Taking a Pounding: How Woodpeckers Avoid Concussions
Woodpecker adaptations can inspire designs that prevent impact and vibration damage.
how does nature make it?
An Idea That Bubbled Up
Inspiration for innovative and more environmentally sustainable designs are all around us. Humpback whales have inspired quieter, more efficient industrial fans, wind turbine blades that work in lower wind speeds, and a way of catching fish without undesirable by-catch. Biomimicry works best when we approach nature with a sense of wonder and start asking questions.
Emulating Ecosystems: A Story About Beer
Businesses interested in meeting environmental sustainability goals can learn a lot from ecosystems. Functioning ecosystems are closed-loop systems, where one organism’s waste is another organism’s food or building material. An example of such industrial ecology is the ZERI beer brewing system that replaces the “make, take, and waste” linear resource stream with a circular system in which waste is treated as a resource rather than as garbage. This is biomimicry at the system scale.
