BioInspired! So What? Now What!

After a year's absence, BioInspired! has been re-launched with a new sponsor, Georgia Tech's Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID).  Whereas the previous newsletter was intended for a broad audience, this newsletter will focus on promoting the practice of bio-inspired design.  It will ask provocative questions that explore fundamental issues, helping to strengthen the discipline.

The first Biomimicry Newsletter was published in October 2003 as a quarterly communications vehicle for the core biomimicry community, with a distribution in the low hundreds.  In 2006, Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister wanted a newsletter suitable for a wider audience.  The first BioInspired! issue was sent to nearly 1,300 subscribers in July 2006 under the sponsorship of the newly formed Biomimicry Institute.  Through the support of the Biomimicry Guild, The Biomimicry Institute and dozens of contributors, the last issue in May 2009 reached 4,762 subscribers.

With this issue, the newsletter is going back to its roots.  The target audience is the growing number of individuals and organizations committed to practical applications of bio-inspired design (BID), attracted by the potential for encouraging sustainable technology and innovation.  CBID is a particularly good sponsor because it represents a "group of interdisciplinary biologists, engineers and physical scientists who seek to facilitate research and education for innovative products and techniques based on biologically-inspired design solutions".  Some of the key elements of CBID were developed at the 2005 Biomimicry & Design Workshop in Costa Rica.

BioInspired! will continue to be published quarterly in both PDF and web-based formats.  Issues will contain an average of 10 pages or about 5000 words.  Content will be technical but not academic, avoiding jargon or discipline-specific concepts.  The scope will range from the strategic to the practical, but always striving to be insightful, relevant, useful and evidence-based.  Scientific integrity and credibility will be emphasized.

Articles will:

• disseminate information on new developments in the field
• promote activities at CBID and other leaders in bio-inspired design
• provide readers with opportunities to get involved, create networks and contribute to sustainable human behavior, product development and practices

Topic areas will include:

• case studies on successful applications
• discussion of useful biological principles
• biological or engineering analysis of specific biological systems that are useful in solving certain classes of problems
• information search strategies and design techniques
• issues relating to bio-inspired design education

The newsletter is part of the larger Bio-Inspired Design Community initiative and will be funded through the community membership fee.