The term "bionic" means a certain understanding of principles in technology that are "like the natural world" of plants and animals. Basically, this means that biological forms and methods, which are existing in nature, are explored and analysed to make them applicable in various fields of science and engineering. Materials science, architecture and structural engineering, biotechnology, medical science, robotics or energy engineering are just some examples of areas that benefit from a better understanding of knowledge that is based on living creatures.
The term bionic seems to be brand-new, but humans have always tried to learn from nature. Leonardo da Vinci has designed his first flying machines in the late medieval age. He was able to guess how flying devices could work from observing the flight of the birds. Nowadays, new analytical methods, computing capacities and superfine imaging techniques have accelerated our learning from nature. The transformation of patterns between various lifeforms and modern manufactures is desirable and profitable, because the process of evolutionary selection had forced all organisms such as plants and animals to become highly optimized and efficient. Bionic knowledge can be used for developing new products for our everyday life.