BIOMIMETICS: DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM THE DESIGN IN LIVING THINGS

There is instruction for you in cattle. From the contents of their bellies, from between the dung and blood, We give you pure milk to drink, easy for drinkers to swallow. (Qur'an, 16:66)

And there is certainly a lesson for you in your livestock. We give you to drink from what is in their bellies and there are many ways in which you benefit from them, and some of them you eat; and you are conveyed on them and on ships as well. (Qur'an, 23:21-22)

Before scientists and research and development experts embark on new projects, they usually look for models in living things and imitate their systems and designs. In other words, they see and study the designs created in nature by Allah and, inspired by these, go on to develop their own new technologies.
This approach has given birth to biometrics, a new branch of science that seeks to imitate living things. In recent times, this branch of science has come to be widely applied in the world of technology. The use of the word "ibrah," (to learn from, advice, importance, important thing, or model) in the above verses is most wise in this regard.
Biomimetics refers to all of the substances, equipment, mechanisms, and systems that people produce in order to imitate the systems present in nature. The scientific community currently feels a great need for the use of such equipment, particularly in the fields of nanotechnology, robot technology, artificial intelligence, medicine, and the military.
Biomimicry was first put forward by Janine M. Benyus, a writer and scientific observer from Montana. This concept was later analysed by many other people and began to find applications. Some of the comments made regarding biomimicry are as follows:
The theme of "biomimicry" is that we have much to learn from the natural world, as model, measure, and mentor. What these researchers have in common is a reverence for natural designs, and the inspiration to use them to solve human problems.159
David Oakey, product strategist for Interface Inc., a company that uses nature to increasing product quality and productivity, says:
Nature is my mentor for business and design, a model for the way of life. Nature's system has worked for millions of years … Biomimicry is a way of learning from nature.160
Scientists who began to favour this rapidly spreading idea accelerated their studies by using nature's incomparable and flawless designs as models. These designs represent models for technological research, for they provide the maximum productivity for the least amount of materials and energy, and are self-maintaining, environmentally friendly, silent, aesthetically attractive, resistant, and long-lasting. The High Country News described biomimetics as "a scientific movement" and made the following comment:
By using natural systems as models, we can create technologies that are more sustainable than those in use today.161
Janine M. Benyus, who believed that models in nature should be imitated, gave the following examples in her book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (Perennial: 2002):
Hummingbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico on less than 3 grams (one tenth of an ounce) of fuel,
Dragonflies outmanoeuvre our best helicopters,
Heating and air-conditioning systems in termite mounds are superior in terms of equipment and energy consumption to those made by human beings,
A bat's high-frequency transmitter is more efficient and sensitive than our own radar systems,
Light-emitting algae combine various chemicals to illuminate their bodies,
Arctic fish and frogs freeze solid and then spring to life, having protected their organs from ice damage,
Chameleons and cuttlefish change the pattern of their skin to blend instantly with their surroundings,
Bees, turtles, and birds navigate without maps, and
Whales and penguins dive without scuba gear.
These astonishing mechanisms and designs in nature, of which we have cited only a few, have the potential to enrich technology in a wide range of fields. This potential is becoming ever more obvious as our accumulated knowledge and technological means increase.
All animals possess many features that amaze human beings. Some have the ideal hydrodynamic shape that allows them to move through water, and others employ senses that appear very foreign to us. Most of these are features that researchers have encountered for the first time, or, rather, that they have only recently discovered. On occasion, it is necessary to bring together prominent scientists from such fields as computer technology, mechanical engineering, electronics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology in order to imitate just one feature of a living thing.
Scientists are amazed when confronted with the incomparable structures and systems they are discovering with every passing day, and use that amazement to inspire themselves to produce new technologies for humanity's benefit. Realising that the existing perfect systems and extraordinary techniques applied in nature are far superior to their own knowledge and intellect, they became aware of these matchless solutions to existing problems and are now resorting to the designs in nature to resolve problems that have eluded them for years. As a result, they will perhaps achieve success in a very short time. Moreover, by imitating nature, scientists are making very important gains with regard to time and labour and also to the targeted use of material resources.
Today we see the developing technology gradually discovering the miracles of creation and using the extraordinary designs in living things, as in the case of biomimetics, in the service of humanity. Benyus has stated that "‘Doing it nature's way' has the potential to change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal ourselves, store information, and conduct business."162 The following are just a few of the many scientific papers to have considered such subjects:
"Science is Imitating Nature,"163
"Life's Lessons in Design,"164
"Biomimicry: Secrets Hiding in Plain Sight,"165
"Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature,"166
"Biomimicry: Genius That Surrounds Us,"167
"Biomimetics: Creating Materials from Nature's Blueprints,"168 and
"Engineers Ask Nature for Design Advice."169
In the nineteenth century, nature was imitated only in aesthetic terms. Artists and architects of that time were influenced by nature and used examples of the structures' external appearances in their works. Yet the realisation of nature's extraordinary designs and that these could be used to benefit human beings only began in the twentieth century with the study of natural mechanisms at the molecular level. Scientists today are learning from living things, as revealed in the Qur'an 1,400 years ago. (See Harun Yahya, Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature)

