Biomimicry Design by Analogy to Biology

Page 1 Research-Technology Management ISSN: 0895-6308 (Print) 1930-0166 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/urtm20 Biomimicry: Design by Analogy to Biology Emily Barbara Kennedy To cite this article: Emily Barbara Kennedy (2017) Biomimicry: Design by Analogy to Biology, Research-Technology Management, 60:6, 51-56, DOI: 10.1080/08956308.2017.1373052 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2017.1373052 Copyright © 2017 Emily Barbara Kennedy. Published online: 31 Oct 2017. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 11696 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 11 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=urtm20 Page 2 RESOURCES Biomimicry: Design by Analogy to Biology Emily Barbara Kennedy The best ideas are often borrowed. For example, the Dyson vacuum was inspired by cyclone separators used in sawmills to remove sawdust from air, the STRiDA folding bike repurposes the mechanics of the collapsible Maclaren umbrella stroller, and a guitar pickup winder took inspiration from the Dazey Stripper, an electric fruit and vegetable peeler with a rotat - ing spindle. The practice of borrowing ideas from other domains to solve technical challenges is called design by analogy. It is a technique widely applied by innovators. Traditionally, analogous solutions are sourced from other industries, but a recent trend has practitioners of design by analogy looking to a more distant domain for solutions—biology. Design by analogy to biology, often called biomimicry, 1 is innovation through the emulation of biological forms, processes, patterns, and sys - tems. Biomimicry is motivated by an understanding of natural selection, a process through which advantageous traits are perpetuated as the best- adapted organisms tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than those with less effective adapta - tions. Over time, natural selection, responding to diverse and dynamic environments, has culled high- performing survival strategies, which are embodied in the 10 to 50 million enduring species with whom we share this planet. These time-tested strat - egies can be copied to address technical challenges. A best practice in design by analogy to industry is to consult industries that have higher stakes and more advanced technology than one’s own. In biology, the stakes are life or death and the R&D laboratory has been operating for 3.8 billion years— there are no higher stakes or more advanced research programs. Biomimicry has a deep history. Italian Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) created elaborate sketches of bird- and bat-inspired flying machines. French engineer Sir Marc Brunel (1769–1849) invented the caisson, a structure that enables underwater construction, after observ - ing the naval shipworm, a saltwater clam whose valves allow it to bore through wooden ships without being crushed when newly exposed layers of wood absorb ambient water and swell. While on a walk in the woods, Swiss engineer George de Mestral (1907–1990) noticed burrs sticking to his jacket. He looked at one of the burrs under a microscope and saw that the seed vessel had hook-like extremities that gripped the looped fibers of his outerwear. His discovery led to patenting of a novel hook-and-loop fastening system, the now ubiquitous VELCRO. Despite its deep history, biomimicry only recently gained popularity. The 1997 publication of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by naturalist Janine Benyus, propelled biomimicry into the mainstream. Since then, opportunities to pursue higher education in the emerging field have proliferated. The University of Akron (Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center), Arizona State University (Biomimicry Center), Georgia Institute of Technology (Center for Biologically Inspired Design), Harvard University (Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering), and the University of California, Berkeley (Center for Interdisciplinary Biological Inspiration in Education and Research) are all pioneering biomimicry research. The University of Akron program is standout for its high-level industry engagement. Companies sponsor fel - lowships for PhD students who receive interdisciplinary training in biology, design, engineering, and business while advancing biomimicry research initiatives aligned with corporate R&D goals. Professional training in biomimicry has also become more accessible, through organizations like Biomimicry 3.8, Great Lakes Bio - mimicry, and PatternFox Consulting. In a 2013 Bioinspiration & Biomimetics article, “The State of the Art in Biomimetics,” Nathan Lepora, Paul Verschure, and Tony Prescott report a 14-fold increase between 2000 and 2010 in the number of patents contain - ing variations of the word biomimicry; many of these patents have been com- mercialized. NBD Nano sells custom surface wettability solutions inspired by desert beetles, Interface sells non- directional carpet tiles inspired by forest floors, and Encyle delivers energy management solutions modeled after none defined In this space, we