Energy Efficiency - Learning from Nature

Most of the products and spaces we are using need energy and as a result of this have a heating or cooling technology integrated. If you stand quietly just about anywhere and you are likely to hear a fan running - in the computer you are using, in the air conditioning unit of the building you are in, and throughout the water, air, and electrical systems upon which the city around you depends. Fans and other rotational devices are a major part of the human built environment, and a major component of our total energy usage.
 
People have been building fans or similar mechanical devices for centuries and these days most of them are powered by electricity. In nature however flowing fluids, gases, and heat follow a common geometric pattern that differs in shape from conventional human-made rotors. Nature moves water and air using a logarithmic or exponentially growing spiral, as commonly seen in seashells. This pattern shows up everywhere in nature: in the curled up trunks of elephants and tails of chameleons, in the pattern of swirling galaxies in outer space and kelp in ocean surf, and in the shape of the cochlea of our inner ears and our own skin pores.

Over the last years the new science of biomimicry has been emerging. Biomimicry studies nature's most successful solutions and then uses what it learns from these solutions to address human problems. On the back of this research companies -