Biomimicry — Art of Nature
Nature gives us blessings in many ways. Some find peace in the woods; some loves to take walk in the forest and some investigate it. Nature is a great teacher if you look closely enough. Because it has evolved for 3 million years, which means it has a great experience. Nature gave inspired scientists for many years. If you investigate some inventions, you will come across nature inspiration everywhere. Plane aerodynamics are inspired by birds and sea animals (Figure 1). Elephant trunks are used as a template for robot dynamics. The bullet train nose is inspired by a Kingfisher bird etc. Many examples may be added here. Technologies inspired by biological solutions called Biomimicry or Biomimetic. Its name comes from the Greek word bios (life) and minemis (imitation).
Nature has a lot to offer us. Nature can guide us to light when everything is nothing but dark. Because of outstanding technologies waiting to be known and investigated, nature offers a new way of science called Biomimicry. Nature can guide us in feeding ourselves, using energy efficiently, making things, treating ourselves, recording things, and doing work.
A lot of farmers depend on fertilizer and modern machines to grow things. From the WorldBank website Figure 2, fertilizer consumption in the world clearly shows an increasing trend over years. Pesticide usage increased by 3300 % from 1945. This graph shows kilograms of fertilizer per arable land. In 2020 fertilizer consumption reached 141,6 kilograms. This means that fertilizer consumption increased while arable land stays the same. This is due to the decreased mineral content of the soil due to the same procedures. However, there is a way that nature found many years ago. Monoculture can ruin a piece of land and decrease crop yields due to decreasing mineral content in the soil. Due to decreased content, more and more fertilizer is used on the soil. This creates positive feedback and more and more fertilizer gets mixed with groundwater and pollutes our soil. “The Land Institute” [2] was founded by Wes Jackson in 1976 as a non-profit foundation. Its sole purpose is to create a school based on sustainable life applications. Their goal is to create a perennial crop that acts as a meadow and seed efficiency which is comparable to wheat etc. Creating a meadow is their first goal. Meadow is a community that refreshes every year. Every year some plants die and are fertilizers for new and old ones. Meadow can act as a shelter for bottom plants and supply the much-needed water to plants as efficiently. Meadow has a very big variety of plants. This is the opposite of monoculture. And polyculture is the best defense for pest control. Many pests specialize in one specific plant. When they encounter with polyculture garden, they slog to find the right plant. Japan’s “do nothing” agriculture form and solution proposed by “The Land Institute” [3] offers new solutions to people who want to hear.
Janine et al. in their book “Biomimicry” [2] created a chant to nature;
· Nature uses sunlight
· Nature only uses not more than the necessary energy
· Nature fits the form to functionality
· Nature transforms everything
· Nature reward cooperation
· Nature wants local specialism
· Nature gets rid of inside excesses
· Nature benefits from the limit of her power
According to this chant, Nature can be seen as level in everything and not using an excess of anything. I think this is the extreme of nature-loving. Firstly, this is the personification of nature which we must avoid. The game “The Last of Us” and adapted tv series show the Cordyceps fungus which turns humans into zombies. This is based on a real fungus that turns ants into real zombies by affecting their nervous system on the inside. Cancer is cancer caused by our nature. Cells that do not die at the given time, be cancerous and sometimes infect other cells in the environment. This is also nature. Nature has a dark side also, it is mostly “the survival of the fittest”. This kind of attack-defense positive feedback mechanism becomes the right teacher for us to learn. Nature can be sometimes cruel and relentless but we must not be. As always, we must take the correct and useful sides and use them for humanity’s benefit.
The energy sector is a big polluter sector of the world. To achieve our climate change goals, the energy sector must be fixed and carbon emissions must be significantly decreased. There are many solutions proposed in the literature on this problem. Hydrogen fuel cells, solar panels, wind turbines, biodiesel, etc. However, there is promising biomimetic innovation. Artificial photosynthesis. Artificial photosynthesis is one of the solutions proposed by Janine et al. [2] for the energy crisis and cutting carbon emissions. She has a great way of showing photosynthesis and the working principle of artificial photosynthesis. Photosynthesis needs a receiver and a giver of the electron. To better understand the mechanism behind it, we must look at the inside of chlorophyll. To produce ATP and store energy, the chlorophyll must create a voltage difference between the inside and outside of the membrane. Light energy is converted to ATP to store inside the plant. To artificially create photosynthesis, the same voltage difference must be created by attaching molecules and bonding them. Because by a sequence of different molecules, an electron deficit creates a voltage difference on the different sides of the cell membrane. Electron deficit on the one hand molecules can create voltage differences on other hand by carrying electrons and moving away from their parent molecule. For this to happen two, three, or five molecules can be used (Dyads, Triads, and Pentads). It can be bonded by the sequence of (electron) Giver- Giver- Giver- Receiver- Receiver. This model is proposed by Gust and Moore et al. [6]. Gust and Moore et al. [6], state that the chemical structure of this sequence is composed of one carotene, a porphyrin molecule with zinc attached, and later a naphthoquinone and benzoquinone (C-PZn-P-Q-Q). The process creates a voltage difference between the first and last molecule by;
1. Light excites the PZn.
2. Energy transferred from PZn to P.
3. An electron is transferred from P to Q.
4. An electron is transferred from PZn to P.
5. An electron is transferred from C to P and from Q to Q.
This process creates a voltage difference between first the and last molecule, creating a medium required for photosynthesis. Although this is a big step for creating artificial photosynthesis, there is a long way ahead. And silicon-based solar panels achieved high efficiencies with lower costs. This can clog the improvement of artificial photosynthesis but is a good example of nature biomimicry.
