Janine M. Benyus

Although this book was written in the 1990’s, its clarion call for innovation based on what natures tells us about systems and sustainability couldn’t be more timely or more relevant.

Since then we have lost 20 critical years preparing for the inevitability of climate change.

Much of the science described here has no doubt been overtaken by recent developments. CRISPR for sure has altered the landscape in bioengineering.

Still, the imperatives for design in our brave new world remain the show more same:

Does it run on sunlight?

Does it reward cooperation?

Does it bank on diversity?

What could be more elementary?

Kate Raworth in her more recent book “Donut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist” makes the salient point that our economies and innovation are pointing us in the wrong direction.

We are likely competing ourselves to extinction.

As I am now reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” I am learning that even biomimicry can lead to bigtime mistakes.

The introduction of some species of Asian carp to help clean dirty ponds in N. America has turned into an environmental nightmare.

Just one example of which, unfortunately, there are plenty more (Gulp!). show less

Biomimicry is such an interesting field with many cool innovations. This book was unfortunately not quite as exciting. I think it is a bit too anecdotal at times (like the chapter on farming was here is one place where they looked at natural systems and they did this. Here is another. And another. And yet another!) A lot of what this book talks about is technically more biomimicry adjacent - biomimicry is learning from and adapting things found in nature to improve human technology while a show more lot of this was things like considering the climate when choosing what to plant. Don't get me wrong, these concepts are important, I was just a little confused when a book about biomimicry started off with something that isn't biomimicry.

If you are interested in biomimicry I wouldn't tell you to not pick this book up, but be aware that it is quite old and simultaneously very broad and way too specific. I suspect that there are more recently published books that do a better job of talking about the topic. show less

If you love building but worry about the impact of the work on our planet, Biomimicry can fill you with hope for the future. Benyus is criticized for not getting all the technical details right as she covers a wide range of scientific subjects armed only with a Master's degree. Buit even those who try to take her down admit that Benyus is making an important subject more accessible to lay readers. By imitating nature (biomimicing), she reports, we can convert our production processes -- show more including design and construction of buildings -- so that they merge with rather than poison and disrupt the organic cycle. For example, she describes research on building coatings whose pigments are modeled on the chloroplasts in plants and that would produce the power for a building the coatings are applied to. show less

This is a gorgeous book, and a unique type of field guide which describes the various natural habitats in the eastern part of the United States (I think this is the East Coast edition, anyway). Discusses wildlife, plants, weather . . . really fascinating.