Abstract
Bioinspiration and biomimetics is a rapidly growing field where insights from biology are used to solve current design challenges. Nature provides an abundance of inspiration to draw upon, yet biological information is under-exploited due to a concerning lack of engagement from biologists. To assess the extent of this problem, we surveyed the current state of the field using the Web of Science database and found that only 41% of publications on bioinspired or biomimetic research included an author affiliated with a biology-related department or organisation. In addition, most publications focus exclusively on a limited range of popular model species. Considering these findings, we highlight key reasons why greater engagement from biologists will enable new and significant insights from natural selection and the diversity of life. Likewise, biologists are missing unique opportunities to study biological phenomena from the perspective of other disciplines, particularly engineering. We discuss the importance of striving toward a bioinformed approach, as current limitations in the field can only be overcome with a greater understanding of the ecological and evolutionary contexts behind each bioinspired/biomimetic solution.
Highlights
The natural world has inspired creative minds throughout time, from Da Vinci’s flying machines to Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, but only in the mid-20th century did this design philosophy become popular within the academy
There has been a remarkable growth in interest in bioinspiration and biomimetics, but to what extent are biologists engaged with this research? We address this question by using publications as a measure of research engagement
The current state of bioinspired/biomimetic design suffers from a surprising paradox: effective bioinspiration or biomimetics requires intimate knowledge of biology, yet there is a lack of engagement from biologists in such projects
Summary
The natural world has inspired creative minds throughout time, from Da Vinci’s flying machines to Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, but only in the mid-20th century did this design philosophy become popular within the academy. Only 41% of papers included an author affiliated with a biology related department These findings are relatively consistent with Snell-Rood (2016) who found that less than 8% of biologists were involved in biomimetics research, albeit using a stricter search criterion on a subset of 300 papers. These findings are surprising given the assumed inter- and multidisciplinary nature of bioinspired research and suggests that either biologists are not engaging in this research and/or that biological inspiration comes from relatively few model species. Only 12% of butterfly- and 14% of spider-inspired research drew inspiration from multiple focal species
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