offer a series of summaries on key topics, with pointers to important resources, to keep you informed of new developments and help you expand your repertoire of tools and ideas. We welcome your contributions, in the form of suggestions for topics and of column submissions. DOI: 10.1080/08956308.2017.1373052 Copyright © 2017 Emily Barbara Kennedy. This is an Open Access article. Non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted. 1Also, biomimetics, biomimetic design, bio- inspiration, bio-inspired design, bionics, and bionik (in parts of Europe). Research-Technology Management .November—December 2017 j 51 Page 3 social insect communities. Books like The Shark’s Paintbrush, Bulletproof Feathers, and The Gecko’s Foot provide many more examples. Case studies help elucidate the process of biomimicry. Consider the story behind ORNILUX bird protection glass, a product of German glass manufacturer Arnold Glas. At least 100 million birds die in window colli - sions annually; migratory songbirds, already threated by overhunting and shrinking habitat, are disproportion - ately affected. In addition to posing a conservation problem, bird strikes also disrupt building occupants. To solve this problem, Arnold Glas borrowed an idea from orb-weaving spiders. These spiders spin their webs with UV-reflective silks. Birds can see UV, so they avoid colliding with orb webs—preserving the spider’s handi - work. Arnold Glas translated this strategy, innovating a UV-reflective, patterned glass coating that balances visibility to birds and transparency to people. The global uniqueness of the resulting product, ORNILUX, allowed the company to enter the North American market. Since launching in North America in 2010, ORNILUX has experienced consistent, year- over-year sales growth. The circumstances surrounding development of PureBond Hardwood Plywood provide another insightful case study. Most manmade glues per - form poorly on wet surfaces, but blue mussels effectively cling to wet rocks even while being pummeled by waves. They accomplish this with small adhesive byssal threads that contain DOPA—a modified amino acid that includes an organic compound that preferentially bonds with metal atoms present on the surface of most rocks. Inspired by this biological strategy, a team of researchers chemically modified soy protein, decorating it with DOPA-like compounds. The result was an adhesive comparable in terms of water resistance, shear strength, and durability to the best- known alternative, formaldehyde- based resins. Formaldehyde, though an effective adhesive, is a known carcinogen. Columbia Forest Products, North America’s largest manufacturer of quality hardwood plywood, invested funds to scale this nontoxic solution, which has the added benefits of creating less visible glue lines and requiring shorter cure times, for imple - mentation in its layered wood compo- sites. The PureBond Hardwood Plywood product line is now available at Home Depot locations nationwide. An article in the July–August 2016 issue of RTM offers a particularly detailed biomimicry case study. The article, authored by myself and Thomas Marting, documents the innovation of energy-efficient soap and sanitizer dispensers at GOJO Industries and compares the results of two approaches to front-end innovation (biomimicry and the more familiar intellectual property landscap - ing). In this case, biomimicry produced double the intellectual property and double the energy savings for just one-sixth the resource commitment as the more traditional approach. The fact that biomimicry produced more energy-efficient solution concepts is particularly noteworthy, given the growing importance of environmental sustainability among business man - agers and consumers alike. It makes IN PRINT Robert Allen, ed. 2010. Bulletproof Feathers: How Science Uses Nature’s Secrets to Design Cutting-Edge Technology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Janine M. Benyus. 1997. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. New York: Morrow. Peter Forbes. 2006. The Gecko’s Foot: How Scientists Are Taking a Leaf from Nature’s Book. London: Harper Perennial. Jay Harman. 2014. The Shark’s Paintbrush: Biomimicry and How Nature Is Inspiring Innovation. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press. Emily B. Kennedy, Derek J. Miller, and Peter H. Niewiarowski. (in press). Effect of industrial vs. biological analogies on creativity of business professionals. Creativity Research Journal. Emily B. Kennedy and Thomas A. Marting. 2016. Biomimicry: Streamlining the front end of innovation for environmentally sustainable products. Research- Technology Management 59(4): 40–48. Nathan F. Lepora, Paul Verschure, and Tony J. Prescott. 2013. The state of the art in biomimetics. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics 8(1): 013001. Jamal O. Wilson, David Rosen, Brent A. Nelson, and Jeanette Yen. 2010. The effects of biological examples in idea generation. Design Studies 31(2): 169–186. ONLINE Fermanian Business & Economic Institute. 