Humans have always looked to nature for ideas about solving problems, and so the concept of biomimicry (or biomimetics) existed many centuries before the word itself, one of the most obvious early examples being the study of birds in order to develop human ‘flying machines’. A particularly famous 20th century application of biomimicry was in the invention of Velcro™ by Swiss engineer Georges De Mestral, who had the idea after examining the hundreds of tiny hooks within the seeds of the burdock plant, which kept sticking to his clothes and his dog’s fur when they were out hunting.

Humans have always looked to nature for ideas about solving problems, and so the concept of biomimicry (or biomimetics) existed many centuries before the word itself, one of the most obvious early examples being the study of birds in order to develop human ‘flying machines’. A particularly famous 20th century application of biomimicry was in the invention of Velcro™ by Swiss engineer Georges De Mestral, who had the idea after examining the hundreds of tiny hooks within the seeds of the burdock plant, which kept sticking to his clothes and his dog’s fur when they were out hunting.