Bio mimicry is about copying the best ideas.

Nature has come up with him all that time.

While McRay was used in the design of one of the most iconic structures in the world, the Eiffel Tower, the designers of the famous tower in Paris took inspiration from a natural design principle called structural hierarchy.

Take, for example, your femur bone or thigh bone.

Your femur bone gets its strength from tiny tubes called osteo, composed of even tinier bundles inside called Bibles, tubes within tubes within tubes.

When Eiffel was looking for lightweight strength for his tower, he applied a similar structural hierarchy of trusses within trusses with him trusses to achieve it.

The towers, curving support structures also appear in nature.

Your femur bone is wide on top and then narrows as it goes down into your leg.

When Eiffel was designing his tower in Paris, he looked at how the bone was reinforced along lines of stress.

He realized that if he turned that upside down, he could have a very strong base that would handle any kind of winds that might hit the tower So when you look at those crossbars on the Eiffel Tower, understand that those were inspired by the same lines of reinforcement.

They're in your bones for more episodes of Think like a Tree subscribed to the Wired Channel.