2013. Bioinspiration: An Economic Progress Report. Point Loma Nazarene University. November. https://drive. google.com/file/d/0B8G4fuB2iZEEX1Mwd0xncVVoSWM/view Verne Harnish. 2017. 5 Trends to Ride in 2017. Fortune, March 17. http://fortune. com/2017/03/17/trends-business-career-benefits/ Biomimicry 3.8. 2013. Biomimicry DesignLens—Life’s Principles. https:// biomimicry.net/the-buzz/resources/biomimicry-designlens/ Cas Smith, Allison Bernett, Eleanor Sadik-Khan, Erika Hanson, and Chris Garvin. 2015. Tapping into Nature: The Future of Energy, Innovation, and Business. Terrapin Bright Green, March. https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/ tapping-nature/ 52 j Research-Technology Management Resources Page 4 sense that biological models would inspire more sustainable solutions; after all, life has sustained on this earth for over 3.8 billion years. Two primary design lessons from nature identified in Biomimicry 3.8’s Life’s Principles, a diagrammatic representation of overarching strategies utilized by most species on this planet, are to “Be Resource Efficient (Material and Energy)” and “Use Life-Friendly Chemistry.” When used as ideation stimulus, biological models can inspire solutions aligned with these principles. Other studies have also attempted to characterize the benefits of biomimi - cry. A 2010 Design Studies article by Jamal Wilson, David Rosen, Brent Nelson, and Jeanette Yen found expos- ure to biological examples during idea generation increased the novelty of design ideas without inhibiting variety, compared to engineered examples, which decreased variety. A forthcom - ing Creativity Research Journal article I coauthored with Derek Miller and Peter Niewiarowski corroborates this finding. The forthcoming study also finds that biological analogies tend to increase the elegance of concepts generated. Potential long-term impacts of biomimicry are quantified in a 2013 Fermanian Business & Economic Institute Report commissioned by the San Diego Zoo. Drawing on estimates of biomimicry’s penetration in various industries, the report predicts that by 2030, biomimicry could account for $425 billion in US GDP and $1.6 trillion in global GDP, and it could generate $50 billion savings associated with reduced resource depletion and lower CO 2 pollution. A 2015 report prepared by Terrapin Bright Green, while performing work contracted for and sponsored by NYSERDA, is another great resource for those seek - ing a big picture view of biomimicry’s potential. The report showcases the versatility of biomimicry, describing the radical solutions it has yielded in nine cross-sector areas: carbon, water, materials, energy storage and conversion, optics and photonics, thermoregulation, fluid dynamics, data and computing, and systems. Most recently, a Fortune blog entry named biomimicry among the top trends to ride in 2017. The author of the March 2017 post, Verne Harnish, argues, “If you’re not incorporating the most brilliant ideas from the nat - ural world into what you sell, you’re leaving money on the table.” R&D managers: the biomimicry wave is cresting. Have you mounted your surfboard or are you still lounging on the beach? Emily Barbara Kennedy is director of external relations for the University of Akron’s Biomimicry Research and Innov - ation Center, innovation services project manager and professional education work - shop instructor with Great Lakes Biomimi- cry, and CEO/co-founder of tech startup Hedgemon. ebkennedy22@gmail.com Reviews The Power of Onlyness Nilofer Merchant (New York, NY: Viking Press) Several years ago, I led a series of international workshops on quality in research, “Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma in R&D.” The workshops, which were presented under the auspices of the Quality Directors’ Network of the Industrial Research Institute (IRI), were produced by a team of R&D professionals and executives; the team came together voluntarily to learn, and help their colleagues learn, about implementing quantitative quality improvement principles in industrial R&D activities related to new product innovation. I led the planning efforts and moderated the first several workshops. What started as an information-gathering project for the network rapidly grew into an international workshop series attracting the participation of hundreds of people; ultimately, partici - pants represented companies account- ing for about 80 percent of the R&D spending among publicly traded firms on US-based stock exchanges. I can easily tell people what we did and how we did it, but until now I could not have convincingly explained why it had so much impact. The Power of Onlyness offers an answer by explaining why and how people voluntarily organize to accom - plish dauntingly large objectives. Nilofer Merchant has worked for and consulted to a number of large com - panies, including Apple and Autodesk, and she has personally launched more than 100 products with cumulative sales exceeding $18 billion. She is ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s leading thinkers, and she clearly knows how to engage others. Her TED talk, “Sitting is the Smoking of Our Generation,” is in the top 10 percent of all TED talks in