Earth's Frontiers

SHOW #5

Biomimicry

What would nature do? It's a question that scientists and engineers are increasingly asking when faced with difficult challenges. It's known as biomimicry, or biologically-inspired engineering. Natural selection, by its very definition, has selected the most efficient and successful designs to thrive and survive. Now humans are trying to learn from the research nature has been perfecting for millions of years. Bridging the gap between science fiction and reality, biomimicry is a cutting-edge new science that aims to harness nature's best ideas and imitate these designs and processes to develop solutions to some of our toughest challenges, from structural design to measures to enabling paraplegics to walk again.