| Description |
308 pages ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
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 |
| Summary |
Biomimicry is the quest for innovation inspired by nature. Biomimics are scientists and inventors who study nature's greatest achievements - spider silk and tallgrass, seashells and brain cells, photosynthesis and forests - and adapt them for human use. Their findings are revolutionizing how we invent, compute, heal ourselves, harness energy, repair the environment, conduct business, and feed the world |
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In Biomimicry, science writer Janine M. Benyus names and explains this phenomenon that has been unfolding in all the science disciplines. She takes us into the lab and out into the field with the maverick thinkers who are stirring vats of proteins to unleash their signaling power in computers...analyzing how spiders manufacture a waterproof fiber five times stronger than steel...watching electrons zip and pop in a leaf cell, converting simple sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second...discovering miracle drugs by noting what chimps eat when they're sick...studying the hardy prairie as a low-maintenance model for agriculture...and much more |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Technological innovations.
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Human ecology.
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Nature.
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| ISBN |
0060533226 paperback |
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