Biomimetics and You

I watched this documentary last night about Biomimetics. What the heck?! Yeah, you heard me say it: biomimetics. it's the study of nature to help deal with our problems and current design issues.

For example, how does a wolf stay warm in the winter? He has the human equivalent of a ushanka. Wait. Hold up. Scrap that. It's the other way around. We've developed something similar to what animals have and in this particular case--when we wear the animal equivalent of a fox fur hat, then quite frankly, we stay warm.

That's the general idea. But these weren't the topics of the documentary last night. The film-maker focused on other things like how sharks manage to keep swimming but use up very little energy. And Caribou also. How do they walk in the ice and snow and not sink? And another thing--tree frogs. How do they suction themselves to glass and yet, have the ability to ply their feet free. And since nature doesn't have wheels--no creature has wheels that is, how do bugs navigate difficult terrain? And how do we employ nature's smarts? These were the topics examined.