Biomimetic materials

Life is a specific characteristic of our planet. The diversity of life, biodiversity, is one of the most fascinating phenomena. We know some 1.8 million different species, but all extrapolations show that probably 20 million or more species exist: We know less than 10% of the plants, animals and micro-organisms living on the planet Earth. The editors, who are both biologists, are well acquainted with these figures whilst for non-biologists this fact is most surprising and even unbelievable. The process of life started more than one billion years ago, it is a continuous process of evolution, of mutation and selection, of structures and materials. Put another way, this means one billion years of trial, error and optimization. The diversity of life thus created a breath taking diversity of materials and structures based on an extremely restricted number of elements.