From decades engineers took inspiration for bespoke engineering designs from Mother Nature.The first highway reflectors were made to mimic cat eyes and Velcro was inspired by the hooked barbs of thistle. But today, the field known as biomimetic, is a money-making industry in which science is mimicks nature and thus derives references for new inventions. http://technologiesinspiredfromanimalkingdom.blogspot.co.uk/