Biomimicry (imitating life) is applying solutions from nature to human problems. The picture above is (from left to right) a termite mound = apartment, humpback whale fin = turbine blades and leaf = solar cells. The panel showed us many examples of how nature is teaching us ways to design better and there is much more to go.

“We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us” – Albert EinsteinThe carpet industry is one of the most wasteful and toxic industries out there (I did not know that). Mimicking the forest floor – companies designed patterns that could replace small areas (rather than the whole carpet) and still work.

Schools of fish never collide with each other (I did not know that either). Using the same algorithm, Nissan developed robotic cars that will never collide.

The immune system is a system we are just beginning to learn about. A huge problem when the banking system crashed is that they didn’t have any safeguards that warned themselves of what was happening (I really know nothing about banking so that all was new to me). Now they are beginning to develop and put in place such measures.

A saying they use in the biomimicry field is “man, many, the machine, momma (earth).” These are the places they look for inspiration. Maybe next time you come up against a problem (in anything really) think of this motto and maybe you’ll find a solution.