Prime Time Replay:
Janine Benyus
on her book Biomimicry: Innovation
Inspired by Nature
MsgId: *infinities(59)
Date: Sun Aug 24 20:55:09 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
Hello, I'm Sherry Baker . Welcome to OMNI's "Infinities"...We humans far too frequently think of ourselves as the only Earthlings capable of stupendous achievements. But my guest tonight, science writer Janine Benyus, says other life forms on this planet have already worked out the answers to complicated problems that humans are still struggling to solve....
Instead of what we've done in the past -- extracting and using nature, damn the consequences -- Janine says there's a growing maverick field of science that now seeks to be informed and inspired by nature's incredible achievements, some of which have lasted 3.8 billion years...
She explains and names this field in her new book, "Biomimicry." Welcome Janine. Could you explain the genesis of the word "biomimicry" and how you define it?
MsgId: *infinities(62)
Date: Sun Aug 24 20:57:10 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
Hi Sherry, Glad to be here. Biomimicry is a new science that seeks sustainable solutions by mimicking nature's designs and processes. An example is looking at a leaf to find a new kind of solar cell. This bio-based innovation is occuring in a number of different fields. When I decided to write a book about this new approach, I had to give it a name. Bio is greek for life, and mimesis is greek for imitate. Biomimicry is the conscious emulation of life's genius!
MsgId: *infinities(64)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:01:16 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
We may be having some tech difficulties here, so while we are waiting for Janine to reconnect, here's my understanding of biomimicry.....whoops... I started "talking" too soon. Glad to see you are there Janine. When people think about anything that is "inspired by nature", I don't think high tech immediately springs to mind. But you aren't talking about a touchy feeling back-to-nature- hippy-attitude. This is far more than "natural" living. You are talking about some very high technology from nature. The implications of understanding how electons zip through a leaf cell, converting simple sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a seconds or the secrets to how spiders manufacture a water proof fiber that's 5 times tougher than steel are pretty amazing. Can you give us some more examples?
MsgId: *infinities(67)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:05:38 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
Fertilizing and pest-resistent prairie. It would change our cropping system from a monoculture of annuals to a polyculture of perennials... In materials science we are trying to weave fibers like a spider, cure adhesive underwater like a mussel, and grow a crystal layer of super-tough ceramic like an abolone...(The refresh is faster than I am!). A cell computes using 3-dimensional molecules, like proteins, that jigsaw together, using self-assembly to fall to a solution...
MsgId: *infinities(71)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:11:29 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
Janine -- try hitting the "pause before typing" and then type your message and then hit addit... hope that helps !
MsgId: *infinities(72)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:13:57 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
Thanks Sherry. Biocomputing researchers are trying out this shape-matching to give our computers better "senses." In the solar energy field, we're building molecules that absorb light like a leaf does, and then separate a positive and negative charge, to create a very tiny solar battery... In materials science, we are trying to weave fibers like a spider, using renewable materials, very little energy inputs, and no toxic byproducts...
MsgId: *infinities(74)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:17:26 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
In your book, "Biomimicry", you talk about one of the most likely applications on the horizon being a "marriage that's hard to picture: technology mimicked from the world's most ancient organisms breathing life into a brand-new generations of computers". These would be organic-cilicon hybrids, sporting switches as big as a molecue that you say will make "Pentium PCs seem as plodding as the vacuum-tubed ENIAC from the fifties..." When we get frustrated with some of this software, that possibility seems pretty thrilling!!!
MsgId: *infinities(75)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:17:29 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
We're also trying to mimic the mother-of pearl lining that the abalone creates. It's twice as tough as our best man-made ceramic...
MsgId: *infinities(76)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:19:42 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
Needless to say, i meant to type " organic-silicon" hybrids.. and excuse me for interupting!
MsgId: *infinities(77)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:22:29 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
Let me respond to the computer question. Yes, what we've realized is that nature computes in a very different way than we do. Cells use the power of physics to recognize patterns. When a "message" comes to a cell, it is translated into a cascade of molecules that jigsaw together -- enzmes, antibodies all work this way. If we could use 3-d molecules floating in solution -- a computer in a jar -- we could harness the incredible power of quantum scanning to do what would take a digital computer many millions of operations to do. The researchers see these 3-D biocomputers as the eyes and ears of a conventional computer--they would be much better at sensing and coding information.
MsgId: *infinities(78)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:24:12 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
Animals that are "lower" creatures may hold information about ways we might heal ourselves. That's a surprising concept. Could you tell us about the possibility that chimps may have medical knowledge, of a sort?
