Biomimicry in action: Filling up on fog like the Namib beetle

Biomimicry is a design discipline we love (a great place to start if you don’t know much about it is this book). Allowing nature to inspire our human innovations makes complete sense. Why? Because nature knows best. Its design strategies, after all, have been tested and perfected over 3.7 billion years. And it’s great when human designers pay attention. The latest example of clever biomimicry we’ve come across takes its cue from a small creature the Earth-Touch film crews know well: the Namib beetle.

Award-winning designers have come up with an irrigation system that can extract water out of dry desert air. The inspiration? The hydrophilic (water-loving) bumps that cover the Namib beetle’s body. Since they hang out on the parched sands of the Namib Desert, Stenocara beetles have only one source of moisture: the morning fog. The beetle faces the wind, spreads its wings and (voilà!) water droplets from the fog begin to gather on those hydrophilic bumps. Eventually, the drops form a trickle of precious water – channelled straight into the beetle’s mouth.

Come to me, water droplets... (Image via Hans Hillewaert, Wikimedia Commons)

The low-tech AirDrop irrigation system works in a similar way – but applies the idea on a much larger scale. It’s also the perfect eco solution for farmers who grow crops in some of the world’s driest environments. It’s really like, erm, water off a beetle’s back…

(Here’s a little P.S … Biomimicry seems to be all over the news lately. Click here to find out how humming birds could inspire better MAVs and washing machines!)