"One of the biggest myths," says Janine Benyus, "is that we don’t belong here."
Benyus, a biologist, author, and self-described mountain person, is one of the world’s leading authorities on Biomimicry, a science that studies natures’ models and processes and then uses the findings to solve human problems.
She was at Maurice Young Millennium Place on Feb. 19, as part of the Whistler Sustainability Initative’s Leadership Through Sustainable Innovation speaker series, discussing her research and how it relates to Whistler and the world as a whole.
According to Benyus, our problem is not that we’re no longer part of nature, but that we take environmentally destructive short-cuts to solve our problems rather than sustainable routes patterned after nature. Our world was actually made for us by organisms that turned toxic gas into air, rock into soil, acidic water into water, and sunlight into food.
If the 3.8 billion years that there has been life on this earth were squeezed into a day, human life would only really have appeared within the last 15 minutes. Unlike species who have learned to live "gracefully and sensibly in this place," we are still evolving towards a point where we can exist within the environment "for the long haul."
Because it’s still a new field, there are few working examples of Biomimicry in practice. Solar cells are loosely based on plants using the sun to generate energy. Velcro is based on burrs.
All of that is changing as engineers who design our products are starting to realize how we can use nature as a superior alternative to traditional industrial processes. Major companies are starting to take the science of Biomimicry seriously.
Benyus gave dozens of examples of organisms that have come up with better ways to do things.
One example is the pores on a plant leaf that open and close to absorb and hold humidity. There is a potential to develop walls that can do the same, regulating humidity and collecting water.
Banana slugs produce a non-toxic and biodegradable mucous that can absorb 15,000 times its own weight in water instantly, or dry as a powerful adhesive. Potentially you can make surgical stitches out of a similar material.
The Sea Star has evolved with perfectly spherical lenses on the tips of its arms that it uses to detect light. Theses lenses are rounder than anything engineers can create in a laboratory. AT&T is trying to figure out how they form such perfect lenses at ocean temperature, in salt water, so they can mimic the process for computer optics technology.
Rhino horns are self-healing, which is a mystery because there are no living cells in the horn whatsoever. If scientists can figure out how this works, we may be able to build self-mending materials.
The Namibian Beetle has tiny water-loving spines on its back that attract the dew as it stands on its head in the morning. Water droplets form on the spines and run down smooth canals towards the insects mouth. This process has already been adapted for use in tents to collect fresh water for desert campers.
Butterflies have scales that act as manifolds that both collect and disperse heat, keeping it warm enough to fly, but not too hot at the same time. A similar technology is now being used in the computer industry to cool microchips.
Hummingbirds are not only amazing flyers, they also cross-pollinate flowers as they collect nectar. This ensures that the flowers will multiply for future generations of hummingbirds.
"Hummingbirds are the poster child for sustainability," says Benyus.
The goal of sustainability is to have zero net impact on the planet by giving back as much as we take in our lifetimes, or by not taking any more than nature can replace.
Lotus leafs are also models for self-cleaning. To keep dust from collecting and hindering their ability to collect sunlight and breathe, lotus leafs are naturally bumpy and slope downwards. When rainwater or dew collects on the leaf, it doesn’t bead off the surface but tumble, collecting dust on the way down.
This model has been adapted for a number of products, from the interior of pipes that are prone to clogs, to the self-cleaning exterior paints.
Despite the fact that they’re in the desert, termite mounds are always 87 degrees Farenheit. They are cooled by wet mud at the core and holes through the mounds’ side that allow air to flow through. This creates the ideal conditions for the fungus that they grow in the core of the mound. The design has since been borrowed by architects, making the inclusion of air conditioning unnecessary.
The list of useful examples goes on, including sea anemone shells, spider silk, varieties of brown birds that appear blue, fire-resistant pine trees, and prairie vegetation.
Once these characteristics have been identified, the next step isn’t to harvest slugs or sea stars, but to find out how these organisms do what they do so we can attempt to mimic their actions under similar conditions. One company is making clear, incredibly strong glass using the same basic process that anemones make their shells.
Our traditional process for creating the materials is to heat, beat and treat, and 94 per cent of our efforts end up as waste. Natural systems are basically 100 per cent efficient, and generally occur at normal temperature using water, amino acids, proteins, and sometimes some more advanced chemistry and physics that have been "learned" through natural selection.
Whistler’s challenge in becoming sustainable, according to Benyus, is to see how nature functions in this kind of alpine area when left alone, and to model our lives in the mountains as much as we can based on what we learn.
For example, alpine areas tend to be a mix of vegetation, with sturdier trees and bushes growing on the windward side, and other less robust vegetation hiding behind. The same thing could be accomplished in planning housing developments which would lower heating costs by reducing wind exposure.
The next step for Benyus’ Biomimicry organization is to lobby to have biologists included at the design table, and to build a free nature’s solutions database that all engineers and designers can access for ideas and inspiration.
For more information on Biomimicry, you can visit Benyus’ organization at www.biomimicry .org.
For more information on The Natural Step, or Whistler’s Sustainability Initatiative, ‘Whistler. It’s Our Nature’ visit www.whistleritsournature.ca.
