The Genius Behind the Ingenious — October 17th, 2008 by Biologic Staff
When evolutionary biologist Andrew Parker strolls through the vast collection of once-living specimens on display at the Natural History Museum in London, he sees “a treasure trove of brilliant design” [1]. If he’s right about that, then the current fascination with living designs among engineers should come as no surprise. The hot new field of biomimetics was born out of this fascination, fueled by the irresistible thought of translating some of these brilliant designs into lucrative technologies.
But are engineers really even needed for this? What if these technological advances could be had ‘on the cheap’, without any design expertise? A recent National Geographic article put it this way: If “every species, even those that have gone extinct, is a success story, optimized by millions of years of natural selection”, then “why not learn from what evolution has wrought?” [1] Indeed, why not?