I have read the Aug. 24 article by Winifred Bird, "Natural by design" -- about "biomimicry" -- with great interest, but was somewhat surprised that the author seems to believe this field of research is relatively new. Not a single reference is made to its more traditional name: bionics (bionik, bionique). The author would have discovered a long legacy reaching at least into the 1960s -- including applications such as the Olympic stadium in Munich and many more.
"Mimicry" is ill-chosen anyway without appropriately considering that, in biology, it generally applies just to external appearance -- and I suppose the goal is the replication of mechanisms. Personally, I cannot recall having heard of "biomimicry" so far; I would have remembered my amusement: Even a teddy bear would classify as a form of (supposedly Batesian) biomimicry.
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