Biomimetics – What’s That?

When engineers try to copy the design of some features in living creatures they are working in the field of biomimetics. One of the more recent endeavors involves the scaly skin of a sandfish skink lizard. Those scales do not overlap, they allow smooth movement forwards but resist any backward motion and they do all that without any lubrication. What a huge advance this feature would be in miniature devices or those in dusty environments where any oily lubrication would clog things up.

Christian Greuner and Michael Schaefer of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany pursued that goal. They copied the scale pattern onto a flat steel surface and tested it out. To their surprise the reduction in friction amounted to 40% less friction! They were hoping for at least 1%. Although the project had consumed many dollars and many hours, their skill in applying it to practical ventures made it very rewarding.

If it took highly developed engineering skill, much money and a lot of time to just copy the idea onto steel, how much more creative skill would the One have who originally  incorporated it in a living creature? How is it so many attribute the original design feature to chance and random natural selection, but honor the genius of the ones who copied it? We have a very powerful and highly intelligent Creator.

Honoring the Lord lines up with the sunny side.

Henry Wiebe