For example, you need softness on an airplane chair so you add cushioning, but then you also need it to be waterproof so you add a coating, but then you also need durability so you weave in fabrics. You keep adding layers on but you want to keep the plane as light as possible," Baumeister says. "Nature would use a single material that would provide the cushioning and the waterproofing and the durability. It would probably be heavier than one of the layers [on an aircraft seat] but it would certainly be lighter than all three.