Biomimicry – "innovation inspired by nature"- a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example. Dome at Greenwich, London, where the "lotus effect" is used to create self-cleaning surfaces. A drop of water on a lotus leaf stands proud and spherical, as the microscopic surface contours do not allow the drop to spread out. If buildings are designed with surfaces like this, then rainwater just rolls off, taking dirt with it.

Like the viceroy butterfly imitating the monarch, we humans are imitating the best adapted organisms in our habitat. We are learning, for instance, how to harness energy like a leaf, grow food like a prairie, build ceramics like an abalone, self-medicate like a chimp, create color like a peacock, compute like a cell, and run a business like a hickory forest. The conscious emulation of life's genius is a survival strategy for the human race, a path to a sustainable future. The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone.

For example, when chief engineer Eiji Nakatsu was looking for a way to prevent the sonic boom that resulted when the 200-mph Japan's Shinkansen Bullet Train emerged from a tunnel, he turned to the natural world for inspiration, looking for "something that travels quickly and smoothly between two very different mediums." He decided to model the front of the train after the beak of a kingfisher, which can enter the water at high speeds with very little noise or splash. Not only did this design eliminate the noise problem, the train now uses less energy and travels 10% faster.