LOCUSTS MOVING IN SWARMS

They will emerge from their graves with downcast eyes, like swarming locusts. (Qur'an, 54:7)

This verse describes all people's situation in the Hereafter as one resembling swarming locusts. There is great wisdom in this simile.
A great deal of information was obtained about locusts in the twentieth century by conducting wide-ranging studies using micro-cameras. Locust swarms contain huge numbers of individual locusts that behave as a single body. Coming together in swarms that are kilometres long and wide, they look just like a dark cloud. It has been established, for instance, that a single swarm of desert locusts can cover 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) and contain between 40 and 80 million locusts per square kilometre.170
In addition, they deposit their eggs in sandy soils like seeds and, after the larvae have remained underground for a long period of time, they all emerge together. After digging a 10-15 cm (4-6 inch) long tunnel in the ground, a female locust lays 95-158 eggs at once. Females can lay eggs at least three times in their lifetime. When the larvae have matured after 10-65 days, depending on the air temperature, they emerge in a large group. Up to 1,000 egg pods have been found in one square metre. Locust swarms are large enough to cover several hundred square kilometres, with the number of adult locusts per square kilometre varying from between 40 to 80 million.171 Their long underground existence and sudden emergence in vast numbers all at the same time may resemble the resurrection of human beings on the Day of Judgement. (Allah knows best.)
Today, locusts are being studied by special units, which employ remote control imaging systems. Even NASA satellite data are used to identify areas in Africa where desert locust colonies have developed.
Thanks to satellite data, it is possible to carry out wide-ranging research on land and in space over an 18 million square kilometre area.
As we have seen, the fact that the Qur'an made such a comparison at a time when these technologies did not exist is one of the proofs that it is the revelation of the Omniscient Allah.

ANT COMMUNICATION

The Qur'an indicates, when recounting Prophet Sulayman's (as) life, that ants have a communication system:

Then, when they reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant said: "Ants! Enter your dwellings, so that Sulayman and his troops do not crush you unwittingly." (Qur'an, 27: 18)

Scientific research into ants has revealed that these tiny animals have very organised social lives and that, as a requirement of that organisation, they also have a very complex communication network. For example, National Geographic reports that:
Huge and tiny, an ant carries in her head multiple sensory organs to pick up chemical and visual signals vital to colonies that may contain a million or more workers, all of which are female. The brain contains half a million nerve cells; eyes are compound; antennae act as nose and fingertips. Projections below the mouth sense taste; hairs respond to touch.172
Even if we are not aware of it, ants use a variety of methods to communicate, thanks to their very sensitive sensory organs. They use these organs at all times, from finding prey to following one another, and from building their nests to waging war. With 500,000 nerve cells squeezed into their 2-3 mm bodies, they possess a communications system that astonishes human beings.
The reactions in their communications have been divided into several specific categories: alarm, recruitment, grooming, exchange of oral and anal liquid, group effect, recognition, caste determination…173 Ants, which establish an ordered society by means of these reactions, live a life based on the mutual exchange of information. To bring about this exchange, they sometimes exhibit more flawless communication in areas that human beings often cannot resolve through speech, such as coming together, sharing, cleaning, and defence.
Ants mainly communicate on the chemical level. These semiochemicals, known as pheromones, are chemical compounds that are perceived by smell and secreted by internal glands. In addition, they play the most important role in organising ant societies. When an ant secretes a pheromone, the other ants receive it by means of smell or taste and duly respond. Research into ant pheromones has revealed that all signals are emitted according to the needs of the colony. Moreover, the intensity of the pheromone emitted also varies according to the urgency of the situation at hand.174
As we have seen, ants require a profound knowledge of chemistry to do what they do. The fact that the Qur'an emphasized this fact 1,400 years ago, a time when there was no such knowledge about ants, is another one of its scientific miracles. (See Harun Yahya, The Miracle in the Ant, Goodword Books, New Delhi, 2002)

