How much biology is in the product? Role and relevance of biological evolution and function for bio-inspired design

Bio-inspired design (BID) means the concept of transferring functional principles from biology to technology. The core idea driving BID-related work is that evolution has shaped functional attributes, which are termed “adaptations” in biology, to a high functional performance by relentless selective pressure. For current methods and tools, such as data bases, it is implicitly supposed that the considered biological models are adaptations and their functions already clarified. Often, however, the identification of adaptations and their functional features is a difficult task which is not yet accomplished for numerous biological structures, as happens to be the case also for various organismic features from which successful BID developments were derived. This appears to question the relevance of the much stressed importance of evolution for BID. While it is obviously possible to derive an attractive technical principle from an observed biological effect without knowing its original functionality, this kind of BID (“analog BID”) has no further ties to biology. In contrast, a BID based on an adaptation and its function (“homolog BID”) is deeply embedded in biology. It is suggested that a serious and honest clarification of the functional background of a biological structure is an essential first step in devising a BID project, to recognize possible problems and pitfalls as well as to evaluate the need for further biological analysis.