terms of number of views. In The Power of Onlyness, Merchant describes how a shared purpose engages and motivates the best in people in ways that neither money nor hierarchical organization alone can achieve. She offers examples drawn from both for-profit and not- for-profit organizations, showing how the increasing connectedness among people in today’s world can be used to convert just about any objective from a dream into a breakthrough that touches many lives. Merchant’s insights will help you think differently about how you manage teams of people on difficult, complex initiatives and projects, whether the complexities are technical, interpersonal, or organizational. Merchant argues that individuals can now exert sufficient power through informal networks to catalyze major economic and social changes— and that new capability has real implications for how big movements happen. People can communicate independently via networks more easily than ever before, which demon - strably changes the rules of power and influence. That change brings both challenge and benefit. The benefit and the challenge emanate from the same central principle—formal author - ity is no longer required to rapidly mobilize substantial resources in sup - port of an objective. The benefit: the cost and time required to plan and implement con- structive change may be substantially reduced. For R&D managers, this Resources November—December 2017 j 53 Page 5 would mean a reduction in the cost and time needed to produce a radical innovation. The challenge: possession of or control over resources may not be the critical determinant in whether something gets done; people need a sense of purpose to motivate their participation and contribution. Give some thought to this as you read the book: to accelerate radical innovation, formal, conventional managerial authority may not be sufficient. This trend has clear implications for companies seeking to bring new products to market. For R&D leaders, it suggests a new approach to managing projects and engaging teams. Merchant’s discussion points toward the tools needed to nurture promising projects, allowing them to grow to the point where they can have beneficial impact. Reading the book, you will learn how what I like to call “coalitions of the willing” are built and sustained to achieve things no one member of the group could accomplish alone. You will learn how to shape goals to place the focus on overarching purposes. You will see how socioeconomic frameworks change as a result of people working together without the benefit (or con - strictions) of formal association or shared employment. By reflecting on the various examples Merchant pro - vides, you’ll also see how that impact can be scaled up to a department, a division, or an entire company. For me, the best thing about The Power of Onlyness is that it gives name, form, vocabulary, and context to a soft skills phenomenon: how one can use the increasing connectedness of today’s world to achieve just about any pur - poseful objective without needing for- mal power or authority to do so. This is the attribute Merchant calls “only - ness.” Technical managers need to real- ize, the sooner the better, that the soft skills associated with onlyness—the ability to influence people over whom they have no formal authority—are in fact the hard skills required to leverage and extend their technical expertise. Those who embody onlyness are compelling leaders, able to motivate others, even those beyond the organization’s traditional boundaries, to accomplish organizational objectives. The Power of Onlyness provides the know-how we need to understand, and access, the power of unaffiliated networks of people to create meaning - ful change. Albert Johnson is Principal of RTMC, a consulting firm that focuses on skill development for technical staff and the development and management of cross- institutional research partnerships. Albertj02@verizon.net Overcrowded: Designing Meaningful Products in a World Awash with Ideas Robert Verganti (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016) How do you distinguish your product in a crowded market place? How do you create loyal customers who love your product or service? Overcrowded argues that the key is embedding deep meaning in your product or service. Simply providing solutions to pro - blems does not distinguish a product, the book argues. Rather, it is meaning that leads customers to love your prod - uct or service. This is the central idea behind the book, written by Robert Verganti, who is the Professor of Leadership and Innovation at the Politecnico di Milano and the author of Design-Driven Innovations. “If you want to create products that people love, they must be meaningful and not just solve a problem,” Verganti argues. Lack of ideas is not a critical problem in industry, he goes on to say, but finding the most valuable ideas can be challenging unless those ideas can be related to the customer through the creation of meaning. The book offers a process for developing meaning in a product, beginning with the manager and ending with the customer. The book begins by