From Bionics to Biohybrids

For centuries, scientists have looked to nature for models when inventing new technologies. This book shows how ideas drawn from biology have inspired new ways of making and thinking—from robots modeled on living organisms to materials that mimic natural processes. Through vivid examples from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it explores how these “bio-inspired” innovations reshape what we know about science, design, and the natural world itself. By bringing together the history of science and the philosophy of technology, Marco Tamborini reveals how evolving research practices blur the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. The result is a compelling account of how nature continues to guide technological imagination and how the quest to understand life has transformed the tools we build to study it.