Over the past three months, 5 of our portfolio companies have secured funding, totaling over $27M being invested into impact oriented, nature-inspired startups! Our Director of Innovation, Jared Yarnall-Schane, sat down with Roger Berry, CEO of Sudoc, and their investors Job Van Schelven of PureTerra and Martijn van Rheenen of Momentum Capital, to learn more about how this new investment will help them scale up their bio-inspired, sustainable chemical company. You can learn more about their technology that mimics cleaning enzymes within our livers by visiting their page on AskNature ..read more

Once again, the Biomimicry Institute has completed a weeklong nature immersion as part of our Launchpad Program. We brought together 20 of the most curious and creative minds from around the world in May to share ideas in the wilds of Montana, and reconnect with nature and themselves. It was a rare opportunity to slow down, listen to nature’s wisdom, and cultivate a culture of mutual respect. The Biomimicry Launchpad started years ago with the goal of supporting innovators as they take their ideas from the lab to the marketplace, and that focus remains. But we continue to evolve to meet t ..read more

Guided by biomimicry curriculum, students delivered nature-inspired solutions to the most pressing environmental and social challenges of our day. The Biomimicry Institute is proud to announce the winners of this year’s Youth Design Challenge (YDC), an open access educational initiative that utilizes the principles of biomimicry to inspire students to tackle pressing environmental challenges. The project-based curriculum uniquely empowers middle and high school educators to engage their students in a multidisciplinary exploration of nature-inspired problem solving, focusing on Sustainable De ..read more

In 2016, we looked across industries and knew one thing for certain: the world needed more nature-inspired solutions to correct for generations of extractive, polluting business practices. In collaboration with our visionary funding partners, The Ray C. Anderson Foundation, the Biomimicry Institute launched a $100,000 prize competition to catalyze nature-inspired design. Between 2016-2019 we awarded 4 Grand Prizes to top biomimicry design concepts, known as the Ray of Hope Prize. Through this time, we began to see that supporting design ideas was simply not enough. We needed to support those ..read more

At first glance, the importance of replacing existing pigments and dyes with nature-inspired alternatives may not be obvious. The environmental impacts from pigments are hard to quantify, but it is a $30 billion industry that is heavily reliant on mining and high energy usage. Synthetic dyes are poorly biodegradable, can cause mutations and metabolic alterations, often have carcinogenic effects, and tend to bioaccumulate. All of this amounts to enormous environmental effects, and organisms and human beings are paying the price. Now a Short Science Lesson  The visible light ..read more

It’s been a consultant for NASA, shot at by police and mistaken for an alien. How slime mold–a brainless, single-celled organism–mapped the dark universe, keeps challenging the top minds to rethink what intelligence even is and has an ability to fill us with wonder beyond the human kind. No powerful limbs. No aerodynamic wings. So slow, movement can only be noticed with a timelapse video. So why are the experts turning to slime mold for mobility breakthroughs? When it comes to revolutionizing the auto and robotics industries, we’re surrounded by innovations from electric and hydrogen-fueled ..read more

Password Protected To view this protected post, enter the password below: Password: Submit The post Protected: When Even the Brainless Have Answers We Don’t appeared first on Biomimicry Institute ..read more

Password Protected To view this protected post, enter the password below: Password: Submit The post Protected: Is a Blob Capable of Rethinking Our Built World Without Bias, Boundaries—or a Brain? appeared first on Biomimicry Institute ..read more

Password Protected To view this protected post, enter the password below: Password: Submit The post Protected: Your Next Flight May Be Designed by Slime Mold and Human Bones appeared first on Biomimicry Institute ..read more

Password Protected To view this protected post, enter the password below: Password: Submit The post Protected: Slime Mold 101: Meet the Genius Without a Brain appeared first on Biomimicry Institute ..read more