Biomimicry

"Airbus and its subsidiary APWorks, in collaboration with Autodesk-owned architecture firm The Living, has started 3D printing the world’s largest metal 3D printed airplane part. The jet partition, 3D printed in a high-tech alloy called “Scalmalloy”, is 45% lighter than current partitions. [...] To create the most durable and lightweight design possible, the project team sought inspiration from nature. Bionics, which involves examining natural mechanics to see how they could be mimicked in technological devices, has been crucial in the production of the 3D printed component. The jet partition was created with custom algorithms, which generated a design that mimics cellular structure and bone growth. Airbus has also been exploring weight-saving aircraft structures based on the construction of super-strong water lilies, and torsion springs based on fish jaws."

The Eiffel Tower weighs less than the air around it. It achieves this by exploiting the same structural ideas that make your bones so strong yet so light.

"If you ride in a car or plane today, you may be the unknowing beneficiary of planet-helping biomimetic design. Designers and engineers can reduce the size or weight of many vehicle parts for greater efficiency or cost savings. This shape optimization is a major task in engineering. Making things lighter, stronger and faster long has been a goal in manufacturing, but engineers are increasingly employing biologically inspired algorithms to design many objects around you. The better integration of three methods has fostered this still-growing tide of bio-inspired design objects: biologically inspired algorithms for analysis and shape iteration, computer aided design and additive manufacturing."