Greetings Aspiring Biomimics and curious readers alike!

I would like to share with you a fundamental piece in the Biomimicry Design Process:

The Function Card

You can't create a biomimicry project without finding what organism(s) you want to mimic. And you can't mimic an organism without understanding how it funcion. Hence the creation of the function card! Over the course of your biomimicry career, you will probably create a database of these, so it is important to learn how to create them correctly.

What is a Biomimicry Function Card?

A function card lays out, in both biological and design terms, what an organism does. This can include a biological or behavioral process. Every organism can have multiple function cards, since each card should detail only one particular function—and we know organisms do more than just one thing. For example, when it comes to a cat, you can have function cards for their night vision, the way whiskers work, purring, jumping ability, and so on.

The way I was taught¹, a function card includes eight (8) essential items for each organism:

1. Name: both common and scientific
2. Picture: preferably where we can see the particular function you are talking about
3. Diagram: a visual detail of the function or elements needed for the function to work
4. Function: look below for details on what a function is
5. Strategy: look below for details on what a strategy is
6. Mechanism: a biological description of how the function works
7. Design Principle: an abstract of the mechanism in non-biological terms that a designer can use to implement the function
8. References: you always need to cite your sources, even in biomimicry!

Function

A function, by definition, is the purpose of something. In the context of biomimicry, function refers to the role played by an organism’s adaptations or behaviors that enable it to survive. Importantly, function can also refer to something you need your design solution to do².

Let me give you an example: going back to the Star-nosed Mole I mentioned last week, the function I identified for that organism on a recent project I worked on was, "senses and processes touch; captures solids".

Biomimicry 3.8 has developed an entire taxonomy of functions to make it easier to search for and identify organisms that do what your design needs to do. When you know the function, the research goes much faster.

Strategy

Organisms meet functional needs through biological strategies. A biological strategy is a characteristic, mechanism, or process that performs a function for an organism. It’s an adaptation the organism has in order to survive².

Again, for the Star-nosed Mole, the strategy used to carry out the desired function is, "quickly identifies food using 22 tentacles (rays) as a mechanosensory organ, then uses teeth to pull and devour."

For the rest, it is probably easier if I show you my full function card for the adorable, Star-nosed Mole:

Isn't he cute?! Now does a function card make sense?

To help you create function cards, Biomimicry 3.8 has created a database called, Ask Nature. Here you can put in a function, organism, or strategy and get detailed information. You will still need to do your own research to complete the whole card, but with Ask Nature, it goes much faster! Plus, Ask Nature is so cool because it details functions we didn't even realize some organisms do! I have a feeling some of you are going to get lost down the Ask Nature rabbit hole, I know I have a bunch of times!!

How do you use a Function Card?

During the biomimicry design process, you will go through many, many, many function cards to find the right organism. This is why it is important to create as many as possible. For the last project I worked on--where we designed a compost cultivator—we created a database of over 30 organisms that carried out the three functions we were looking for. From there, we narrowed our work down to this:

The rest of the organisms went back to the database to be used for the next workshop process, which for most of us will be a greenhouse in a dry climate that uses distilled seawater and condensation to water grow tropical fruit.

Go Create a Function Card of Your Own

Now that you have the basics, try creating one. Don't worry about getting it wrong, most of us make a billion mistakes before getting the hang of it, especially if you don't have a biology background. (Which I don't!) If you have any questions, I will be right here, ready to answer. Add your function card in the comments and let's start to create our own Steemit database!

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Plant Neurobiology and Biomimicry

SPEAKER | FACILITATOR | NATUREPRENEUR

Facilitating evolutionary Interspecies Communication to CoCreate Nature-Inspired Places, Products, and Processes.

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REFERENCES

1. My training in Biomimicry crosses several sources, but the most significant are Biomimicry 3.8 and Bioversum, nature inspired solutions, with which I am currently pursing my Biomimicry Circular Innovation certification.

2. Biomimicry Insitute Toolbox, Functions and Strategies.