As shown in the diagram, dead plants and animals are broken down by bacteria and transformed into minerals. This organic waste absorbed into the soil constitutes the basic foodstuff of plants. This nutritional cycle is therefore of vital importance for all living things.

THE FOOD CYCLE

Allah splits the seed and kernel. He brings forth the living from the dead, and produces the dead out of the living. That is Allah, so how are you misguided? (Qur'an, 6:95)

In the above verse, our attention is drawn to a food cycle of which people at the time of the Qur'an's revelation could have known nothing.
When a living thing dies, micro-organisms quickly cause it to decompose. The dead body is thus divided up into organic molecules that mix with the soil and form the basic source of food for plants, animals, and, ultimately, humanity. Were it not for this nutritional cycle, life would not be possible.
Bacteria are responsible for meeting all living things' mineral and food needs. Plants and some animals, which remain almost dead (hibernation) throughout the winter, revive in the summer and meet all of their mineral and food requirements through the activities of bacteria during the winter. Throughout the winter, bacteria separate organic wastes (i.e., dead plants and animals) and turn them into minerals.175 Thus, when living things reawaken in spring, they find food ready and waiting for them. Thanks to bacteria, a "spring cleaning" has been carried out in their environment and the necessary amount of food has been prepared for nature as it returns to life in the spring.
As we have seen, dead creatures play a vital role in the emergence of new ones. This transition, indicated in the Qur'an as "He brings forth the living from the dead, and produces the dead out of the living," is carried out in the most perfect manner. This is one of the proofs that the Qur'an is the word of Allah.

THE EARS ARE ACTIVE DURING SLEEP

So We sealed their ears [with sleep] in the cave for a number of years. (Qur'an, 18:11)

The original Arabic of the phrase "We sealed their ears" in the Qur'an is the verb daraba. This bears the metaphorical meaning of "We have made them sleep." Used in reference to the ears, daraba means "preventing the ears from hearing." The fact that only the sense of hearing is mentioned here is very significant.
According to recent scientific discoveries, the ear is the only sensory organ active while a person is sleeping. This is why we need an alarm clock to wake up.176 The wisdom of the phrase "We sealed their ears" is, in all probability, that Allah closed the hearing of the young people in question, for which reason they remained asleep for many years.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOVEMENT IN SLEEP

You would have supposed them to be awake, whereas in fact they were asleep. We moved them to the right and to the left, and, at the entrance, their dog stretched out its paws. If you had looked down and seen them, you would have turned from them and run, and have been filled with terror at the sight of them. (Qur'an, 18:18)

The above verse refers to the Companions of the Cave, who remained asleep for hundreds of years. In addition, Allah also reveals that He moved their bodies to the left and right. The wisdom of this was only discovered in recent times.
People who remain lying down in the same position for long period of time encounter serious health problems, such as circulation difficulties, sores, and blood clotting in that part of the body in contact with the surface on which they lie.177
The resulting sores are known as "bed sores" or "pressure sores." Due to the constant pressure on one part of the body when one is not moving for a long period of time, the blood vessels become constricted and can close altogether. As a result, the oxygen and other nutrients carried by the blood fail to reach the skin, and the skin begins to die. This leads to the appearance of sores on the body. Unless these sores are treated, fat and muscles can also die.178
These sores, which form under the skin or tissue, can assume serious dimensions unless treated. If they become infected, they can even lead to death. The healthiest thing to do, therefore, is to change the position of the body every 15 minutes in order to reduce this pressure. Patients who cannot move themselves therefore receive special care and are moved every 2 hours by other people.179 The fact that these medical facts, only discovered in the last century, are referred to in the Qur'an is yet another of its miracles.

