• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Education / Speaker to talk about adaptation in environment

Speaker to talk about adaptation in environment

April 19, 2004 By admin

A natural historian who coined the term “biomimicry” is speaking tonight at the University of Iowa. Janine Benyus has written six “life sciences” books on the subject of how nature and animals are able to adapt to a changing environment and survive millennia. Benyus, who lives in Montana, says people can learn a lot from watching the world around us — and she hopes to inspire U-of-I students to do just that. Animals are well adapted and some have been around three-point-eight billion years, so they’ve had a long time to come up with solutions to the same sorts of problems humans are trying to solve. She believes the better people understand the genius of the natural world, the more they will want to protect it. Benyus says biomimicry comes from the words “bio,” meaning life, and “mimesis,” meaning to imitate. She says it’s the science that seeks sustainable solutions by mimicking nature’s designs and processes. Benyus says biomimicry a way of innovating and looking to nature for inspiration, going to organisms and asking for advice, looking at their designs and strategies and trying to emulate that to solve human problems. She gives examples like looking at how a leaf harnesses solar energy to create a new type of solar cell, or, how a spider weaves a web without any toxins, high heats or high pressures and trying to create a rope or fiber like the spider. Benyus says biomimics learn to grow food like a prairie, compute like a cell, find cures like a chimp and run a business like a redwood forest. Her free talk is at 8 tonight at the U-of-I’s MacBride Hall Auditorium. For more information, surf to www.biomimicry.net.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: University of Iowa

Featured Stories

Bill would limit placement of solar arrays on farm ground

Marquette casino moving to land, leaving only 2 casino boats in Iowa

Reynolds signs her ‘school choice’ bill into law

Governor Reynolds touts 2024 Iowa Caucuses in Inaugural Address

University of Iowa grad presiding over U.S. House Speaker vote

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa State names new receivers coach

No. 2 Iowa visits No. 1 Penn State in wrestling dual Friday night

Iowa’s Clark brings increased exposure to women’s basketball

No. 18 Iowa State women visit TCU

Northern Iowa men host Valparaiso

More Sports

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC