The Business of Biomimicry
“…Biomimicry has only begun to explore its possibilities. Whether projects prove successful will depend on the ingenuity of scientists and the willingness of backers and investors to continue to support them. They had better be willing—billions of years of natural selection are a tough act to follow.”
John Greenwald
“Learning at Mother Nature’s Knee”
Fortune Magazine
August 22, 2005
“Tapping into 3.8 million years and some 10 million species for insight, companies as diverse as Boeing, Ford, General Electric, Herman Miller, HP, IBM, Kraft, Nike, and Patagonia are collaborating with the original source and welcoming biologists to the design table.”
Kate Rockwood
“Truly Intelligent Design”
Fast Company Magazine
October 2008
“In another hopeful sign, a world that long ignored energy efficiency is suddenly thinking of nothing else.”
John Markoff
“Nature Gave Him a Blueprint, but Not Overnight Success”
New York Times
June 8, 2008
“…the gap with nature is gradually closing. Researchers are using electron- and atomic-force microscopes, microtomography, and high-speed computers to peer ever deeper into nature's microscale and nanoscale secrets, and a growing array of advanced materials to mimic them more accurately than ever before.”
Tom Mueller
“Biomimetics: Design by Nature”
National Geographic Magazine
April 2008
“Natural designs, honed through millions of years of evolution, tend to be surprisingly efficient. Products built along those lines could replace the detritus of the first industrial age with cleaner, more elegant, and much more sustainable substitutes."
Ethan Watters
“Product Design, Nature’s Way”
Business 2.0 Magazine
June 2007
Inspired by Nature
Nature as model: Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature’s models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.
Nature as measure: Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the “rightness” of our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature has learned: What works. What is appropriate. What lasts.
Nature as mentor: Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but on what we can learn from it.
Janine Benyus
Biomimicry
PAX's Natural Inspiration
To learn more about the steps PAX takes to turn natural inspiration into innovative products, let PAX founder Jay Harman and PAX Streamline CEO John Webley be your guides in the “Inspired by Nature” segment of Brink, a television and web series aired on the Science Channel.