JOAN CARTAN-HANSEN, HOST: Biomimicry comes from two Greek words: "bio" meaning life and "mimesis" meaning imitate.

But what exactly is the science of biomimicry?

(MUSIC) CARTAN-HANSEN: Suppose nature has a problem.

Bats need to find food.

Termites need a cool place to live.

Kingfisher birds need to not make a big splash when they hunt for fish.

Put the problems in nature's tool kit, and over time, nature finds a solution.

Bats use soundwaves to find food.

Termites build their mounds so hot air escapes and cool air is pulled in.

And Kingfishers develop a beak shaped like a narrow cone so when it hits the water, it doesn't cause a splash and the fish don't see it coming.

Now suppose you have a human problem.

In a war, you need to find enemy airplanes approaching.

You want to create a building with a comfortable temperature year-round.

Or you are designing a super-fast train, and you don't want to create a sonic boom when it travels through a tunnel.

Where do you find a solution?

That's where scientists, engineers, designers, and architects turn to nature's toolbox.

Using solutions and strategies used by nature to solve human problems.

From bats, we get radar.

From termites, we get new building designs.

From Kingfishers, we get sleek designs for Japan's bullet train that doesn't create a sonic boom.

That's biomimicry.

Now that you know what biomimicry is, let's see how scientists learn about it in the lab.

Vibhav Durgesh is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Idaho.

DR. VIBHAV DURGESH: So, biomimicry is a field where we look at the nature and learn from it and design engineering applications based on that.

CARTAN-HANSEN: One of the best examples of biomimicry used in everyday life is Velcro.

DURGESH: So, the person who invented that Velcro in 1950, he was a Swedish engineer, and he saw that the burrs in the nature gets stuck to his dog fur.

And he looked at it and he came up with the idea of a Velcro.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Humans have been using biomimicry for centuries.

Ancient Greeks followed the sun across the sky to tell time and developed the sun dial.

Leonardo DaVinci tried to invent flying machines by copying the birds.

But it was biologist Janine Benyus who coined the term biomimicry in 1997.

Durgesh and his students use biomimicry in their research.

DURGESH: Finding inspiration is challenging.

As an engineer, we look at some common problem which we are facing, and we look at nature how it has overcome those problems.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Have you ever seen a flag flapping in the wind?

Air flowing around the fabric of the flag causes it to move.

But change the airspeed, and the flags fluttering changes.

The science of studying the flow of gasses like air or liquid is called fluid dynamics.

Durgesh and his Ph.D. student Rodrigo Padilla are learning how air flows around a moving object, similar to a flag.

CARTAN-HANSEN: So, why would changing oscillations matter?

Well, look at this film of the Tacoma Narrows bridge built in 1940.

The design did not take into account the impact of high winds.

And as the wind increased, the bridge began to oscillate.

See what happens.

NARRATOR: No structure of steel and concrete can stand such a strain.

Steel girders buckle and giant cables snap like puny threads.

There it goes!

[CRASH] CARTAN-HANSEN: So how does this all tie back to biomimicry and Dr. Durgesh's experiment?

CARTAN-HANSEN: And so that's biomimicry.

If you want to learn more about biomimicry, check out the Science Trek website.

You'll find it at Science Trek dot org.

(MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Presentation of Science Trek on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Idaho National Laboratory, mentoring talent and finding solutions for energy and security challenges.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.