Institute For The Future

Guardian on biomimicry

The Guardian has an article on British companies that are "rethinking major infrastructure projects using natural objects as their basis." They include:

 

• An "aero-generator turbine, now being laboratory tested before sea trials next year, mimics sycamore seeds that spin like propellers in the slightest breeze. Its twin arms could each be as tall as the Eiffel tower, and the structure could be moored like an oil platform in 450 feet of water."
• A desalination plant that lools like "a wall of glass and steel, uses simple evaporators and condensers to produce large quantities of fresh water. "The inspiration came from the Namibian fog-basking beetle, which uses its shell as a condensing surface for moisture, which allows it to survive in the desert, said Mr [Martin] Pawlyn."

 

Oddly, the piece doesn't actually mention the names of the companies working on the projects-- so it's tantalizing yet weirdly vague.

 

This is emblematic of something I've noticed about reporting on biomimicry: it's very much in a kind of "gee whiz, isn't this interesting and unique" phase, with little sense that the individual cases any article is describing are part of a bigger set of intellectual developments.