Biomimicry, the art and science of emulating nature’s time-tested designs and processes, holds the promise of a sustainable future where human inventions harmonize with the natural world’s delicate balance. It’s a field that not only sparks curiosity but also ignites a sense of responsibility, urging us to understand, appreciate, and integrate the wisdom of our fellow species into our own creations. Biomimicry has been a core principle of Bioneers for decades, with dozens of talks and several collaborative projects developed to further the concept and discipline. 

At the forefront of this endeavor is AskNature, a groundbreaking platform from the Biomimicry Institute. AskNature houses a wealth of information meticulously curated to illuminate the intricate workings of organisms alongside information about existing and potential human innovations based on this knowledge. 

As chief editor of AskNature, Andrew Howley is a passionate advocate for bridging the gap between nature’s wonders and human ingenuity. Bioneers spoke to Howley about AskNature’s evolution, exploring how it has grown into a vibrant hub where scientific inquiry, creative expression, and ecological wisdom converge. 

Bioneers: Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us about the history of AskNature.

Andrew Howley: AskNature was created by the Biomimicry Institute in 2007 with the vision of creating a platform where people could access information about how organisms function and innovations they inspired. The goal was to present this information in an accessible way, using terminology relevant to those seeking to apply nature’s principles in human innovations, designs, or systems. A dedicated team curated content from dozens of scientific journals as well as popular science books from figures such as David Attenborough. Over the years, the platform has expanded significantly, growing to more than 2,000 pages.

Around 2020, AskNature underwent a major transformation, both visually and in terms of content style. The team decided to move beyond excerpts from papers and books, aiming for thoughtful, original pieces designed specifically for the biomimicry audience. Professional science writers were brought in to craft and refine these pieces, updating existing ones and creating new content. The focus remained on ensuring relevance and accessibility for all readers.

Now, with the abilities of AI and large language models, we’re training these tools to be able to translate relevant information from any scientific paper into an accessible AskNature format. That will empower our writers and editors to provide an even greater amount of knowledge about how organisms function, accessible to anyone interested in learning from them how to better design our world.

Bioneers: Is there a specific intended audience for that information?

Howley: Physical designers represent a specific and impactful audience, as they can directly apply biomimicry principles to create cleaner, more sustainable products that millions of people then use, but the scope of biomimicry extends far beyond just this group. 

Biomimicry is essentially a unique perspective, altering how we perceive the world and our interactions with it. It encompasses not only observing the natural world but also understanding our place within it and the role we can play as part of the larger natural ecosystem. In this broader context, AskNature becomes relevant to everyone.

Regardless of the specific area in which they wish to apply these principles, be it design, technology, or any other field, the goal is to empower individuals to easily access relevant information, comprehend it, and apply it effectively.

Bioneers: Why does AskNature believe that nature is the best teacher?

Howley: Biomimicry, at its core, is about learning from the way nature works. And nature works in a lot of different ways that can be relevant for all kinds of intentions. The essence of the biomimicry movement lies in fostering a harmonious relationship between human activity and the natural world. Disharmony in this relationship leads to conflicts and suffering for both people and nature, evident on both small and large scales. The best way for humans to learn how to be in harmony with the rest of nature is to see how the rest of nature works in harmony with itself.

It’s important to recognize that humans are a part of nature too. That teaches us humility, but it’s also super exhilarating. Nature has done amazing things over 3.8 billion years of evolution — including making humans. We’re part of this. Not by accident and not begrudgingly. Nature made us, and it made us who we are. We’re curious, we’re adventurous, and we’re industrious. All of these things are what nature has created in us as a species. It’s not inherently good or bad. It’s all about how we use it. And if we integrate our being well with the rest of nature, we can not only fit in but also be a really positive aspect of it. 

Consider the transformative impact of beavers on ecosystems — they enhance diversity and resilience, allowing more species to thrive. Similarly, humans have the potential to positively influence their surroundings, as evidenced by Indigenous communities’ historical practices. Examples include small-scale fire management, which prevented large-scale destructive fires, and intentional cultivation in the Amazon, shaping the region’s diverse plant life. When we use what nature has given us well, we can be a really positive force for life on this planet. 