REDUCED MOVEMENT AT NIGHT

He splits the sky at dawn, and appoints the night as a time of stillness and the Sun and Moon as a means of reckoning... (Qur'an, 6:96)

The Arabic word sakan, which appears in the original of the above verse, means "repose, rest, time to withdraw to rest, time for a break." As indicated by Allah, night is the time when human beings rest. The hormone melatonin, secreted at night, prepares the body for sleep by slowing down peoples' physical movements, making them sleepy and tired, and functioning as a natural tranquilliser that eases their minds.180 During sleep, heartbeat and respiration rhythms slow down and blood pressure falls. In the morning, the production of the hormones stops and the body is stimulated to awaken.181
At the same time, sleep allows the body's muscles and tissues to repair themselves and the body to replace old or dead cells. Since energy expenditure is reduced during sleep, the body stores energy throughout the night. Several chemicals vital for the immune system and growth hormones are also secreted during sleep.182
In the event that people fail to get enough sleep, therefore, the immune system is immediately affected and the body becomes more susceptible to sickness. If people are unable to sleep for two nights, they will find it harder to concentrate and their error levels will rise. If they are deprived of sleep for three nights, they will begin to hallucinate and be unable to think logically.183
Night is as much a time for rest for other living things as it is for human beings. This situation, referred to by Allah in the verse "the night as a time of stillness," indicates a fact that cannot be observed by the naked eye: Many activities that take place during the day slow down and rest during the night. In plants, for instance, perspiration in leaves and photosynthesis begin to rise when the Sun rises. In the afternoon, the situation is reversed. In other words, photosynthesis slows down and respiration increases since perspiration is accelerated as the temperature rises. At night time, as the temperature falls, perspiration slows down and the plant rests. Most plants would die if just one night failed to take place. From that point of view, night means rest and reinvigoration for plants, just as it does for human beings.184
Movement at the molecular level also declines at night. The radiation emitted by the Sun during the day activates the atoms and molecules in Earth's atmosphere and causes them to achieve higher energy levels. As darkness falls, the atoms and molecules fall to lower energy levels and start to give off radiation.185
These facts are, in all probability, indicated in Surat al-An‘am 96 and reveal yet another of the Qur'an's countless miracles. (Allah knows best.)

CHEST CONTRACTION WITH INCREASING HEIGHT

Human beings need oxygen and air pressure in order to live. Breathing is made possible by the oxygen in the atmosphere reaching the air sacs in our lungs. As elevation rises, however, atmospheric pressure goes down as the atmosphere becomes thinner. Therefore, the amount of oxygen entering the blood stream declines and it becomes harder to breathe. As the air sacs grow narrow and contract, we feel as if we cannot breathe.
If the amount of oxygen in the blood is less than the body needs, several symptoms emerge: extreme fatigue, headaches, dizziness, nausea, and loss of judgement. When a certain height is reached, it finally becomes impossible for a human being to breathe at all.186 This is why we need oxygen bottles and special clothing in order to survive at such elevations.
Someone at 5,000-7,500 metres (16,500-24,500 feet) above sea-level may faint and go into a coma because of breathing difficulties. That explains the presence of oxygen equipment in airplanes. There are also special systems that regulate air pressure when planes fly at 9,000-10,000 metres (29,500-33,000 feet) above sea-level.
Anoxia occurs when oxygen fails to reach the tissues. This oxygen deficiency occurs at heights of 3,000-4,500 metres (10,000-15,000 feet). Some people even lose consciousness at such elevations, but can be saved by immediate oxygen treatment.
In the comparison made in the verse below, this physical truth, the changes that take place in the chest with increasing height, is indicated in these terms:

When Allah desires to guide someone, He expands his breast to Islam. When He desires to misguide someone, He makes his breast narrow and constricted as if he were climbing up into the sky. That is how Allah defiles those who have no faith. (Qur'an, 6:125)

AERODYNAMIC FORCES AND THE FLIGHT PROGRAMMED IN BIRDS

Do they not see the birds suspended in mid-air up in the sky? Nothing holds them there except Allah. There are certainly signs in that for people who believe. (Surat an-Nahl, 79)

