messages in the book. The topics are structured in a easy to read and logical fashion that leads you through the discussion of redesigning our solutions for food, energy, materials, computing, bio-diversity, recycling, industry and co-habitation with nature in educative and highly engaging tone.
I love Janine's prose as it engenders a rich connection with nature, and the hope that we can change our systems towards a sustainable future. This book is an essential read for each one of us, and we can all learn to appreciate the true value of bio-diversity, and of conserving as much of it as we can, in its truest, unmaligned form.
I've been able to consider how I lead my life and the materials I am dependent upon. I hope to change my habits to better conserve the precious gifts that Nature has provided. I've come to appreciate the roots of our immense knowledge and lessons continually being learnt from Nature, and hope that we can continue to utilise this to create a happier future for generations to come.
 First impression March 24, 2008
I'm still reading through, but I was expecting less theory and more practical features/examples. I already had the general background and needed a methodology to put into practice. So far I haven't found it.
 Innovative and a great read! October 22, 2007
I am an engineer by training and an amateur naturalist by vocation so this book proved to be a reflection on many of my thoughts and then some. I am convinced that engineers can learn a lot from biology and how design problems have been solved elegantly by evolution and natural selection. Watching nature can return a sense of wonder to the arrogant worldview of the technologist and I think Biomimicry addresses this beautifully.
However, at times I find the author a bit too enthusiastic about technology. This is understandable as she is a self-confessed technophyle.
 Never really used it. September 27, 2007
0 out of 14 found this review helpful
I had no need for it in my class so I did not use it.
Biomimicry is Very Good, Very Detailed June 19, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As other reviewers have pointed out, Biomimicry is a good to great book, but the level of detail is enough to make a non-scientist's head spin. Be prepared for in-depth discussions on cellular activity, computer theory, and energy transfer. The main point of the book is excellent, which is that as a human race, we will eventually have to start acting like the rest of the living world and only use what we have in a sustainable manner. Physically, our path of using more energy than the world can generate is simply not sustainable for long. The book is not one of those alarmist environmental-destruction-is-imminent books however, it actually has good ideas on directions to take for sustainable manufacturing and sustainable energy.
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