The Biomimicry Revolution

The Biomimicry Revolution PDF Author: Henry Dicks
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231557639
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Modernity is founded on the belief that the world we build is a human invention, not a part of nature. The ecological consequences of this idea have been catastrophic. We have laid waste to natural ecosystems, replacing them with fundamentally unsustainable human designs. With time running out to address the environmental crises we have caused, our best path forward is to turn to nature for guidance. In this book, Henry Dicks explores the philosophical significance of a revolutionary approach to sustainable innovation: biomimicry. The term describes the application and adaptation of strategies found in nature to the development of artificial products and systems, such as passive cooling techniques modeled on termite mounds or solar cells modeled on leaves. Dicks argues that biomimicry, typically seen as just a design strategy, can also serve as the basis for a new environmental philosophy that radically alters how we understand and relate to the natural world. By showing how we can imitate, emulate, and learn from nature, biomimicry points us toward a genuinely sustainable way of inhabiting the earth. Rooted in philosophy, The Biomimicry Revolution has profound implications spanning the natural sciences, design, architecture, sustainability studies, science and technology studies, and the environmental humanities. It presents a sweeping reconception of what philosophy can be and offers a powerful new vision of terrestrial existence.

The Biomimicry Revolution

The Biomimicry Revolution PDF Author: Henry Dicks
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231557639
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 197

Get Book Here

Book Description
Modernity is founded on the belief that the world we build is a human invention, not a part of nature. The ecological consequences of this idea have been catastrophic. We have laid waste to natural ecosystems, replacing them with fundamentally unsustainable human designs. With time running out to address the environmental crises we have caused, our best path forward is to turn to nature for guidance. In this book, Henry Dicks explores the philosophical significance of a revolutionary approach to sustainable innovation: biomimicry. The term describes the application and adaptation of strategies found in nature to the development of artificial products and systems, such as passive cooling techniques modeled on termite mounds or solar cells modeled on leaves. Dicks argues that biomimicry, typically seen as just a design strategy, can also serve as the basis for a new environmental philosophy that radically alters how we understand and relate to the natural world. By showing how we can imitate, emulate, and learn from nature, biomimicry points us toward a genuinely sustainable way of inhabiting the earth. Rooted in philosophy, The Biomimicry Revolution has profound implications spanning the natural sciences, design, architecture, sustainability studies, science and technology studies, and the environmental humanities. It presents a sweeping reconception of what philosophy can be and offers a powerful new vision of terrestrial existence.

Biomimicry

Biomimicry PDF Author: Janine M. Benyus
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061958921
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Repackaged with a new afterword, this "valuable and entertaining" (New York Times Book Review) book explores how scientists are adapting nature's best ideas to solve tough 21st century problems. Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes readers into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; harness energy by examining how a leaf converts sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second; and many more examples. Composed of stories of vision and invention, personalities and pipe dreams, Biomimicry is must reading for anyone interested in the shape of our future.

The Shark's Paintbrush

The Shark's Paintbrush PDF Author: Jay Harman
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1857889312
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
The wave of the future has been around since the beginning of times: it's called Nature. Let inventor and entrepreneur Jay Harman introduce you to stunning solutions to some of the world's thorniest problems. Why does the bumblebee have better aerodynamics than a 747? How can copying a butterfly wing reduce the world's lighting energy bill by 80%? How will fleas' knees and bees' shoulders help scientists formulate a near-perfect rubber? Today an interdisciplinary and international group of scientists, inventors and engineers is turning to nature to innovate and find elegant solutions to human problems. The principle driving this transformation is called biomimicry, and Harman shares a wide range of examples of how we're borrowing from natural models to invent profitable, green solutions to pressing industrial challenges. Aimed at a business audience, aspiring entrepreneurs, environmentalists and general science readers, The Shark's Paintbrush reflects a force of change in the new global economy that does more than simply gratify human industrial ambition; it teaches us how to live in harmony with nature and opens bright opportunities for a better future.

