Ebook Download Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus
From currently, finding the completed website that markets the finished books will be many, however we are the relied on site to go to. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus with simple link, very easy download, and completed book collections become our excellent solutions to get. You can find and use the perks of picking this Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus as everything you do. Life is always establishing and you require some new book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus to be reference always.
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus
Ebook Download Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus
Visualize that you obtain such particular outstanding experience and understanding by just checking out an e-book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus. How can? It seems to be greater when a book can be the most effective thing to find. E-books now will certainly show up in printed and soft documents collection. One of them is this publication Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus It is so usual with the published books. Nonetheless, many individuals occasionally have no room to bring the publication for them; this is why they cannot check out guide anywhere they want.
Why ought to be this book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus to read? You will never ever obtain the expertise and encounter without obtaining by yourself there or attempting by yourself to do it. For this reason, reviewing this book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus is required. You could be great as well as proper sufficient to obtain exactly how crucial is reviewing this Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus Also you constantly check out by obligation, you can sustain yourself to have reading e-book habit. It will be so valuable and also enjoyable after that.
Yet, just how is the means to obtain this e-book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus Still confused? It matters not. You could enjoy reviewing this publication Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus by on the internet or soft file. Merely download the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus in the web link provided to visit. You will get this Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus by online. After downloading and install, you can conserve the soft file in your computer or gizmo. So, it will alleviate you to review this book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus in specific time or location. It may be uncertain to delight in reviewing this book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus, due to the fact that you have lots of job. Yet, with this soft file, you can take pleasure in reading in the leisure also in the voids of your tasks in workplace.
Once again, reading habit will consistently provide valuable advantages for you. You could not have to spend sometimes to read guide Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus Just set apart a number of times in our extra or spare times while having meal or in your office to review. This Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus will certainly show you brand-new thing that you could do now. It will certainly aid you to enhance the quality of your life. Occasion it is just a fun publication Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, By Janine M. Benyus, you can be happier and also much more fun to delight in reading.
This profound and accessible book details how science is studying nature’s best ideas to solve our toughest 21st-century problems.
If chaos theory transformed our view of the universe, biomimicry is transforming our life on Earth. Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature – taking advantage of evolution’s 3.8 billion years of R&D since the first bacteria. Biomimics study nature’s best ideas: photosynthesis, brain power, and shells – and adapt them for human use. They are revolutionising how we invent, compute, heal ourselves, harness energy, repair the environment, and feed the world.
Science writer and lecturer Janine Benyus names and explains this phenomenon. She takes us into the lab and out in the field with cutting-edge researchers as they stir vats of proteins to unleash their computing power; analyse how electrons zipping around a leaf cell convert sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second; discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they’re sick; study the hardy prairie as a model for low-maintenance agriculture; and more.
- Sales Rank: #23648 in Books
- Published on: 2002-09-17
- Released on: 2002-09-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .72" w x 5.31" l, .54 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 308 pages
From Library Journal
Innovations, whether in farming, composite science, or computing, are a product of human creativity. Science writer Benyus (Beastly Behaviors, LJ 9/1/92) uses these subjects and others to demonstrate how nature's solutions to situations have been the creative jumping-off points for individuals seeking solutions, developing, or simply revitalizing processes or products. The first seven chapters are a prelude to the final chapter, which tackles industrial ecology. Here, Benyus proposes "ten lessons" that an ecologically astute company, culture, or economy could practice to promote a healthier existence for us all. There is no grandstanding, just readable language and a simple awe at human creativity and the uses to which it can be put. For popular science collections.?Michael D. Cramer, North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Health and Natural Resources Lib., Raleigh