To save our world, we must also change the way we create things. One example that creating glue with inspiration from the oyster. I worked on my graduate thesis on nanoparticle synthesis to be effective on cancer cells. I created nanoparticles via emulsion polymerization, in which monomers polymerize by creating an emulsion and encapsulating the monomer inside a micelle. Janine et al. surprisingly show that this process was copied from the European flat oyster [2] (Ostrea edulis). Oyster uses emulsion polymerization to produce polystyrene inside their shell to stick to rocks. Oyster needs a foamy structure to complete their stickiness. However, to create foams, one needs air to blow. This is hard for an oyster inside the water so nature finds her way to create foams from emulsion polymerization. Polystyrene is created by forming an emulsion inside it. “Micelles” created inside the oyster create a medium for polymerization. Emulsion polymerization is born from this procedure inside the oyster. With adding oil, water, and monomer. When monomers get close in a micelle, activation energy drops, and polymers start to form. When water-polymer emulsion forms inside the oyster, water is expelled. Expulsion creates the much-needed foams for stickiness.
Figure 4 shows the pharmaceutical Industry revenue versus years. In Figure 2, we can see that there is an increasing trend. This is caused by the various aspects of the world, corrupt doctors, and increased prescription of antidepressants and antibiotics. Increased usage of antibiotics also affected the bacteria to evolve and get better at defense to antibiotics. As more and more humans were prescribed unnecessary antibiotics and antidepressants, the pharmaceutical industry grew largely by revenue to 1162,84 billion dollars on January 2023. As always, nature has a solution for us. I don’t say we must chew Rubia Cordifolia leaves when we get a parasitic disease but some alternatives can be shown in the various monkeys and chimpanzees. Chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream national park were investigated highly by Richard Wrangham [2]. Janine states a story about the chimpanzees in Gombe Stream national park which was told by Richard [2]. A chimpanzee who was sick for a long time had begun to walk somewhere and Richard begin to follow it. After 20 minutes of the trial, the chimpanzee started to eat the Aspilia plant by picking and investigating them. Some leaves were discarded by chimpanzees due to unknown reasons. And some of them were squeezed under the tongue. Chimpanzee did not chew the leaf after holding it under his tongue and swallowed it with a sore face. They found exact leaves undigested on feces. After this behavior was observed in other chimpanzees, they investigated and found that this behavior was made in seasons that contain the most parasites. Also, they found tapeworms on the leaves on feces. Consequently, they found that Aspilia leaves are good for parasites and this was learned by chimpanzees.
Janine et al. [2] state that humans and some so-called “lower” animals are more capable of creating conversation and interaction in a complicated environment than computers. Humans are capable of creating new interactions within a complex environment and recognizing patterns. However, computers can do a lot more than just recognize patterns, they can extrapolate to unknown variables, and create the model with our formulas. In some parameters, humans can be more so-called “superior” to computers but recognize patterns and learning through examples, example of this is machine learning.
Janine et al. [2] state in her book, we come to a point where chaos and randomness will rule the World due to the increased usage of world resources. The argument that world resources are used to the end is irrefutable. However, I don’t think every scientist thinks according to this argument and bases their inventions on nature. Nature (as nature I mention animals, bacteria, etc.) became nature due to millions of years of evolution. Due to these long times, nature created various defense and attack mechanisms. We must be inspired by the nature however; the depletion of natural resources is not the only cause of it. Nature is a teacher that has prolonged experience. It created her weapons with many trial-error over millions of years, we have a teacher, a teacher that survived various explosions, and extinctions. This teacher cannot be found easily, we must investigate and contemplate it.
References
[1] AIRBUS, “Biomimicry: engineering in nature’s style,” AIRBUS, 28 01 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/news/2018-01-biomimicry-engineering-in-natures-style. [Accessed 29 01 2023].
[2] J. B. M., Biomimicry, Istanbul: Usturlab Eğitim Danışmanlık ve Organizasyon Ltd. Şti., 2022.
[3] T. L. Institute, “The Land Institute,” The Land Institute, [Online]. Available: https://landinstitute.org.
[4] WorldBank, “Fertilizer consumption (kilograms per hectare of arable land),” WorldBank, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.CON.FERT.ZS. [Accessed 31 01 2023].
[5] VOX, “The “zombie” fungus in The Last of Us, explained by a biologist,” VOX, 21 01 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/21/23561106/last-of-us-fungus-cordyceps-zombie-infect-humans. [Accessed 29 01 2023].
[6] T. A. Moore, A. Moore and D. Gust, “Mimicking photosynthetic solar energy transduction,” Accounts of Chemical Research, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 40–48, 2001.
[7] Statista, “Revenue,” Statista, 01 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/outlook/hmo/pharmaceuticals/worldwide#revenue. [Accessed 31 01 2023].