Biomimicry in Architecture

Biomimicry in Architecture PDF Author: Michael Pawlyn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000701603
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
When searching for genuinely sustainable building design and technology - designs that go beyond conventional sustainability to be truly restorative - we often find that nature got there first. Over 3.5 billion years of natural history have evolved innumerable examples of forms, systems, and processes that can be applied to modern green design. For architects, urban designers and product designers, this new edition of Biomimicry in Architecture looks to the natural world to achieve radical increases in resource efficiency. Packed with case studies predicting future trends, this edition also contains updated and expanded chapters on structures, materials, waste, water, thermal control and energy, as well as an all-new chapter on light. An amazing sourcebook of extraordinary design solutions, Biomimicry in Architecture is a must-read for anyone preparing for the challenges of building a sustainable and restorative future.

Consumer Moral Leadership

Consumer Moral Leadership PDF Author: Sue L.T. McGregor
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9460911161
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
This book shares a collection of novel ways to re-conceptualize and envision the moral imperatives of consumption, thereby providing invigorating insights for future dialogue and intellectual and social action. It privileges a consumer moral leadership imperative, which augments the conventional management imperatives of sustainability, ethics, simplicity and environmental integrity. There are 13 chapters, including first-ever discussions of non-violent consumption, transdisciplinary consumption, consumer moral adulthood, integral informed consumption, conscious and mindful consumption, biomimicry informed consumption, and consumer moral leadership as a new intellectual construct. The book strives to intellectually and philosophically challenge and reframe the act, culture and ideology of consuming. The intent is to foster new hope that leads to differently informed activism and to provocative research, policy, entrepreneurial and educational initiatives that favour the human condition, the collective human family and interconnected integrity. This book strives to move consumers from managing for efficiency to leading for moral efficacy, the ability to use their existing moral capacities to deal with moral challenges in the marketplace. The very core of what it means to be a morally responsible member of the human family is challenged and re-framed through the lens of consumer moral leadership.

Nature as Measure

Nature as Measure PDF Author: Wes Jackson
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1582438935
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
An essential and timely collection of wise and compelling essays from one of the longtime leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement in America. Wes Jackson, “a well–known and admired advocate for sustainability especially as it relates to agriculture, has the rare ability to transform his convictions into captivating prose . . . Jackson’s thoughts are still as significant and profound as they were nearly 20 years ago” (Publishers Weekly) and can teach us many things about the land, soil, and conservation, but what most resonates is this: The ecosphere is self–regulating, and as often as we attempt to understand it, we are not its builders, and our manuals will often be faulty. The only responsible way to learn the nuances of the land is to study the soil and vegetation in their natural state and pass this knowledge on to future generations. “[A] small book rich in ideas” (The New York Times Book Review), Nature as Measure collects Jackson’s essays from Altars of Unhewn Stone and Becoming Native to This Place, presenting ideas of land conservation and education that are written from the point of view of a man who has practiced what he’s preached and proven that it is possible to partially restore much of the land that we’ve ravaged. Wes Jackson lays the foundation for a new farming economy, grounded in nature’s principles and located in dying small towns and rural communities. Exploding the tenets of industrial agriculture, Jackson seeks to integrate food production with nature in a way that sustains both. His longtime friend Wendell Berry provides an informative, contextual Introduction. “For those concerned about what will be left and how many billion will be starving in twenty years, this is a must read.” —Register of the Kentucky Historical Society “A good introduction to a thinker whose ideas on agriculture are radical both in their technical approach to food production as well as in terms of the economic, social, and cultural context within which it is practiced.” —Review of Radical Political Economics

Nature's Operating Instructions

Nature's Operating Instructions PDF Author: Ken Ausubel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781578050994
Category : Applied ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Archiving corn strains to guard against genetic pollution ... Coating chainsaw blades with mushroom spores to speed forest regeneration ... Growing crops that literally suck heavy metals out of damaged soil ... These are not utopian fantasies but proven strategies developed by experts who have discovered how to exploit the innate intelligence of living systems to create "true biotechnologies.” The Bioneers ("biological pioneers”) are a network of scientists, writers, economists, artists, and other leaders with practical and visionary solutions for our most pressing environmental and social challenges. Their annual conference draws global attention, and its most inspiring presentations become source material for books in the Bioneers series. In this volume, Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel gathers reports from leaders in the fields of biomimicry (mimicking nature to restore environments and transform production processes), "living technologies” that break down toxics biologically; and ecologically sound design for buildings and industries. These are set alongside essays by such writers as Paul Hawken, Terry Tempest Williams, and Michael Pollan that underscore the need to work in harmony with natural systems. Unlike corporatized genetic manipulation, the "true biotechnologies” explored here illuminate a future of hope by wedding human ingenuity to the wisdom of the wild.

