What is biomimicry?

José-Luis Gómez Pérez

An ecosystem is a unit composed of interdependent organisms that share the same habitat and, in turn, all ecosystems are interconnected with adjacent ecosystems. Likewise, all the organisms that compose them fit perfectly in their environments without generating waste.

If all living beings have the same requirements (food, water, habitat, etc.), why do humans try to solve them based on their own knowledge, on their own ingenuity, instead of studying how other animal and plant species have solved those problems? Since for billions of years nature has been developing, testing and refining all possible solutions to the different problems that have arisen in each case.

Biomimicry can be defined as the science that studies nature using it as a model to give solutions to human problems.

This is not something new, only now its study has been formalized. Already 500 years ago Leonardo da Vinci relied on the anatomy of the birds to carry out various inventions to lift the flight, or on the shell of the turtles to create an armored vehicle, etc.

Today there are numerous leading research fields implying biomimicry, such as bioadhesives, development of new materials, aerodynamics, energy capture, structure design, etc.