Bioneers: What are some of your favorite or most fascinating innovations or designs that are based on biomimicry?

Howley: What’s amazing is that every year there are new examples. One of the projects of the Biomimicry Institute is the Ray of Hope Prize, sponsored by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. That initiative brings in hundreds of applications from entrepreneurs and innovators around the world demonstrating their biomimetic efforts and their new innovations and approaches. [Editor’s note: the first Ray of Hope Prize launched on the main stage of the 2016 Bioneers Conference.] 

One that I particularly love is the use of structural color. Pigments are how we generally think of adding color — a molecule that reflects a certain bandwidth of light. But these are friable, and they wear out. Often, they’re toxic. But throughout nature, there’s something called structural color. At the nanoscale texturing of the material, lightwave scale nooks and crannies that direct the light in certain ways produce the appearance of color. Not only can these structures and textures produce individual colors, they can also create really cool effects. 

Where we’re often most familiar with structural color in nature is the shimmery, changing colors of a pigeon’s neck feathers. Or the really bright blue of the Blue Morpho butterfly. Cypris Materials has adapted structural color into paints that, instead of using toxic pigments that will eventually fade, contain permanently fixed light transmitters that produce color in a much more sustainable and adaptable way. 

Another example is concrete. The process of making concrete is one of the most carbon-intensive industries. But in nature or with other organisms, cement production is actually carbon sequestering. Coral reefs are an example: Tiny animals that take in carbon dioxide or carbon from the water and fix it into the substrate of their cement that creates the coral reef, locking in the carbon. ECOncrete uses an admix and texturing to attract and support organisms that in turn add new natural concretions, protecting and strengthening the human-made structure.

Bioneers: AskNature provides an index of a lot of natural adaptations or strategies that present the potential for biomimicry. Is there one that comes to mind that you find particularly fascinating or promising? 

Howley: All of them. Everything is out there, and everything can happen. While it’s wonderful to see the innovations that are already out there and the technologies that are being applied, the thing that most excites me is that AskNature has 300 innovation pages and 1,700 strategy pages. So there are a lot more innovations that can come. There is a sense of endless possibility. New strategies are coming out every day, and people are really working on this. 

Bioneers: What’s next for AskNature?

Howley: Next is scale. Since it launched, AskNature has built up about 2,000 pages. That’s an amazing amount of information and also nowhere near all the information in the world. As I mentioned, we’re training an AI model to be able to more automatically create drafts of AskNature content from new research. As things are discovered and published, they could be added to the site rapidly in almost real-time, which would make so much more information available. That entails going wider with the sources that we’ve been using, but we also want to expand our sources. 

So far, we have been using only published research in English from peer-reviewed science publications, which is great but only a subset of human knowledge. We know that there’s a lot of knowledge of organisms that is held in local communities throughout the world, in varying ecosystems. These understandings haven’t been analyzed the same way or published or publicized. We would love for AskNature to become a platform where Indigenous communities who want to share their knowledge about the workings of our fellow species can do so in a way that is going to reach people and help provide guidance for humans as we try to navigate our place within nature in a more harmonious way.

Bioneers: Do you know yet what that platform would look like? 

Howley: Broadly, we imagine it as a way to further extend AskNature. The way that we would work with different communities would be totally responsive to their needs and interests because that’s one of the most important things in building up relationships between the international scientific community and Indigenous communities. There’s a lot of misuse of people and their property and their identity. There’s a lot of repair work that needs to be done there and a lot of sensitivity and humility that needs to be had, recognizing that just because you’re a well-intentioned scientific organization doesn’t mean you’re inherently going to end up doing good. You have to really be responsive. So we’re at the stage of reaching out to individuals and communities, inviting them into the process, and finding the forms of expression and engagement that would be helpful for them within the context of the whole global effort to build more sustainable human engagement.