Promises and Limits of Biomimicry

Science is never just a moment of revelation. It is a practice, a network, and often a contested terrain. At the intersection of research, industry, policy, and culture, that terrain is being reshaped through new possibilities in sustainable design. Join a conversation exploring how natural materials and processes inspire novel approaches from science to fashion. 

Spanning artisanal knowledge and craft traditions to biomimicry and bio-based engineering, this event foregrounds how making and knowing intersect in shaping materials of the past and future. Bringing together science, history, and practice, materials scientist Peter Fratzl, historian Pamela H. Smith, and designer Natsai Audrey Chieza, explore the promises and limits of learning from nature. By looking to both past knowledge and emerging bio-based technologies, they trace how biomimicry has shifted from copying natural forms to understanding living processes. Examples include Renaissance manuals for lifecasting animals, modern materials science, and recent use of natural bacterial pigments as alternatives to resource-intensive industrial dyes. This conversation engages with the growing urgency to rethink materials and design in response to climate crisis and limited resources.

This event is part of the lecture series Historical Moments: Science, Humanities, and Society. Over two years, scientists, historians, and public voices from culture, politics, and the arts will engage in dialogue about the past, present, and possible futures of science. The series is dedicated, but not limited, to exploring the following questions:

• How do “historical moments” in science come into being?
• Who defines what counts as a breakthrough, and who remains invisible?
• How does scientific knowledge shape us, individually and collectively?

At a time when science itself is under scrutiny, this series invites you not to stand aside, but to engage: to witness the making of science, to question its trajectories, and to take part in the conversation.

This event is organized by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in collaboration with the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW).