Janine Benyus
Janine Benyus
Janine M. Benyusis an American natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
innovation eras revolution
Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature. In a society accustomed to dominating or 'improving' nature, this respectful imitation is a radically new approach, a revolution really. Unlike the Industrial Revolution, the Biomimicry Revolution introduces an era based not on what we can extract from nature, but on what we can learn from her.
basically offspring species taking
We're basically this very young species, only 200,000 years old. We're one of the newcomers, and we're going through the same process that other species go through, which is, how do I keep myself alive while taking care of the place that's going to keep my offspring alive?
ideas organisms
There are literally as many ideas as there are organisms.
nature real years
The real survivors are the Earth inhabitants that have lived millions of years without consuming their ecological capital, the base from which all abundance flows.
book use elements
Green chemistry is replacing our industrial chemistry with nature's recipe book. It's not easy, because life uses only a subset of the elements in the periodic table. And we use all of them, even the toxic ones.
stress bridges tree
Trees and bones are constantly reforming themselves along lines of stress. This algorithm has been put into a software program that's now being used to make bridges lightweight, to make building beams lightweight.
new-year nature animal
If the age of the Earth were a calendar year and today were a breath before midnight on New Year's Eve, we showed up a scant fifteen minutes ago, and all of recorded history has blinked by in the last sixty seconds. Luckily for us, our planet-mates--the fantastic meshwork of plants, animals, and microbes--have been patiently perfecting their wares since March, an incredible 3.8 billion years since the first bacteria. ...After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.
writing impact discipline
For businesses, biomimicry is about bringing a new discipline - biology - to the design table. It's not to write an environmental impact statement, as most biologists in business do right now.
world pitching cooperation
Cooperation in the most natural thing in the world
nature reality law
In reality, we haven't escaped the gravity of life at all. We are still beholden to ecological laws, the same as any other life-form.
smart design friendly
Life solves its problems with well-adapted designs, life-friendly chemistry and smart material and energy use.
people spiders shells
Biologically inspired materials could revolutionize materials science. People looking at spider silk and abalone shells are looking for new ways to make materials better, cheaper, and with less toxic byproducts.
cities forests sustainability
When the forest and the city are functionally indistinguishable, then we know we have reached sustainability.
nature stories use
If we are to use our tools in the service of fitting in on Earth, our basic relationship to nature--even the story we tell ourselves about who we are in the universe--has to change.