bionics

A design concept in which a form in nature influences or inspires the design. A superficial version of this would be the way the VW Beetle resembles the form of a insect. A more in-depth version is the way a normal work light (or task lamp) has similar joints and points of rotation that the human arm has.

Taught to me by Peter North. The pimp-ass, design professor of mine, not the porn star.

Don't listen to the other write-ups: bionics aren't a design concept or a way to solve engineering problems. Bionics are what Oscar Goldman used to turn injured test pilot Steve Austin into the Bionic Man.

Later, there was a bionic woman (bionic ear arm and legs, could rip a phone book in half, was a teacher), a bionic boy (sadly his bionics didn't take), and a bionic dog.

Bionics are best used for running in slow motion, jumping really high, looking at things that are far away (although those crosshairs get in the way), lifting fake-looking boulders, and fighting Maskatron, Bigfoot, or Russian space probes.

In 1970s dollars two bionic legs, one arm, and an eye cost six million dollars, although I'm sure some form of Moore's law holds and contemporary bionic secret agents sport much cheaper limbs which possibly don't even make that annoying "ch-ch-ch" sound.

One definition is the science of attaching artificial organs to real people, or real people to artificial organs. Whatever. The actual term is thought to be popularized by the above Six Million Dollar Man.

Another defintion is the application of biological methods to engineering efforts.