Manufacturing principles and practices that mimic natural materials or processes.

An example of biomimetics is the Swiss inventor named George de Mestral. An avid hiker, de Mestral and his dog were plagued by burrs sticking tenaciously to his tweed pants and the dogs hair.

He examined the burrs and found they contained tiny, hooks that had a natural tendency to attach themselves to the miniature loops found in fabric. This inspired, de Mestral who spent years trying to mimic the same mechanism and, in the late 1950's, he presented the world with his new invention which he called Velcro.