Product Design, Nature's Way

From CNN.com - Technology:

A new breed of inventor is turning Mother Earth's marvels into remarkable real-world products. For all their skill and technological prowess, human engineers still can't match Mother Nature's best designs. Take, for example, the toe pads of ordinary house geckos. Thanks to millions of bristly microfilaments that line the bottoms of their feet, the versatile lizards can scamper up walls and across ceilings on any surface, wet or dry. The intermolecular forces between pad and surface are so strong that geckos can hang comfortably from one toe. The pads also have impressive quick-release capabilities and leave no sticky residue. Can you imagine tire treads, duct tape, or building materials that could do the same? An increasingly influential group of researchers and entrepreneurs can -- and they're busy working on the designs. Pioneering a relatively new field called biomimicry, they're taking a close look at nature's marvels and reverse-engineering them into real-world products. How, they ask, do lotus leaves repel water and stay so clean? How can the ventilation systems in termite mounds be used to cool city buildings? Could the glue that mussels use to adhere to rocky surfaces be adapted to heal broken bones?

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