Over thousands of years, nature has continuously evolved to overcome challenges and adapt to ever-changing environments, but did you know that it is also one of the most sophisticated and powerful innovators there is? Humans have been developing new technologies by observing and studying these life forms and their behaviours. After all, given that evolution has the benefit of millions of years of trial and error to perfect nature, it makes sense for humans to be influenced by it. Popularly known as biomimicry, it is quickly gaining momentum with bioscientists, engineers and inventors all over the world. From slug mucus and life-saving surgical superglue to camouflaging material inspired by octopus skin, take a look at the graphic below to see how nature is inspiring technologies that will affect our everyday lives.





Biomimicry is becoming more popular and not a moment too soon. Over the last decade, there have been vast discoveries within the field of biomimetics, and the economic impacts expected to emerge from this will have benefits for our health and quality of life in the future. Scientists are on the hunt to tackle some of the issues that currently plague the world, and it seems the process of Biomimicry could have a lot of those answers. From a relatively small field of research papers in the mid-1990s, biomimetics has expanded to reach nearly 3000 research papers a year. What will the next invention be that is inspired by nature? Only time will tell.