'Biomimic' study can inspire new products

The Alpine edelweiss flower may hold clues to making better suncreams, while oyster shells could give hints about storing greenhouse gases in an emerging industrial revolution that mimics nature.

"A more fascinating horizon is opening up for the green economy," Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme, said on Tuesday in giving findings of a UNEP "biomimicry" project identifying 100 new ideas from nature.

The survey shows companies are already borrowing from the natural world for products ranging from wind turbine blades that keep turning in low winds, based on the flippers of a humpback whale, to dirt-resistant surfaces inspired by the lotus plant.