The archive

September 9, 2026

The Borrowed Nature of Biomimicry

99% Invisible · Roman Mars · 32 min

Why we chose this episode

Designers love the phrase learn from nature. This looks at what that borrowing actually costs and who gets credit.

Listen for this question

Who do you credit when you take an idea?

Listen to the full episode

Every link above sends you to the creator’s own platform. We respect the original work, so we never host or summarize it here — we just point you back to the people who made it.

Who it’s for: Anyone who has nodded along to a biomimicry slide.

Best way to listen

Short, on a commute.

After the episode

Find one designed object and guess what it was copied from.

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