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GreenBuild 2009: Dr. Dayna Baumeister

November 11

Re-Membering: the Patterns of Living Systems Design


School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Taryn Mead

November 24

The Role of Biomimicry in Design


HOK/Bill Valentine Lecture in Sustainable Design, Harvard: Janine Benyus

December 1

Borrowing Nature's Blueprints: Biomimicry and the Art of Well-Adapted Design


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Mainbar photos top to bottom: Mohamed Nazmi, Jens Petersen, BioPower Systems

November, 2009 The Biomimicry Institute Newsletter

Education Panel Generates Excitement Around Teaching Biomimicry

The Biomimicry Institute partnered with the San Diego Zoo in early October to host a Biomimicry Conference. Biomimicry educators Prasad Boradkar (Arizona State University, InnovationSpace), Marjan Eggermont (University of Calgary, Schulich School of Engineering), and Tom McKeag (University of California, Berkeley, and California College of the Arts) formed the education panel for this two-day conference. Panelists fielded questions from an engaged audience of 300 people about the challenges and opportunities they face when bringing biomimicry concepts and tools into their classrooms.

"It was an honor to moderate the education panel discussion at this event," says Cindy Gilbert, Director of University Education at the Institute. "The enthusiasm and commitment to adopting biomimicry concepts to drive sustainable innovation, from regional university classrooms to local businesses, was unmistakable."

Janine Benyus keynoted the conference, and several regional businesses and city officials were in attendance to discuss how biomimicry will shape opportunities of this future "green" city. To learn more, read postings on the Fast Company and Greener by Design blogs.


City Master Plan to Incorporate Ecological Standards

Brunei photoIf your city performed as effectively and fluidly as the native ecosystem, what would it look like? Recently, the Biomimicry Guild had the opportunity to help one community begin envisioning just such a city. The Guild was invited to participate in the development of a new master plan for the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), which is located in the small country of Brunei on the island of Borneo. Brunei, a biologically rich country that is proud of its natural heritage, is an ideal location to apply biomimicry at the landscape level. Taryn Mead, a Guild Biologist at the Design Table, met HOK's Hong Kong-based team of urban designers and affiliated engineers in Brunei to kick-off this nine-month project, and biomimicry received a warm welcome from the public, university, and government communities. Throughout the course of this project, Guild staff will be working with the design team to develop Ecological Performance Standards and ecological design guidelines that will be incorporated into the master plan for the city, which will serve as development policy for the next thirty years of development in BSB. For more information, read this article in The Brunei Times.


Thanks for your support!

As a young, small organization, we had no idea what to expect when we asked you for the first time for donations to support our work. So, it is with gratitude, pleasure, and enthusiasm that we thank those of you who responded, helping us raise a total of $5,700 within three weeks. We appreciate the financial support and take seriously our responsibility to use it well, but the votes of confidence and shared values behind your gifts mean a lot to all of us here at the Institute as well. Thank you so much!


Rocky Mountain Swarm

The Colorado Biomimicry Network is the newest fledgling hub in a growing network of regional biomimicry groups. The group's purpose "is to nurture, build, and support the Biomimicry movement in Colorado." For more on regional biomimicry groups, see our recent article on Locally Attuned Biomimics.


AskNature Featured Strategy: Mantis Shrimp

Mantis ShrimpThe eyes of mantis shrimp convert linearly polarized light to circularly polarized light using quarter-wave plates, a discovery that has important implications for the field of optics. This biological strategy could be emulated to improve optical devices or to create circular polarizing filters for cameras. Do you have other application suggestions? If so, add a comment to the AskNature mantis shrimp strategy page.


Biomimicry Research & Design News Roundup

Make Like a Leaf: Next-Gen Paint Could Strike Lotus Pose

Lotus leaves stay dry by using the natural vibrations of their environments to shake off water, and manmade materials should be able to mimic the water-repelling technique. Read more on Wired Science >

Butterfly Wings could Inspire More Powerful Solar Cells

Ultra-tiny structures that mimic the structure of butterfly wings could hold the secret to more powerful solar cells, according to researchers from the State University of Pennsylvania and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The researchers have developed a technique that recreates biological structures on a nano scale (one nanometre is equal to 0.000000001 metre). In nature, nano-sized structures give many insects their iridescent appearance, in which their colours appear metallic or seem to change depending on the viewing angle. The US and Spanish scientists have found a way to mimic such biostructures to develop devices with light-emitting properties. Read more on Greenbang or AlphaGalileo.

BioPower Systems Collaborates With City of San Francisco on Wave Energy Project

BioPower systemsAustralia's ocean energy company, BioPower Systems, [recently] announced that it had entered into a collaborative agreement with the City of San Francisco to investigate the generation of wave energy from the Pacific Ocean. Under the agreement, BioPower will work with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to assess the feasibility of a project located eight kilometres (five miles) off San Francisco's western beaches with a generating capacity of between 10MW and 100MW. The proposed Oceanside Wave Energy Project would consider installation of a wave farm using BioPower's modular wave energy system, bioWAVE. Read more on Reuters >

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