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If chaos theory transformed our view of
the universe, biomimicry is transforming the way we live
on earth, literally enabling us to use the known world to
create a New World. Biomimicry is the quest for innovation
inspired by nature. Biomimics are scientists and inventors
who study nature's greatest achievements -- spider silk
and tall grass, seashells and brain cells, photosynthesis
and forests -- and adapt them for human use. Their findings
are revolutionizing how we invent, compute, heal ourselves,
harness energy, repair the environment, conduct business,
and feed the world.
Some of these breakthroughs have been featured
in national media. But until now, no one has explored this
emerging field in all its fascinating detail and assessed
its extraordinary implications for our lives. In Biomimicry,
science writer Janine M. Benyus names and explains this
phenomenon that has been unfolding in all the science disciplines.
She takes us into the lab and out into the field with the
maverick thinkers who are stirring vats of proteins to unleash
their signaling power in computers... analyzing how spiders
manufacture a waterproof fiber five times stronger than
steel... watching electrons zip and pop in a leaf cell,
converting simple sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a
second... discovering miracle drugs by noting what chimps
eat when they're sick... studying the hardy prairie as a
low-maintenance model for agriculture... and much more.
This is an absorbing account of vision and
invention; personalities and pipe dreams; products on the
assembly line and those still simmering in a scientist's
mind. The products of biomimicry are things we can all use
-- miracle medicines, "smart" computers, super-strong
materials, profitable and earth-friendly business,
and more. The answers to our most pressing survival questions
are out there in nature, poemlike in their elegance and
economy. Anyone interested in the shape of our future will
discover in Biomimicry where the most exciting revelations
lie -- literally all around us.
Janine M. Benyus is the author of four
books in the life sciences, including Beastly Behaviors:
A Watcher's Guide to How Animals Act and Why. A graduate
of Rutgers with degrees in forestry and writing, she lectures
on science topics. She lives in the mountains of western
Montana.
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