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A Systems View Across Time and Space

Table 1 Definitions, disciplinary origins and organizational levels in chronological order

From: From innovation-as-usual towards unusual innovation: using nature as an inspiration

Definition

Author(s)

Terminology

Disciplinary origin

Organizational level

Studies nature’s models and emulates natural forms, processes, systems and strategies for solving human problems

Benyus (1997)

Biomimicry

Natural resource management

System level

A scientific style inspired by technological considerations and a fresh look at nature

Bensaude-Vincent, Arribart, Bouligand, and Sanchez (2002)

Biomimicry

Chemistry

Molecular level

A system development tool

Rice and Martin (2007)

Biomimicry

Social sciences

Systems level

Biological phenomena for inspiring solutions to engineering problems

Mak and Shu (2008)

Biomimetics

Engineering sciences

Conceptual level

Transfer from one or more biological examples to a technical system

Sartori, Pal, and Chakrabarti (2010)

Biomimetics

Product design and manufacturing

Product level

A source of inspiration and a toolkit for solving practical design problems

Volstad and Boks (2012)

Biomimicry

Engineering sciences

Industrial design level

An interdisciplinary scientific research that makes nature a new source of inspiration

Habib and Watanabe (2012)

Bio-inspiration

Engineering sciences

Technology level

The imitation of a product or process found in nature

Rawlings et al. (2012)

Biomimetics

Biosciences

Protein level

A field that seeks to interpolate natural biological mechanisms and structures into different applications

Lurie-Luke (2014)

Biomimicry

Applied sciences

Applicational science level

Varying levels of biomimicry (strong and weak)

Blok and Gremmen (2016)

Biomimicry

Social sciences

Philosophical level

Imitate general abstracted mechanisms that render many natural systems sustainable for long periods of time

Troncale (2016)

Biomimicry

Systems engineering

Systems level

Instantiation of progressive techniques

Fisch (2017)

Biomimicry

Social sciences

Philosophical level

The practice of human designers mimicking an organism, behaviour aspects of ecosystems

Zari (2017)

Biomimetics

Architecture

Industrial design level