Biomimicry in Iceland: Present Status and Future Significance

The word biomimicry is derived from bios = life and mimesis = imitation. Biomimicry is a relative new field that studies nature´s designs and mimics them to create sustainable approaches for technical designs and innovation. The founder of biomimicry, the American biologist Janine Benyus, emphasis t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sigríður Anna Ásgeirsdóttir 1961-
Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1946/16905
Description
Summary:The word biomimicry is derived from bios = life and mimesis = imitation. Biomimicry is a relative new field that studies nature´s designs and mimics them to create sustainable approaches for technical designs and innovation. The founder of biomimicry, the American biologist Janine Benyus, emphasis that answers to many of the environmental challenges we are facing today have already been provided by sustainable solutions that living organisms have developed for over 3.8 billion years. This thesis introduces the principles of biomimicry and its relation to other green and bio-inspired disciplines, followed by analyses of the status of biomimicry in Iceland. Interviews with twenty-two players of Icelandic academia and businesses revealed that the idea behind biomimicry is largely unknown in Iceland and biomimetic examples are relatively rare, but all interviewees agreed on the potential of biomimicry. Ten examples of conceivable biomimicry applications were analyzed in some detail and judged according to biomimicry requirements. The thesis discusses further the current position of biomimicry in Iceland and its future prospects in relation to the outcome of the interviews and the upcoming trends on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Lífhermun er tiltölulega nýtt hugtak sem byggir á því að tæknihönnun og nýsköpun noti umhverfisvænar aðferðir sem lífverur hafa þróað með sér frá því að líf kviknaði á jörðinni fyrir 3.8 milljörðum ára. Bandaríski líffræðingurinn Janine Benyus skilgreinir meginmarkið lífhermunar þannig að við eigum að tileinka okkur þau margvíslegu form og ferli sem gera lífverum kleift að takast á við síbreytilegar aðstæður. Þannig verði til áhugaverðar, hagnýtar og sjálfbærar lausnir á þeim umhverfisvanda sem mætir okkur í dag. Ritgerð þessi kynnir meginreglur lífhermunar og útskýrir tengsl hennar við aðrar umhverfisvænar stefnur. Viðtöl við tuttugu og tvo íslenska fræðimenn og þátttakendur í fyrirtækjarekstri leiddi í ljós að bakgrunnur lífhermunar er að mestu óþekktur hér á landi og dæmi um ...