Innovation doesn’t always mean creating something entirely new. Some of the most remarkable breakthroughs come from observing ...

How does nature make durable materials like corals without heat or a kiln? How do peacock feathers get their beautiful colors? And how do geckos stick to all kinds of surfaces, allowing them to run up ...

Designers and engineers have often looked to the environment and how Mother Nature has accomplished phenomenal design solutions for inspiration over the ages. Perhaps all that is new about this ...

We all want to make our buildings more efficient and reliable. Artificial solutions abound, but evolution also holds the answers to many of our problems. Some animals and plants ingeniously adapt ...

When the Wright brothers were figuring out how to build an airplane, they took inspiration from some of the fliers of the natural world - birds. Nature has had a long time to perfect its ways, so why ...

Explaining biomimicry—much less getting people to buy into the concept, framework or philosophy—can be difficult. On the one hand, it is intuitive and simplistic. On the other, it is radical compared ...

"It all started with a Beetle." This could be the beginning of a story about someone who went on to become a "car nut" engineer or somebody who went on to become an entomologist. In Rich Altherr's ...

Our biomimicry challenge What Would You Ask Nature? assigned three challenges, and teams are now reporting their bio-inspired solutions. After having a discussion with IBM, and walking through some ...

TROY — What can a whale's fin tell us about designing a wind turbine blade? And how can the way a moth's eye fails to reflect light help create better solar cells? Such answers are being found in a ...

Zoom in to the inner world of your veins, arteries and capillaries, and you'll find an engineering marvel: the red blood cell. Disc-shaped and flexible, millions of these oxygen transporters can be ...

Called the Barque of Pine Knot, this houseboat was built by William West Durant as a summer escape for his wife from the black flies. It is not known when the barque was built, but pictures of it ...