The Sincerest Form of Flattery

The “Sincerest Form Of Flattery” reading, by David Kupfer, was an interview with Janine Benyus about her views and opinions on the idea of design that imitates nature. The “design” of things and systems in nature are obviously naturally occurring, but these designs are true phenomenons and studying them in a genius way of creating and designing new products. I found Benyus’s example of a company wanting to design a new glue and looking to the way geckos adhere themselves to rocks underwater as inspiration in creating a non-toxic adhesive particularly interesting. Nature’s influence in designing and developing new products can create non-toxic, more earth-friendly alternatives in design. “Biomimicry” was a word I was not familiar with before reading this article, but after reading the definition, I realized I was familiar with examples of biomimicry in our world today. As we discussed one day in class, the new Sun Chips bags are now created from compostable, entirely plant based materials so that the bag itself can decompose instead of existing as plastic sitting in a landfill. The use of biodegarable materials to replace those which don’t naturally break down is undoubtedly an example of biomimicry because in nature, all waste is biodegradable.