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This profound and accessible book details how science is studying nature’s best ideas to solve our toughest 21st–century problems.

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\’9126D 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 theyᱥ sick; study the hardy prairie as a model for low–maintenance agriculture; and more.

Customer Reviews

Innovative and a great read!:

I am an engineer by training and an amateur naturalist by vocation so this book proved to be a reflection on many of my thoughts and then some. I am convinced that engineers can learn a lot from biology and how design problems have been solved elegantly by evolution and natural selection. Watching nature can return a sense of wonder to the arrogant worldview of the technologist and I think Biomimicry addresses this beautifully.
However, at times I find the author a bit too enthusiastic about technology. This is understandable as she is a self-confessed technophyle.

Never really used it.:

I had no need for it in my class so I did not use it.

Poorly written:

Interesting topic, but very poorly written. Many of her explanations are oversimplified, and there’s a lot of unnecessary details about things like scientists’ office decorations. Also, by now, about half of the book is out of date. Especially the chapter on biological computing, which was very confusing to start with. Also, there was a surprising lack of citations, significantly diminishing the value of the book.

I felt that this book was more about choice interviews with the few scientists she was able to get a hold of.

Given that, I did enjoy the chapter on Wes Jackson’s work.

Biomimicry is Very Good, Very Detailed:

As other reviewers have pointed out, Biomimicry is a good to great book, but the level of detail is enough to make a non-scientist’s head spin. Be prepared for in-depth discussions on cellular activity, computer theory, and energy transfer. The main point of the book is excellent, which is that as a human race, we will eventually have to start acting like the rest of the living world and only use what we have in a sustainable manner. Physically, our path of using more energy than the world can generate is simply not sustainable for long. The book is not one of those alarmist environmental-destruction-is-imminent books however, it actually has good ideas on directions to take for sustainable manufacturing and sustainable energy.

Insightful, inspiring:

Thoroughly enjoyed the refreshing perspective and the paradigm shifting philosophies of how human approaches science. Provides clarity of where things went wrong and how it can be rectified. Brilliant