Many optical systems in biology have sophisticated designs with functions that conventional optics cannot achieve: no synthetic materials, for example, can provide the camouflage capability exhibited by some animals. This course overviews recent efforts--some inspired by examples in biology--in using fluids, soft materials and nanostructures to create new functions in optics. Topics include electrowetting lenses, electronic inks, colloidal photonic crystals, bioinspired optical nanostructures, nanophotonic biosensors, lens-less optofluidic microscopes. The use of optics to control fluids is also discussed: optoelectronic tweezers, particle trapping and transport, microrheology, optofluidic sorters, fabrication and self-assembly of novel micro and nanostructures.