"Viewers will be...inspired by the implications that biomimicry has for a healthier world."
Alexis Karolides, AIA, Principal, Rocky Mountain Institute
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This two-part series is based on the acclaimed book, "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature", by Janine Benyus.
Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.
In the second program we visit biologists Herbert Waite at USC-Santa Barbara, and chemist Robin Garrell at UCLA, whose studies of mussels' adhesive capabilities reveal exciting models and possibilities for industry and medicine.
Mountain climber and materials scientist Peter Rieke's study of molluscs at Pacific NW Labs is leading to revolutionary designs for bone implants; while chemist Geoffrey Coats' work at Cornell mimicks the activities of a leaf to make a biodegradable plastic out of the most abundant waste product on our planet, carbon dioxide.
Materials scientist Jeffrey Brinker at Sandia Labs in New Mexico, is learning to make a faster microprocessor chip by mimicking one of the slowest moving creatures on the ocean's floor, the abalone.
As Janine Benyus says in her conclusion, "For a long time we thought we were better than nature. And now a lot of us think that we're worse than nature, and that everything we touch turns to soot. But we are nature. We want to be a part of and not apart from this genius that surrounds us, and biomimicry gives us a chance to do that."
The other title in the series is:
Biomicry - Part One - Using natural processes as the model for agriculture and business.
Grade Level: 7-12, College, Adult
US Release Date: 2003
Copyright Date: 2002
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-208-4
VHS ISBN: 1-56029-992-4
Reviews
"BIOMIMICRY is a profound way for a viewer to invest 90 minutes. They convincingly show the importance (and also the challenge) of changing our world view to be one that focuses on a dialogue with, and adopting the ways of, nature rather than one of domination and control." Professor Robert M. Goodman, PhD, Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Introduces a concept worthy of wide exploration in a world dazzled by the industrial artifacts around us...Over the millions of years, nature's life forms through natural selection have had to live with the constraints of the entropy law on a solar budget." Wes Jackson, The Land Institute
"Viewers of BIOMIMICRY: LEARNING FROM NATURE will be captivated by an insider's view of exciting current research, dazzled by the infinite possibilities open for exploration, and inspired by the implications that biomimicry has for a healthier world." Alexis Karolides, AIA, Principal, Rocky Mountain Institute
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