1. Waste
1.1. Waste Management, with its headquarters in Houston, Texas, is a company that manages waste throughout the United States and Canada. Previously focusing on garbage collection, Waste Management has been actively moving toward a goal of net zero waste. Waste Management addresses waste from its source through its final disposal, providing recycling services and looking for more ways to reuse wastes and convert wastes into new products. To accomplish both, the company has forged partnerships with other companies. http://www.asknature.org/product/fc4d0678aa5aba1b8195ec177bcaafce
1.2. WASTE RECYCLING AND UPCYCLING
1.2.1. Waste Management, with its headquarters in Houston, Texas, is a company that manages waste throughout the United States and Canada. Previously focusing on garbage collection, Waste Management has been actively moving toward a goal of net zero waste. Waste Management addresses waste from its source through its final disposal, providing recycling services and looking for more ways to reuse wastes and convert wastes into new products. To accomplish both, the company has forged partnerships with other companies. Wet waste streams lead to fermentation of organic wastes, which ultimately can produce alcohols, organic acids, biogas, diesel, and soil. Dry materials can be used in thermal chemical pathways to capture carbon, resulting in production of ethanol, ethyl acetate, methanol, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, or lube oil. The company is also looking into turning waste into chemicals.http://www.asknature.org/product/fc4d0678aa5aba1b8195ec177bcaafce
2. use
2.1. INSECT REPELLANT
2.1.1. Researchers at North Carolina State University have recently discovered a novel use for a lipid molecule synthesized by tomato plants. The compound is thought to be used by tomatoes to fend off bugs and its artificial use in a mimetic role has proved effective at repelling numerous types of insects including mosquitoes, ticks, and cockroaches. The lipid, called IBI-246 or methyl nonyl ketone, is found in the stem of tomato plants and seems to work just as well as the noxious chemical DEET in keeping mosquitoes and ticks at bay; however, while DEET is listed by the EPA as a class III toxic compound (slightly toxic), IBI-246 has been in use in cosmetics and dog/cat repellants for year and is listed by the EPA as a class IV toxic compound (practically non-toxic). What's more, IBI-246 is biodegradable and not petroleum based. The company Insect Biotechnology Inc. holds the license for IBI-246 and is working to transform the compound into a usable product. Alan Brandt, president and chief operating officer of Insect Biotechnology Inc., hopes that this biomimetic repellant will someday be a viable alternative to DEET.http://www.asknature.org/product/bac21d352d9da23796cee88d3a0d0a2b
2.2. CAO AND SKO DESIGN SOFTWARE
2.2.1. CAO (computer-aided optimization) and SKO (soft kill option) software was developed by Claus Mattheck at the Karlsruhe Research Centre in Germany. The CAO and SKO software works with FEM (Finite Element Model) used in engineering design. FEM is a numerical tool that breaks a component of interest into finite geometrical sections, then defines the material property of each finite element. FEM identifies areas of high stress, and shows the simulated effects of adding or removing material based on CAO and SKO.http://www.asknature.org/product/99d6740a0a07a9d003480f1c414ee177
3. humans
3.1. Muscle Flex
3.1.1. "Muscle fibers contain comblike arrays of filaments made from chains of the protein actin, with nodes of the myosin protein interdigitated between the combs' teeth. The ends of the filaments are covered with molecular 'motors' that can walk along actin filaments. When this motion is triggered by a nerve signal, the myosin rods become more deeply interdigitated, causing the muscle fiber to shorten." (Courtesy of the Biomimicry Guild)http://www.asknature.org/strategy/4190fb7f0d16994ddd143b1fd8dbc049#.UwetSUJdXRo
3.2. FINE STRANDS STABILIZE BONES
3.2.1. "In some materials, such as metal, stress lines are usually invisible; but in others, including bone, they are often quite easy to see. Some parts of bone are composed of a spongy mesh of very fine strands called trabeculae. In a cross-section of bone the trabeculae can be seen to be orientated to the lines of stress. Where they are most closely packed together, the stress is greatest. It was a section of the top of a human thigh bone that inspired Professor Culmann, a Swiss engineer, to design in 1866, a new crane: he realized that the lines of stress shown by the trabeculae constituted a diagram of how his crane should be designed to cope with similar stress (diagram c)." (Foy and Oxford Scientific Films 1982:35)http://www.asknature.org/strategy/71fdef56079435ffc4c663a3889ce2b0#.UwetsEJdXRo
4. Design
4.1. Wind farm spatial design
4.1.1. As fish swim, they shed tiny vortices. In large schools of fish, individuals transfer energy to each other with these vortices, lowering the energetic costs of swimming. Researcher John Dabiri has taken inspiration from this strategy and applied similar principles to the spatial design of wind farms. By placing vertical-axis turbines (different from the traditional horizontal-axis, propeller-style turbines) close together in a strategic array, energy is gathered by each turbine, while simultaneously directing wind to nearby turbines. Dabiri's research team, supported in part by Windspire Energy Inc., is currently working to determine ideal positioning of turbines to achieve optimal power output.http://www.asknature.org/product/20015e39f852cfc1382828afef82b916
4.2. ECOVATIVE DESIGN
4.2.1. EcoCradle™ packaging is great for the environment; it’s made of agricultural byproducts that come from renewable sources. This environmentally friendly innovation is just as reliable, easy to use, and affordable as competing packaging products, and it's an excellent replacement for custom molded foams like EPS and EPP.http://www.asknature.org/product/a10b75e63cdad605b63a71bbba2caa15
5. Nuclear
5.1. ORGANISMS CAPTURE RADIATION
5.1.1. "Melanins are unique biopolymers that protect living organisms against UV and ionizing radiation and extreme temperatures…For example, the melanotic fungus C. [Cladosporium] cladosporioides manifests radiotropism by growing in the direction of radioactive particles and this organism has become widely distributed in the areas surrounding Chernobyl since the nuclear accident in 1986 [7]. Both in the laboratory and in the field several other species of melanized fungi grew towards soil particles contaminated with different radionuclides, gradually engulfing and destroying those particles [35,36]…On the basis of these precedents and the results of this study we cautiously suggest that the ability of melanin to capture electromagnetic radiation combined with its remarkable oxidation-reduction properties may confer upon melanotic organisms the ability to harness radiation for metabolic energy." (Dadachova et al. 2007:10-11)http://www.asknature.org/strategy/3edf10d5be81cda6b5aabadfb9a0c424#.UweuBEJdXRo
5.2. SharkletTM
5.2.1. SharkletTM is a synthetic surface inspired by the skin of sharks which deters colonization by certain disease-causing microbes. Because the artificial surface works without killing microbes, there is no selection for resistance.http://www.asknature.org/product/3c21a56f0ba2ae549894a2bf79372bda
6. Recycle
6.1. LIMITED NUTRIENTS RECYCLED
6.1.1. "The icy depths of the Antarctic seas support one of the most densely populated and diverse benthic communities on earth. Although the water temperature is only just above freezing, it is rich in oxygen, and the long-term environmental conditions are quite stable; changes in temperature and food supply are reliably periodic, waxing and waning with the seasons. At 300 feet, the bottom receives almost no light from above, but food in the form of tiny, single-cell marine plants sinks to the sea floor. During the long daylight hours of spring and summer, a period of about three months, the phytoplankton produce enough food through photosynthesis to support life in the Antarctic seas. For the remainder of the year, the food is redistributed from one organism to another as predators consume prey and scavengers recycle the dead." (Winston 1990:70)http://www.asknature.org/strategy/6a7483249f58296614f29f3db50176c8#.UwevVkJdXRo