Book
Biomimicry : innovation inspired by nature / Janine M. Benyus.
Summary:
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&D 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 they’re sick; study the hardy prairie as a model for low-maintenance agriculture; and more.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780060533229 (pbk.)
- ISBN: 0060533226 (pbk.)
- Physical Description: 308 pages ; 21 cm
- Publisher: New York : Perennial, 2002.
- Copyright: ©1997
Content descriptions
- General Note:
- First published by William Morrow in 1997 ; First Quill edition published 1998 ; reissued in Perennial 2002.
- Bibliography, etc. Note:
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-300) and index.
- Formatted Contents Note:
- Ch. 1. Echoing Nature: Why Biomimicry Now? -- Ch. 2. How Will We Feed Ourselves? Farming to Fit the Land: Growing Food Like a Prairie -- Ch. 3. How Will We Harness Energy? Light into Life: Gathering Energy Like a Leaf -- Ch. 4. How Will We Make Things? Fitting Form to Function: Weaving Fibers Like a Spider -- Ch. 5. How Will We Heal Ourselves? Experts in Our Midst: Finding Cures Like a Chimp -- Ch. 6. How Will We Store What We Learn? Dances with Molecules: Computing Like a Cell -- Ch. 7. How Will We Conduct Business? Closing the Loops in Commerce: Running a Business Like a Redwood Forest -- Ch. 8. Where Will We Go from Here? May Wonders Never Cease: Toward a Biomimetic Future.
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Available copies
- 2 of 2 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Valemount Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 2 total copies.
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| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valemount Public Library | anf 173.8 ben (Text) | 35194014323190 | Adult non-fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Monthly Selections - #1 June 1997
Forget the notion that technology improves upon nature. Benyus introduces us to pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs by uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels. These engineers are devising solar fuel cells as efficient as plants, fibers as tough as abalone shell, and computers as sophisticated as the brain. For Benyus, though, a technology that mirrors nature does more than enlarge human powers and gratify human ambitions. Such a technology teaches us how to live in harmony with nature, rather than how to dominate it. Unless we learn this urgent lesson, Benyus warns, our highly unnatural and exploitative technologies will soon render the earth unfit for life. Sobering yet hopeful, this book will bring help bridge the dangerous chasm between technophiles and environmentalists. ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 1997)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 1997 June
Innovations, whether in farming, composite science, or computing, are a product of human creativity. Science writer Benyus (Beastly Behaviors, LJ 9/1/92) 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 to promote 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.?Michael D. Cramer, North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Health and Natural Resources Lib., Raleigh Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 1997 May #3
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. And Benyus's observations are engaging as well, bringing to her tech-oriented subject a non-didactic moral framework and an invigorating sense of wonder: "By deliberately looking for creatures that awe us, we may just stumble upon a whole new chemistry the spoils of survival." (June) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews