Summary

Bridges made with spider silk; ships that swim like fish; rubber as supple as a dragonfly's wing ... innovations like these are at the forefront of the concept of 'the new biology'. A way of using nature as a model for human designs, the new biology is a growing force in many different fields, and will have enormous impact on the development of the twenty-first century. Companies like IBM, Volvo and AT&T are already exploring how we can learn from and use properties that exist in nature, and how to improve cost-efficiency by using concepts like 'design for disassembly', whereby each component of a product can be recycled at the end of the product's natural life. Waste products, too, are increasingly being used as raw materials, so one industry's rubbish is another's power. Creating 'industrial ecologies' like these lies at the heart of the new biology: a new way of thinking for a new millennium.

The essential introduction to this idea, PULSE is a fascinating look at how we might be living in the twenty-first century.