Have you ever been awed by the delicate complexity of a spider’s web or the ideal functionality of a beehive? These stunning structures found in nature are not just aesthetically pleasing. They are also perfectly efficient, serving as inspirations for scientists and engineers who use their forms and structures as models for new, human-made “smart” materials.
In essence, biomimicry is a field that requisitions the design principles of the natural world to benefit the human condition.
What Does the Term “Biomimetic Materials” Refer to?
Materials are considered biomimetic if they imitate the structure, function, or design found in natural biological systems. The concept of biomimicry is straightforward: nature has already found the solution to a particular problem, so why not use this knowledge in our technology? Indeed, this strategy promises not only to solve scientific problems but also to yield the very thing that synthetic biologists yearn for: to create life-like, living materials. And unlike genetic- or protein-engineering methods used in synthetic biology, forming biomimetic structures does not require intricate knowledge of the biochemistry of the components involved.
Consider, for example, the ubiquitous Velcro. This simple item was largely inspired by the way tiny burrs stick to the fur of animals. If you’ve ever taken a walk in the woods and come home finding yourself covered with these burrs, then you know they’re a real cling-on with a strong propensity to attach to hair, fur, or even the wool of an old sweater. Indeed, it was precisely because they proved such an irritant on an old dog named Milka that Swiss engineer George de Mestral was moved in 1948 to study the structure of the burrs under a microscope for the first time.
Inspiration Drawn from Spider Silk
Biomimetic materials that gain their properties from spider silk are now almost as famous as their natural model. The silk that spiders use to spin their webs and that some types use to lower themselves from the top of a tree is a material that’s unique in many ways. And one way in which it’s unique is that it is famous for being not just strong but also stretchy. You may have heard a number of times that, pound for pound, certain types of spider silk are stronger than steel.
Try to think of something that is stronger than steel but as stretchy as rubber. This might sound like an impossible Clash of the Titans battle scene; however, undiscovered material may exist, a material