MsgId: *infinities(79)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:28:04 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
Animals are incredibly discriminating. From the thousands of plants in a jungle, for instance, they can put together a nourishing diet that doesn't poison them. However, when they are sick, they can choose a plant with drug properties -- toxins of a sort -- to medicate themselves. Researchers have been noticing this strange, self-medicating behavior for years, and the stories are now building to evidence. When we follow animals and sample the plants, we find them full of anti-bacterial properties, even anti-cancer properties. What this shows us is that animals can help us "screen" the jungle for drug plants.
MsgId: *infinities(80)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:30:58 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
This is, obviously, such a huge topic. And you've done a brilliant job in your book "Biomimicry" , bringing it all together. For people who haven't read your book yet, I want to emphasize that you are talking about a concept that goes far beyond observing what we can extract from nature.......The Scientific Revolution taught us, as Francis Bacon said to "torture nature for her secrets". Then, in the last couple of decades, there as been a turning toward the "greening" of the earth, recognizing our need to sustain and care for our planet and its ecology. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that biomimics are going beyond these ideas.... to use nature as a mentor. You propose we , in a sense, honor nature, work with nature. How do we learn nature's secrets without the "torture"? Is the key letting nature do the leading?
MsgId: *infinities(84)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:39:40 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
Biomimicry is seeing nature as model, measure and mentor. The model part is all the direct imitations -- growing food like a prairie, finding cures like a chimp, weaving fibers like a spider, computing like a cell, harnessing energy like a leaf and running a business like a redwood forest. The measure refers to how we use these technologies. If we use nature's example to judge the rightness of our innovations, it won't be a matter of torturing nature for her secrets so that we can control or circumvent her. We will instead do what the rest of life does: create conditions conducive to life...After 3.8 billion years of evolution, failures are fossils and we are surrounded by organism that have learned what works, what fits, and what lasts here on earth. The more our world looks and functions like the natural world, the more apt we are to fit in here on Earth. The real measure of our innovations should be--is there a precedent for this in nature? If not, there's probably a good reason it was edited out of the gene pool!
MsgId: *infinities(87)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:45:08 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
Biomimicry is model, mentor, and measure, then. On one hand, the concept of biomimicry seems good old common sense. On the other hand, it does seem , based on humankind's past, rather revolutionary!You say that "homo industrialis" has reached the limits of nature's tolerance and may disappear along with the other species he's bringing down -- from lady slippers to rhinos -- if we don't tune into nature. But your message is one of great hope. You truly believe that we can find instructions, keys on how to live sanely and sustainably on our planet ?
MsgId: *infinities(89)
Date: Sun Aug 24 21:49:58 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
But you know, a number of things had to conspire before we in western industrial culture came up for air and looked for a new approach. First, we had to realize that we are up against an environmental cliff. There are too many of us, and our habits are unsustainable, and the earth is having a harder and harder time adjusting to our activities. We have all this information telling us -- the emergency sirens are wailing. At the same time, 300 years of western science has yielded an incredible amount of information about how nature works her miracles...For the first time in history, we have the need and the capacity to mimic nature. It's the push and the pull towards biomimicry. DO I think we can find ways to live sustainably? Yes I do -- the instruction manual to living well on Earth has already been written. We now have the will to read it, and the means to translate it. What's revolutionary is that we are starting to do just that. After 300 years of western science, 300 years of systematically learning ABOUT nature, we are starting to learn FROM nature, and that changes everything...
In the six fields I wrote about in the book, the lessons from nature are amazingly consistent. Nature runs on sunlight, uses only the energy it needs, fits form to function, recycles everything, rewards cooperation, banks on diversity, demands local expertise, curbs excesses from within, and taps the power of limits. So whether you are trying to redesign fiber manufacturing, agriculture, or the economy, the lessons are pretty plainly written all around. Biomimicry goes beyond just theory, and rolls up its sleeves to learn not only what life does so beautifully, but how we can do a little of the same.
MsgId: *infinities(92)
Date: Sun Aug 24 22:03:04 EDT 1997
From: Sherry_Baker At: 207.69.227.30
Janine, it looks like we are out of time. I'm delighted we were finally able to get together for this edition of "Infinities". I admire your work as a writer and as a fellow Earthling -- "Biomimicry" is a blueprint for a hopeful, creative future.....Thank you for joining me tonight for "Infinities". My guest has been science writer Janine Benyus, author of "Biomimicry"(published by William Morrow). We'll leave you with a quote from Janine's book, attributed to Czech Republic president Vaclav Havel: "We must draw our standards from the natural world. We must honor with the humility of the wise the bounds of the natural world and the mystery which lies beyond them...admitting that there is something in the order of being which evidently exceeds all our competence..." This is Sherry Baker. Goodnight.
MsgId: *infinities(96)
Date: Sun Aug 24 22:09:14 EDT 1997
From: Janine_Benyus At: 207.40.45.76
Thanks Sherry.
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