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Forget the notion that technology improves upon nature. Benyus introduces us to pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs by uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels. These engineers are devising solar fuel cells as efficient as plants, fibers as tough as abalone shell, and computers as sophisticated as the brain. For Benyus, though, a technology that mirrors nature does more than enlarge human powers and gratify human ambitions. Such a technology teaches us how to live in harmony with nature, rather than how to dominate it. Unless we learn this urgent lesson, Benyus warns, our highly unnatural and exploitative technologies will soon render the earth unfit for life. Sobering yet hopeful, this book will bring help bridge the dangerous chasm between technophiles and environmentalists. Bryce Christensen
From Kirkus Reviews
The natural world, says Benyus (Beastly Behaviors), has an enormous amount to teach us, if only we would "tune in"--as some scientists are beginning to do--before it's too late. Touring the laboratories of a wide array of researchers, she reports on the emerging race to mimic natural processes (hence "biomimicry") in the business-driven quest for better products, environmentally sound technologies and miracle drugs. The scientists speak with palpable excitement, explaining the principles behind a utopian future of unlimited possibilities: energy harnessed by simple, non-toxic molecules modeled on the principles of photosynthesis, so efficient they put our best solar cells to shame; an organic computer, thousands of times faster and more powerful than that most advanced Pentium, that emulates the principles embodied in DNA; farms with abundant yields requiring virtually no pesticides, fertilizers, or "energy inputs," mimicking a natural ecosystem--and more. Benyus's shotgun approach can be disorienting, but the possible breakthroughs, the technologies behind them and the scientists themselves are invariably fascinating. And Benyus's observations are engaging as well, bringing to her tech-oriented subject a non-didactic moral framework and an invigorating sense of wonder: "By deliberately looking for creatures that awe us, we may just stumble upon a whole new chemistry--the spoils of survival." (June)
Most helpful customer reviews
144 of 155 people found the following review helpful.
Learning from the Genius of Nature
By J.W.K
Before even reviewing the book, it seems as though I must explain its raison de'etre; for some negative reviews disclaim the very import of looking to nature as a model for life. For starters, nature runs on sunlight and creates no waste. To me, this alone is reason enough to mimic nature, since our profligate energy use has caused a global eco-crisis. Not only does the combustion of fossil fuels pollute the air breathe (leading to some 3 million deaths from air pollution annually according to the WHO), but it also floods the atmosphere with CO2, leading culprit in the greenhouse effect. Moreover, being that the supply of crude oil is finite, the very foundation of our economy will one day run dry. Nature, on the other hand, runs on the unlimited bounty of sunlight. Unlimited clean energy is just one example of the genius of nature which author Benyus points out in this book.
Nature does many other wonderful things we would do well to learn from. Arctic fish and frogs freeze solid and then spring to life, having protected their organs from ice damage. Black bears hibernate all winter without poisoning themselves on their urea, while their polar cousins stay active with a coat of transparent hollow hairs covering their skins like the panes of a greenhouse. Chameleons and cuttlefish hide without moving, changing the pattern of their skin to instantly blend with their surroundings. Bees, turtles, and birds navigate without maps, while whales and penguins dive without scuba gear. How do they do it? How do dragonflies outmaneuver our best helicopters? How do hummingbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico on less than one tenth of an ounce of fuel? How do ants carry the equivalent of hundreds of pounds in a dead heat through the jungle? How do muscles attach to rock in a wet environment? The answers to these questions may seem like trivia to non-expert, but "The difference between what life needs to do and what we need to do is another one of those boundaries that doesn't exist. Beyond mattes of scale, the differences dissolve."
Like every other creature, humans cause a lot of commotion in the biosphere: creating, moving, and consuming. But our species is the only one that creates more waste than nature can safely and efficiently recycle. Ours is only one that ignores ecological limits, exceeds the carrying capacity of the land, and consumes more energy than nature can provide. The ideology that allowed us to expand beyond our limits was that the world -- never-ending in its bounty -- was put here exclusively for our use. But after the topsoil blows away, the oceans go lifeless, the oil wells go dry, and the air and water we depend on are utterly fouled, what will we do? Will we be able to survive? Unlike the impact of a car, is crisis is cumulative. The mounting effects of this ideology are rising temperatures, decreasing grain yields, rising cancer rates, falling fish harvests, dwindling forests, worsening air pollution, and rising oil and water prices. A most resilient creature, I believe we (or some of us) will survive this ecololgical "bottle-neck" squeeze, to use Harvard scientist E.O. Wilson's phrase. But the questions this book seeks to answer is, can we flourish?
