Bio-Inspired Design

Bio-inspired design, sometimes referred to as biomimicry or biomimetic design, is the practice of solving human problems with solutions inspired by nature. Species overcome challenges in their environment in a wide variety of ways, such as having waterproofing in their skin or producing lightweight compounds when building a nest. The idea behind bio-inspired design is that we can learn from biology and apply this understanding to our own problems.

Here you’ll find a collection of functional morphologies – examples of how nature has overcome a problem and the structures that allows it to do so. Our pages can be searched by design terminology (does a structure help break down materials or let the species communicate?) or by type of species (invertebrate, vertebrate, or plant).

You can learn more about bio-inspired design at Ask Nature where our many of our pages are featured, such as our bio-inspired bee collection. You can also submit your own functional morphology page to be included on our site.