We humans by nature are inquisitive and curious, and it is unsurprising that we want to learn more about the magnificent natural world we live in. When Nature faces problems, it finds incredibly clever solutions, such as the self-cleaning ability of certain leaves, the adhesive properties of gecko feet, and the physical structures that produce the colorful wing scales of butterflies. Nature’s inventiveness has inspired scientists to mimic or create synthetic systems that function with the precision and efficiency of natural biological systems, a field called biomimetics or biomimicry. As familiar disciplinary boundaries have become blurred, many physicists have become involved in the field.

Bharat Bhushan’s expanded second edition of his book Biomimetics: Bioinspired Hierarchical-Structured Surfaces for Green Science and Technology presents researchers and students alike with an extensive array of hierarchical structures that exist in nature, with particular attention to structures with useful wetting properties. The book also deals with other aspects of structured surfaces, such as drag reduction and antifouling to prevent the accumulation of organisms on wetted surfaces of boats and bridges.

Bhushan, an Ohio Eminent Scholar and a Howard D. Winbigler Professor at the Ohio State University, is an expert in tribology and nanotribology as well as in biomimetics. His book, as he makes clear, draws on the work done by his former students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists at Ohio State. It is meant to serve as a resource for researchers and scientists who want to pursue the exciting field of biomimicry. Bhushan writes that he has two goals in Biomimetics: first, to describe surfaces in nature with functions and structures that might be of commercial interest, and second, to analyze and model those examples and suggest methods for fabricating them.

The book’s first chapters contain a fairly broad introduction to the wetting of structured surfaces. I found myself wishing, however, for a general discussion of wetting behavior that included flat and cylindrical surfaces. Nonetheless, the wetting of structured surfaces is covered quite nicely and includes extensive citations.

The next few chapters deal with specific examples of structured surfaces, including lotus leaves, rose leaves, and the floating water fern Salvinia molesta. The author then covers ways of creating structured surfaces with the desirable properties of those natural exemplars and discusses the wetting characteristics of various fluids on those surfaces. It is rather curious that Bhushan follows his presentation with a chapter that delves into the drag reduction of sharkskin and sharkskin-like structures. That aspect of structured surfaces digresses a bit from the major theme of the book, which is wetting. But the shark chapter is an interesting addition.

Toward the end of the book, the author discusses the adhesive properties of gecko feet, along with the various environmental conditions that might affect a gecko’s ability to adhere to a surface. However, a rather curious omission is the defense mechanism of the beetle Hemisphaerota cyanea, discovered by Thomas Eisner and Daniel Aneshansley in 2000: To achieve a secure footing and make it nearly impossible for its predators to dislodge it, the beetle makes use of capillary forces, generated by an oil dispatched through a large number of adhesive bristles. The book’s final chapters deal with structural coloration. Chapter 14 focuses on nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Chapter 15, which deals with the ways structure affects surface coloration, uses the wing scales of butterflies and the exoskeletons of beetles as its key examples.

In general, the book is a nice introduction to biomimetics. Its many references will aid researchers who want to learn more about the field, though it is a bit disappointing to see that some key original references are not cited. But regardless of its minor limitations, Biomimetics is a well-written compendium that will serve a need in the ever-growing field of biomimicry.

Mohan Srinivasarao is a professor of materials science and engineering, chemistry, and biochemistry at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on the physics and optics of liquid crystals, polymer physics, fluid mechanics, color science, and structural color in nature.