"Many clever ideas have their origins in nature"

Professor Kesel, what is that even – bionics?
Bionics is a trans-disciplinary science at the intersection of natural science – primarily biology – and engineering. The latter group of disciplines tends to be categorised as applied sciences. This approach allows for disciplines such as architecture or logistics to benefit from bionic optimisations following the example of nature. 

What can be achieved through bionics?
Bionics can help to solve problems that cannot or not readily be solved with unidisciplinary methods. Technology faces great challenges, whenever multiple or many aspects must be considered simultaneously. Taking a look at biology can often help to find promising approaches here. Around 3.4 billion years of development activities and the currently about 20 million different species on this planet represent a rich pool to draw from.  

Biological structures are almost always resource-optimised in line with the motto "as much as necessary and as little as possible". This is why products and processes that are based on an example from biology are usually more efficient, allowing us to save energy and reduce the strain on the climate. 

Which products and applications are particularly interesting in your opinion?
Many clever ideas have their origins in nature. Mimicking shark skin can help to reduce flow resistance of planes and ships, and that saves fuel. A non-toxic underwater paint that protects ships and aquacultures against barnacles was developed in the same context. 

The Salvinia effect that is named after floating ferns has inspired coatings for ship hulls which retain an air layer, and this, too, promotes efficiency and is beneficial to the environment. 

Another genius idea comes from the desert: the fog-basking beetle extracts drinking water from humid air. Its body surface was used as a model for developing technical fog collectors for dry regions. 

Lightweight structures for cars and planes whose shape is based on biological examples are also very effective, as less material and energy is consumed.  

There are also self-healing materials, such as concrete that is able to repair small cracks. Artificial intelligence is also based on nature: neuronal networks mimic the way in which our brain learns and processes information. 

Which are the bionic research fields that you believe to offer particularly great potential?
Honestly, all of them! Right now I think that surface functionalisation is especially important: resistance reduction is extremely relevant to climate-change mitigation. The same applies to passive temperature reduction on surfaces. There's huge potential in the area of materials, too. Smart, self-healing and regenerative are the buzzwords here. And let's not forget about adaptive, smart medical assistance systems, or information processing for managing big data, for example.  
You get the picture: there's a lot to come!