defining meaning and exploring how it may be invested in a product or service. Mean - ing, Verganti says, is related to having a special importance or purpose; it is a sense of purpose that makes your life meaningful. Meaning can emerge from three types of purpose: utility, symbolic purpose, and emotional purpose. That meaning may be related to function but it is not equal to function. For example, the NEST thermostat acquires meaning for people because it contri - butes to their comfort in their homes. The Yankee Candle company creates meaning by making people feel that its products are part of a welcoming and warm living space. The author expends a lot of effort trying to build an understanding of meaning as it may be related to a product or service; at times, the effort feels labored and the explanations can be wordy. Verganti goes on to distinguish innovation of solutions and technolo - gies from innovation of meaning. Meaningful innovation, he demon - strates, results from an inside-out approach: it begins with the innov - ator, who must first find meaning in the product and then identify mean- ing for the customer through a series of interactive dialogues that generate constructive criticism. Further, com - panies must remain aware of how a product’s meaning changes after it enters the marketplace. For instance, digital imaging was once seen pri - marily as a substitute for film imaging, and it carried similar mean - ings. But the spread of mobile phones with powerful cameras, ubiquitous connection, and social media have provided the ability to share experi - ences as they happen, giving digital imaging a new, compelling set of meanings. The second part of the book out - lines the two central principles for developing meaning: the process must be inside-out, meaning that it starts inside the organization and moves out to the customer, and it must be guided by constructive criticism. Criti - cism for the purpose of developing meaning is a form of creative, analyt - ical feedback that examines the object’s deeper meaning. The art of criticism is needed to bring in diverse perspectives that challenge the under - lying hypothesis driving the develop- ment effort. At this point, the discussion again becomes a bit repeti - tive and at times lost in examples. The 54 j Research-Technology Management Resources Page 6 book does seem to break out of this mode in the discussion of the art of criticism, providing a clear, compelling discussion of what constructive criti - cism is in this context and how it may be generated. The third part of the book describes the process of developing new meaning, beginning with an internal vision and then moving outward to interact with other stake - holders to refine that meaning. This process is broken into five steps grouped into three phases. In the first phase, which Verganti has dubbed the Envisioning phase, the initial hypotheses about meaning are developed. This phase comprises Step 1, “Me,” in which an individual forms the first hypothesis of the pro - duct’s meaning. The individual charged with this first definition of meaning should be someone who enjoys reflecting on the why of things. In the second phase, Meaning Factory, the new meaning is interrogated and developed. This is accomplished in two steps: In Step 2, “Pair,” two individuals —the initial generator of meaning from Step 1 and another—initiate a dialogue around the proposed meaning. In Step 3, “Radical Circle,” a larger group is pulled into the discussion; in both steps, the aim is to examine new interpretations, considering the context of the solution and assumed life experiences of the customer. The third and final phase, the Interpreter’s Lab and Action, starts with Step 4, “Interpreters,” in which outsiders—interpreters—are brought into the process. Interpreters, who may be manufacturers or retailers (direct players), scholars or industry analysts (professionals), or journalists, artists, or priests (cultural inter - preters), bring different perspectives to bear in examining meaning, custo- mers, and markets. Interpreters may offer their inputs in either individual interviews or group discussions. The role of the interpreters is to challenge assumptions around what is meaning - ful to people; for that reason, it is critical to include a broad range of interpreters. The third phase ends with Step 5, “People,” in which more traditional product-testing methods are used to validate the hypotheses about meaning. The people of the title are generally customers or consumers, and the goal is to verify that the hypothesized meaning coincides with their sense of the meaning of a product. Overcrowded provides valuable insight into how new meaning and deeper customer values may be attrib - uted to products. The discussion is likely to be most useful to those in product management and possibly marketing, for whom it should provide an understanding of the importance of meaning and a process for developing it. John (Jack) James is a Technology Transfer Strategist at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. john.e.james@ nasa.gov Resources November—December 2017 j 55