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Sean Snyder

Biomimicry, Aerospace, Design

Just over a week ago I met Andrew Dent, from Material Connexion, a materials consultancy and library based out of New York, Cologne, Milan and Bangkok, and he brought up the topic of biomimicry in a podcast I recorded with him. He suggested this is going to be a big field in the future of materials research and development.

I also just yesterday came across a release from the University of Michigan which discusses the similarities and barriers between organic flight and the aerospace industry and suggests we need to look at animals and insects of flight in order to better understand where we can make changes to our existing mechanical flight systems.

I like this idea but it seems a little obvious to me. What has been preventing us from doing this already? Is there any reason we have lost sight of our primary influence? How do we harness the design of nature in order to harness the energy of nature and when do we move on from a design that has reached the limits of its function?

I personally think biomimicry is nothing new, but maybe it is just a new age where we now have the resources and “advanced technology” to better examine and understand nature and biological systems in order to build new machines based on nature’s designs.