Due to the force of gravity, all bodies left in the air will eventually fall to earth, either fast or slowly. Everything, living or otherwise, is subject to gravity. But as a miracle of Allah (God) birds are able to resist this force and fly upward and downward in the air. They maneuver in the air, and sometimes even fold their wings and glide through it. All details in birds, from their feathers to their lungs, from the arrangement of their feathers to the shape of their wings, are equipped with a special feature and order intended to enable them to fly. A chick totally unaware of the act of flight and the laws of aerodynamics is born with the ability to fly. The chick launches itself downwards and begins to fly, just as if it knew its body was created for flight. This is not information that is taught subsequently or that a bird learns by trial and error. The way a bird knows it has the body structure needed to fly, finds the courage to launch itself into the air and then flies without hitting the ground all happens through Allah’s inspiration.

The Arabic word “yumsikuhunna” translated as “holds” in verse 79 of Surat an-Nahl means “not letting them go, taking them, catching them, or holding them.” The word is the present tense of the verse “amsaka,” meaning “to catch with the hand, hold and pull back.”  With this word, our Almighty Lord reveals that He holds the bird in the air and that it flies by His command. Bird flight is still the subject of wide-ranging research by scientists. Having observed the perfection in bird flight, scientists use the avian body and avian flight as direct models in producing such vehicle as airplanes and jets.

Verse 79 of Surat an-Nahl may in one way be indicating the way that birds comply with the aerodynamic laws created by Allah as they fly. (Allah knows the truth.) The science of aerodynamics studies the behavior of solid bodies in a fluid environment such as air. For example, as a plane moves through the air, various forces emerge that affect that movement. In order for the plane to move as planned and not to run into any unexpected forces or resistance, the plane is tested beforehand against the resistance exhibited by the air. Its movement is planned as a result of lengthy calculations, measurements and experiments.

The way that birds comply with the principles of aerodynamics continues to astonish scientists. Using no form of trial and error, they cope with the laws of aerodynamics in the most perfect manner. The use of the word " musakhkharatin" (suspended) in the verse to describe bird flight is exceedingly wise. Because it suggests that they have been “encouraged to a specific end, have had to do something, have submitted or bowed their heads, have bound themselves to Allah or have submitted to His laws”.  In that way, the verse may be indicating the way that aerodynamic laws have a determining influence on bird flight. (Allah knows the truth.)

At first sight there would appear to be nothing to make it difficult for birds to fly. But according to aerodynamics, any object flying in the air is subject to various different forces. The best-known of these are gravity, propulsion, drag and lift. In order for meaningful flight to take place, these forces have to be balanced. For example, if gravity is stronger than the other forces, the bird will fall to earth. That is why the word in the verse is the best possible expression of birds’ condition as they are subjected to these forces.  The presence in the Qur’an of expressions containing such information at a time when no science of aerodynamics or mechanics existed, once again reveals that the Qur’an is a divine text.

The illustration shows the main forces acting on a bird during flight.
Lift
Drag
Weight
Propulsion
(http://www.drbonesshow.com/page6.html)

The tops of birds’ wings are curved, the bottoms flat. This shape produces lower pressure on the top compared to the bottom. This difference in air pressure produces a lift force that enables the bird to rise in the air by beating its wings upward. (right)  (1) The air moving rapidly around the bird’s wings produces the lift force.  (2) The bird bends its wings in order to obtain greater lift force. The air flowing over the wings is thus accelerated. (3) If it inclines its wings upward at a very steep angle, air cannot easily flow to the upper parts of the wings and the bird loses speed and stalls. Through Allah’s inspiration, birds make use of the principles of aerodynamics as they fly. (From the book Birds and the Origin of Flight)

In addition to the aerodynamic perfection in bird flight, scientists are also researching the migrations of thousands of kilometers that they make. Ornithologists have today concluded that these are literally programmed in them. The way that young birds are able to undertake long and arduous journeys with no guide or previous experience is the most obvious example of this. The Arabic word “musakhkharatin" in the verse quoted above implies “being encouraged toward a specific target, being taken under command, being taken under submission,” clearly revealing that birds obey the instructions they are given when following the directions set out for them. There is no possibility of birds, which are devoid of intellect and consciousness, managing to make their own calculations as they fly along.  Scientists today are agreed that these extraordinary abilities in birds are “pre-programmed” in them. This is set out in an article in the journal Science:

There is good evidence that young birds are equipped with endogenous migratory programs, which tell them roughly how many days and/or nights that they must fly, and in what direction. (Rudiger Wehner, "Bird Navigation—Computing Orthodromes", Science, 12 January 2001, vol. 291, no. 5502, pp. 264–265.)

