As I've noted a couple of times recently in my bioscience blog, medicine is turning ever more readily to seeking answers within nature. Stem cells--by automatically developing into whatever the tissue they're implanted in requires--constitute not just one but countless far-reaching and humbling examples of nature's wisdom. And now, Utne magazine reports this trend is spreading into the business world. Around the globe, biologists are being invited to sit down with manufacturing researchers and designers to help find natural solutions to industrial problems.

The tiny bristles on the bottom of a gecko's feet enable it to walk at will up and down vertical surfaces. Now, that functionality has inspired the invention of a chemical-free adhesive--you can recycle products bound with this new tape without causing pollution. In Japan, design engineers turned to the shapes of the head of a kingfisher and the silent wings of an owl to produce a version of their bullet train that cuts wind drag and is incredibly quiet.

DaimlerChrysler studied the boxy shape and unique outer shell of the coral reef boxfish. Their engineeres discovered that its shape was a perfect aerodynamic design--completely unlike the teardrop shape we've long been led to believe was best. They also found that the multiple hexagonal bony plates of the fish's outer shell yielded an elegant technique for creating a car with an extremely strong body that was also lightweight.

Inspired by the spiraling chambers of the nautilus shell (oh, and tornadoes), scientists at PAX Scientific have reworked old notions of what a fan should look like and designed instead a new vortex-looking device that can move water and air at dramatically higher rates of efficiency. One result is an almost-silent air conditioner that operates 25% more efficiently than a typical window unit. Think about that as you enjoy your noisy A/C this summer--and don't you love the electric bill for these nearly-90-degrees-in-May-in-the-temperate-zone days?

One expert suggests we could save a full 50% of the fuel we use today if we applied natural solutions across the board.

But the ultimate application of biomimicry is when an organization chooses to view itself as an organism like others. At the executive level that means thinking of your company--or even a collection of industries--as existing within its own ecosystem (like a forest, or a prairie). In every such system, each element must make best use of all resources. In this view, it becomes second nature always to ask what leftover products can be used--or sold--to achieve other goals or meet the needs of other members of the system. The beauty of applying nature's ideas is that what we develop is usually not only more efficient but often also more environmentally sound.

So when you go home tonight, or while you're in the shower or daydreaming over some mindless task (because, of course, you know you never get your best ideas sitting at your desk), start thinking about how your organization or your operations might benefit from some elegant process of nature. It's clear we're only just beginning to recognize that so much of what we need is already here--if only we open our eyes and our minds.

Sincerely,
Barbara