Nature Shapes Progress

In the case of problem-based bionics, the first step is the formulation of a problem and a subsequent search for analogies in the world of nature – these are then utilized as the starting point for new technologies. An example of this are winglets, the upturned tips of aircraft wings that reduce drag in flight. The role-model for these was found in the wing structures of large soaring birds such as storks – here, feathers at the wingtips are arranged in such a way as to reduce lift-induced drag arising from vortices at the wingtip by splitting the vortex into numerous smaller vortices. The translation of this basic principle into terms of applied engineering resulted in the winglets of modern aircraft.

In the case of solution-based bionics, results from fundamental biological research sometimes create the foundations for completely new and unexpected developments. In this area, science is driven by boundless curiosity. Potential commercial exploitation of the results is a secondary consideration. An example of solution-based bionics is the discovery of the lotus effect. Today, companies like STO utilize this effect in their self-cleaning facade paints – which shows how a technical innovation can be created on the basis of fundamental research.

Bionics provides us with various approaches for arriving at a solution – above all, however, it shows us environmentally friendly and sustainable materials and structures. For example, there are ferns that change color (Selaginella wildenowii), algae that produce glass, and bacteria that can create magnets. Decrypting these mechanisms would not only lead to environmentally friendly and local production of materials, but would also allow us to lend them form and functional structures. This means that materials could be constructed in such a way as to maintain their function only as long as they are needed. After this, the basic materials of old devices ‘recycle’ themselves into new materials. In this way, what was once a computer could become a washing machine, which, in its next renaissance, could be a van. Thanks to bionics, algae and bacteria could well be role-models for environmentally friendly alternatives to computers and cell phones – from Ille Gebeshuber’s point of view, an ideal situation.