In his book La Puissance et la Fragilité, Prof. Pierre Jean Hamburger from René Descartes University describes the extraordinary 24,000-kilometer journey made by the shearwater that lives in the Pacific Ocean:

It sets out from the coast of Australia. From there it flies straight southward to the Pacific. Then it turns north and flies along the coast of Japan until reaching the Bering Sea where it can rest for a while. Following that break it sets off again, and this time heads south. Crossing the western coast of America, it arrives in California. It then crosses the Pacific to return to its starting point. The route and timing of this 15,000-mile (24,000-kilometer) figure ‘8’ journey it makes every year never change. The journey in question lasts a whole six months, always coming to an end in the third week of September on the island it left six months before, at the nest it left six months before. What comes next is even more astonishing; after their return, the birds clean their nests, mate, and lay a single egg over the last 10 days of October. The chicks hatch out two months later, grow very fast and are cared for over three months until their parents set out on that stupendous journey. Two weeks later; around the middle of April, it is time for the young birds to take wing on their own journey. They follow exactly the same route as that described above, with no guide. The explanation is so obvious: These birds must have all the directions for such a journey within the inherited characteristics passed on within the egg.  Some people may claim that birds navigate by the Sun and stars or follow the winds prevailing along their route on this journey out and back. But it is clear that these factors cannot determine the journey’s geographical and chronological accuracy. (Pierre Jean Hamburger, La Puissance et la Fragilité, Flammarion Pub., Paris, 1972.)

Prof. Peter Berthold is a famous ornithologist who has investigated bird migration for 20 years and president of the Max Planck Institute Ornithological Research Center in Germany. He says the following about bird migration:

Every year an estimated 50 billion birds make migratory journeys, cealong a network of routes that encompasses the whole world. Sometimes travelling tens of thousands of kilometers, crossing continents and oceans, migratory birds have become so well adapted to this task that they can traverse the largest deserts and seas, the highest mountains and expanses of ice... migratory birds have comprehensive, detailed, innate spatio-temporal programs for successful migration. Such programs evidently enable even young, inexperienced birds to migrate alone, with no adult guide, to the species- or population-specific winter quarters that they have never seen before. As will be explained further below, they do this by "vector" navigation: referring to a vector composed of a genetically predetermined migratory direction and to a time-plan, also genetically predetermined, for the course of migration... It follows that the departure time is programmed by genetic factors... But how do birds "know" the direction in which to migrate, so that they will reach their specific winter quarters? Here, again data have been obtained that point to direct genetic control mechanisms. It has long been suspected that migration directions are innate... when displaced from the normal starting point, and still more crucially, when tested in orientation cages, migratory birds showed directional preferences practically identical to the normal ones, even if they had never migrated before. Now a number of experiments have provided evidence of the genetic determination of migration direction... Even these directional changes are evidently programmed endogenously to a great extent... With an innate pattern of migratory activity, the birds possess a genetically determined migration schedule. In combination with genetically determined migratory directions, as mentioned above, it guides even inexperienced individuals, migrating for the first time, "automatically" to their previously unknown winter quarters (vector navigation, using a vector composed of a time- and a direction-plan). (Peter Berthold, "Bird Migration: Introductory Remarks and Overall Perspective", Torgos, 1998, Vol. 28, pp. 25-30; http://www.birds.org.il/show_item.asp?itemId=1211&levelId=811&template=209)

In conclusion, although scientists are unable to fully account for it, scientists still agree that migration is pre-programmed behavior that birds possess from birth. Journeys lasting thousands of kilometers, the preparations made for these flights and bird’s ability to find their way and navigate during flight all take place by our Lord’s choosing, as expressed in the above verse. The accuracy of all the information provided in the Qur’an is important evidence that this information has all been revealed by Allah.