Biomimicry

"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."

"Used widely in nature, lamination – the deposition of fine layers of materials on top of one another – has long been known as a means of manufacturing stronger, more durable and longer lasting metals. Founded in 2006, Seattle’s Modumetal is applying the process of lamination at nano-scale, enabling engineers to design and fabricate metals with superior performance characteristics and at lower cost than conventional methods."