The Sustainability Revolution

The Sustainability Revolution PDF Author: Andres R. Edwards
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 1550923250
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Sustainability has become a buzzword in the last decade, but its full meaning is complex, emerging from a range of different sectors. In practice, it has become the springboard for millions of individuals throughout the world who are forging the fastest and most profound social transformation of our time—the sustainability revolution. The Sustainability Revolution paints a picture of this largely unrecognized phenomenon from the point of view of five major sectors of society: Community (government and international institutions) Commerce (business) Resource extraction (forestry, farming, fisheries etc.) Ecological design (architecture, technology) Biosphere (conservation, biodiversity etc.) The book analyzes sustainability as defined by each of these sectors in terms of the principles, declarations and intentions that have emerged from conferences and publications, and which serve as guidelines for policy decisions and future activities. Common themes are then explored, including: An emphasis on stewardship The need for economic restructuring promoting no waste and equitable distribution An understanding and respect for the principles of nature The restoration of life forms An intergenerational perspective on solutions Concluding that these themes in turn represent a new set of values that define this paradigm shift, The Sustainability Revolution describes innovative sustainable projects and policies in Colombia, Brazil, India and the Netherlands and examines future trends. Complete with a useful resources list, this is the first book of its kind and will appeal to business and government policymakers, academics and all interested in sustainability.

Nature of Investing

Nature of Investing PDF Author: Katherine Collins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351861085
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
We are all investors. We invest our time, our energy, our money. We invest every single day, as citizens, as consumers, as businesspeople. At its core, investing involves connection, exchange, and mutual benefit. Lately, however, the primary, beneficial function of investing has been overshadowed by ever-more mechanized iterations of finance. We have created funds of funds, securitizations of securitizations, and entire firms whose business is based on harvesting the advantage of microseconds of trading speed. The Nature of Investing calls for a transformation of the investment process from the roots up. Drawing on the author's twenty-plus years of leadership experience in top investment firms, the book connects real-world finance with the field of biomimicry. Citing real-life examples and discussing principles from the natural world, The Nature of Investing shows how we can create an investment framework that is different from the mechanized one currently employed. Readers will discover an approach that re-aligns investing with the world it was originally meant to serve. An approach that values resiliency over rigidity and elegant simplicity over synthetic complexity. This is the true nature of investing.

Biomimicry for Materials, Design and Habitats

Biomimicry for Materials, Design and Habitats PDF Author: Marjan Eggermont
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128210540
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 591

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Book Description
Biomimicry for Materials, Design and Habitats: Innovations and Applications and is a survey of the recent work of recognized experts in a variety of fields who employ biomimicry and related paradigms to solve key problems of interest within design, science, technology, and society. Topics covered include innovations from biomimicry in materials, product design, architecture, and biological sciences. The book is a useful resource for educators, designers, researchers, engineers, and materials scientists, taking them from the theory behind biomimicry to real world applications. Living systems have evolved innovative solutions to challenges that humans face on a daily basis. Nonlinear multifunctional systems that have a symbiotic relationship with their environment are the domain of nature. Morphological solutions for buildings inspired by nature can be used for skins, surfaces, and structures to facilitate environmental adaptation of buildings to increase occupant comfort and reduce energy demands. Birds can teach us to produce novel structures, 3D printing can be informed by oysters and mussels, and mycelium may show us the way to fabricate new biocomposites in architecture. Therefore, it is in nature that we seek inspiration for the solutions to tomorrow's challenges. - Presents new directions in education and the various applications of biomimicry within industry, including bio-inspired entrepreneurship - Discusses the role of biomimicry in education, innovation, and product design - Covers applications in systems engineering and design, novel materials with applications in 3D printing, and bio-inspired architecture - Includes perspectives on sustainability detailing the role that bio-inspiration or biomimicry plays in sustainability