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Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature


by Janine M. Benyus

List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 4899
Studio: Harper Perennial
Binding: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: September 01, 2002
Publisher: Harper Perennial


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description

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 (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 39 reviews)

Biomimicry - innovation inspired by nature  
have as yet not read the book but will within the next few weeks as I travel abroad and have some quality time while traveling. Thank you for asking, Jan
August 07, 2008

Nature Revelation  
This book is an exellent read that provides insightful commentary on the work of several leading scientists and communities. Our understanding of current industralized communities is explored, and the effects on nature are considered. Alternative solutions in various fields are investigated that allow people from all walks of life to connect with the messages in the book. The topics are structured in a easy to read and logical fashion that leads you through the discussion of redesigning our solutions for food, energy, materials, computing, bio-diversity, recycling, industry and co-habitation with nature in educative and highly engaging tone.

I love Janine's prose as it engenders a rich connection with nature, and the hope that we can change our systems towards a sustainable future. This book is an essential read for each one of us, and we can all learn to appreciate the true value of bio-diversity, and of conserving as much of it as we can, in its truest, unmaligned form.

I've been able to consider how I lead my life and the materials I am dependent upon. I hope to change my habits to better conserve the precious gifts that Nature has provided. I've come to appreciate the roots of our immense knowledge and lessons continually being learnt from Nature, and hope that we can continue to utilise this to create a happier future for generations to come.
May 01, 2008

First impression  
I'm still reading through, but I was expecting less theory and more practical features/examples. I already had the general background and needed a methodology to put into practice. So far I haven't found it.
March 24, 2008

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.
October 22, 2007

Never really used it.  
I had no need for it in my class so I did not use it.
September 27, 2007


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