As mentioned by other reviewers, some parts were overly technical. However, much of it is written with the layperson in mind. Moreover, the book is rich in philosophy, like that of Wes Jackson, Bill Mollison, Masanobu Fukuoka, and writers Thomas and Wendell Berry (unrelated). And the main point of the book is simple enough for a child to understand. Does it run on sunlight? Does it use only the energy it needs? Does it fit form to function? Does it recycle everything? Does it reward cooperation? Does it bank on diversity? Does it utilize local expertise? Does it curb excess from within? Does it tap the power of limits? And is it beautiful? In order to right our wasteful and dangerously dysfunctional relationship with nature, these ten questions should serve as guiding principles for design and human interaction.
Although some of the science is now dated (e.g., hydrogen fuel cells are now a reality), this book will remain pregnant with philosophical and practical insights for years to come. It is far, far ahead of the times. My only criticism is that, much of the scientific history and intrastructure this book depends on actually helped create the eco-predicament we currently find ourselves in. The labratories she visits (not to mention the cars she uses to visit them) are not exactly eco-friendly. In other words, the author supposes more technology and "progres" will eventually help us out of this predicament.
This book is a landmark - and one hell of a good read. Dssential for anyone interested business, philosophy, ecology, science or engineering. And when combined with other books, like Lester Brown's ECO-ECONOMY, David Korten's WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD, Paul Hawkins' NATURAL CAPITALSIM, Hildur Jackson and Karen Svensson's ECOVILLAGE LIVING, and perhaps something on eco-education, it would fit well into my dream eco-philosophy course. Unfortunately, I'm not a teacher and very few universities have funding for such programs anyway.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Christopher Patterson
Great book, and a must read for anyone interested in preserving the environment
76 of 80 people found the following review helpful.
Set cynicism aside, and hope can arise....
By Kenneth J. Hausle
Let me begin by saying I have a BS in chemical engineering and an MSPH in environmental engineering, so I am not some sort of uneducated, naive, "new-age" dreamer, who has no concept of what is practical and what is not. Morover, I have now worked for over 16 years at various industrial facilities (chemical, textile, and other manufacturing) as a process engineer and an environmental consultant. I've seen what's out there in the industrial landscape.
With that said this is simply the BEST non-fiction book I have ever read. It is chock full of fascinating "earth-friendly" ideas that are simply crying out to be implemented. It is written in a very "personal" tone, which I believe amplifies the book's message. In fact, don't let this tone make you think the book's technical depth is lacking. On the contrary, this book delves into some very complex concepts, but does so in a manner that a non-technical person can follow.
For those areas where I have specific knowledge (such as elements within industry who actually WANT to comply with all environmental requirements and WANT be "GREEN"), the author is on target and displays an excellent grasp of what's going on. Thus, for those ideas and concepts in the book that were new to me, I have no reason to beleive that the same does not hold true.
As long as you are able to set asise the cynicism that seems to have risen to such high levels nowadays, this book will make you THINK about better ways of doing things. Just two simple examples include: (1) Designing a perennial "community" for agriculture mimicking the natural plant community that otherwise would be there, rather than planting a non-diverse, single species, requiring annual reseeding, fertilization, insecticides, herbicides, etc.; and (2) Developing industrial processes that mimic what nature has already evolved over millions of years (i.e. photosynthesis) rather than relying on the old-style of "heat, treat, and beat" to make the various products and materials that we now are so reliant upon.
This books speaks to the incredible and imperative need of the "human species" to transform beyond the ideas of the industrial revolution into an ecologically-appreciative mindset that treasures the planet we ALL live upon. If you want a book that is well-written and full of practical ideas and solutions for the future, I heartily recommend Biomimicry by Janine M. Benyus.
See all 100 customer reviews...
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus PDF
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus EPub
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus Doc
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus iBooks
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus rtf
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus Mobipocket
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus Kindle
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus PDF
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus PDF
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus PDF
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus PDF
