Biomimicry

"From an engineer’s perspective, plants such as palm trees, bamboo, maples and even potatoes are examples of precise engineering on a microscopic scale. Like wooden beams reinforcing a house, cell walls make up the structural supports of all plants. Depending on how the cell walls are arranged, and what they are made of, a plant can be as flimsy as a reed, or as sturdy as an oak. An MIT researcher has compiled data on the microstructures of a number of different plants, from apples and potatoes to willow and spruce trees, and has found that plants exhibit an enormous range of mechanical properties, depending on the arrangement of a cell wall’s four main building blocks: cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and pectin. Lorna Gibson, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, says understanding plants’ microscopic organization may help engineers design new, bio-inspired materials."

"Natural hierarchical systems share some common traits that are worthy of emulation: They use a few components (like keratin) to make a wide array of different structures in controlled orientations with durable interfaces between different materials. They are dependent or sensitive to water and produced with benign chemistry. Their properties and performances can vary in response to the environment. These complex, controlled shapes are resilient and often are able to repair themselves."