I only recently started browsing the Harvard and Michigan news articles that make it to my inbox and are typically deleted out of annoyance. Even useful or interesting emails can cause annoyance when my focus is somewhere else.

Here's an article I found interesting after having taken a studio based on biomimicry in my undergrad work:

http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2011/01/story.php?id=7925&tr=y&auid=7618790

It's about a hydropower generator inspired by the mouth of a basking shark. (Designed by an industrial designer!)

It's easy to understand the implications of nature's inspiration in the engineering world as nature often already beautifully does things we are seeking to do mechanically. The implications of biomimicry on architecture are still, for me, harder to understand. In our studio, at least, it was easy to initially turn to looking at ideas inspired by nature about buildings, mechanics that were sadly tack ons, or literal mimicry.

There's a biomimicry club at the GSD, now that I think about it. Maybe I should drop in.