Innovation inspired by nature is nothing new, although, stolen from nature would be more accurate. Step forward the humble sea cucumber. Scientists announced last month that by copying the consistency of the skin of these sea-bed dwellers they had developed a material for next-generation medical implants.

Biomimetics is a more formal name for the abstraction of design from nature. It is a field that involves an enormous range of scientists and has huge attractions, as recent advances have demonstrated. Professor Andrew Parker leads a research team specialising in biomimetics at the Natural History Museum in London. “Nature is multipurpose. A butterfly wing is iridiscent but it is also self-cleaning and flexible,” he says, clearly excited by the latest medical advances inspired by nature.

Flies - the new buzz in hearing aids

Scientists announced recently the development of a microphone that can pinpoint exactly where a sound is coming from. This technology could be added to hearing aids, making them more efficient. Although this may sound like a feat of human engineering, its design was nicked from a parasitic fly called Ormia ochracea. This bug has exceptional hearing thanks to a bridge of protein linking its eardrums. This bridge rocks up and down and amplifies differences in the sound waves arriving at each ear, allowing the fly to detect the tiniest of differences and get a much better directional signal. Work at the University of Maryland indicates that this “fly mike” is eight times more effective at pinpointing the direction of sound than the best commercial one.

Butterflies - causing a beauty flutter

Dr Abigail Ingram, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum, is studying butterfly iridescence. Butterflies have two layers of scales on their wings: the deeper basal one contains melanin, a pigment that absorbs light; the top cover scale reflects it.

The complex 3-D structure of these scales, combined with the dual layers, creates the shimmering colours of the insect's wing. Dr Ingram is working with a leading cosmetics company to see if butterfly technology can be copied or adapted to create more luminescent, sparkling eye shadows, lipsticks and foundation.

Butterflies also have an important place in our medical history. The mocker swallowtail (Papilio dardanus) is one of the butterflies you will be able to see at the Amazing Butterflies exhibition, which opened this week at the Natural History Musuem. It was the inspiration for a life-saving discovery, through its ability to closely resemble nasty-tasting species that birds avoid. Cyril Clarke, a Liverpool doctor who became a well-known medical geneticist, kept butterflies as a hobby. He realised that the butterfly's ability is an inherited trait and that the way it was passed from one generation to another was similar to the way the Rhesus blood groups were inherited in human beings.

In the late 1950s, the babies of women who were rhesus negative often died or developed life threatening anaemia. Antibodies formed during a first pregnancy caused problems in later pregnancies when they attacked the baby's red blood cells. Inspired by his butterflies, Dr Clarke developed anti-D, a way of destroying any antibodies that the mother had developed so that future pregnancies would be protected.

Sea cucumbers - implants

Medicine is always on the lookout for materials that are biocompatible. In some areas this search is an urgent one. For instance, in recent years electrical brain implants have been developed to control tremors in Parkinson's disease, and also for patients with stroke or spinal cord injuries. But some fail within a few months. It is thought that one reason may be that the implants use electrodes that are stiff and can damage brain tissue over time. Now the humble sea cucumber has come to the rescue.

When these squishy sea creatures are threatened, their skin suddenly becomes rigid. Research suggests that this trick is achieved by chemicals secreted by the animal when in danger, which stiffen fibres embedded in their soft bodies. Material scientists from Cleveland, Ohio, have copied this, adding fine cellulose fibres to a rubbery mixture. The fibres make the mixture soft when wet, but hard when dry, potentially alleviating the damage caused by stiff electrodes.

Geckos and mussels - sticking power

One of the most interesting innovations from nature is “geckel”. It is a glue that combines the sticky powers of gecko feet, which allow the lizard to walk upside down on ceilings, with the adhesive that mussels produce to hold them fast to wet surfaces. The glue works on wet and dry surfaces and can be re-used many times. Its potential applications include water-resistant bandages, stickier drug delivery patches and in repairing skin wounds.

Spiders - spinning sutures

Spider silk has strength, amazing stretch and is also, some studies seem to indicate, ignored by the human immune system, making it a perfect suture material. Of the seven types of silk produced by spiders, dragline silk is perhaps the most admired, and that produced by the black widow spider is the crème de la crème. Biologists at the University of California made headlines last year when they isolated the gene coding for two key proteins in dragline silk. Bacteria could then be genetically engineered to produce spider silk by the mile.

But here's a funny thing. This group is just one of several involved in spider-silk research. All promise that it will be “in use soon” in medicine, but I found no evidence that any surgeons have yet got their hands on it.

Dr Mark Miodownik, of King's College London, says: “The spider silk story comes around every five years or so. What it proves is that having a good material isn't enough. To be used, it has to be cheaper than what's already available and absolutely perfect for a particular job.”

Professor Parker agrees that whether a particular application takes off is dependent on the moment. He cites solar panels and flies as an example. There is a particular part of a fly's eye through which light passes with almost no reflection. Professor Parker's group copied this material, which is used on solar panels, resulting in a 10 per cent increase in energy capture. A decade ago, there was no commercial imperative to make solar panels more efficient.

But a more potent reason why biomimetic's potential is not realised is because our manufacturing technologies are not anywhere near on a par with those of animals. Perhaps this is why the next generation of biomimetics could not only be the most exciting yet, but also deliver on their promise.

“We are moving beyond simply copying to using nature directly in applications,” says Dr Ingram. One example is diatoms, the microscopic, single-cell iridescent creatures that float in the plankton, making food from sunlight. Energy-intensive industrial processes are needed to create tiny artificial reflectors used in iridescent paints, clothing and the holograms that are now a critical tool in combating counterfeit medicines. Professor Parker believes that a tonne of made-to-spec diatoms could be grown from a few cells. They are efficient, cost effective, and, to top it all, biodegradable. It's a whole new world.

Amazing Butterflies, Natural History Museum, London, from today until August 17; tickets £5, £3.50 concessions, £14 family. Visit www.nhm.ac.uk ; 020-7942 5000

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