how does nature make it?

Taking a Pounding: How Woodpeckers Avoid Concussions

Taking a Pounding: How Woodpeckers Avoid Concussions

Sherry Ritter

By Sherry Ritter

Sherry Ritter

Sherry Ritter is a biologist, writer, and educator living in Montana. Before getting involved with biomimicry, she was a wildlife ecologist with state wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Idaho, and worked for the U.S. Forest Service. Biomimicry fits her life-long interest in organisms’ adaptations to survive.

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Woodpecker adaptations can inspire designs that prevent impact and vibration damage.

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An Idea That Bubbled Up

An Idea That Bubbled Up

Sherry Ritter

By Sherry Ritter

Sherry Ritter

Sherry Ritter is a biologist, writer, and educator living in Montana. Before getting involved with biomimicry, she was a wildlife ecologist with state wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Idaho, and worked for the U.S. Forest Service. Biomimicry fits her life-long interest in organisms’ adaptations to survive.

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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.

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Emulating Ecosystems: A Story About Beer

Emulating Ecosystems: A Story About Beer

Sherry Ritter

By Sherry Ritter

Sherry Ritter

Sherry Ritter is a biologist, writer, and educator living in Montana. Before getting involved with biomimicry, she was a wildlife ecologist with state wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Idaho, and worked for the U.S. Forest Service. Biomimicry fits her life-long interest in organisms’ adaptations to survive.

View more articles by Sherry Ritter
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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.

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