2. Biomimicry and bio-inspiration in the total synthesis of natural substances

2.1 Biomimetic or bio-inspired synthesis: a question of semantics

If nature can do it... At first glance, it's logical to think that nature doesn't exploit chemical reactions that are intrinsically difficult or impossible (remember that enzymes only accelerate reactions that are thermodynamically possible). It is therefore possible to imagine mimicking these processes in the laboratory under abiotic conditions that will be described as bio-inspired or biomimetic.

A nuance can be found between biosynthesis (the process as nature actually does it) and biogenesis (the process as nature is thought to do it, a semantic distinction is proposed here to avoid misusing the term biomimetic; between biomimetic (the process as nature does it), and bio-inspired (the process...