The reason I'm writing today is because I came across a fascinating website in my internet wanderings. It's called Ask Nature. The idea of the website is to create a free, open source database of natural designs.
There is an image available on the website called the biomimicry taxonomy and it provides a visual for the different functions that organisms or natural processes perform.
The idea is this: if you have a problem, you usually have a main question. How can I store energy in the electrical grid? How can I make more food from the same plot of land? How can I control hazardous wastes? The website challenges you to ask these questions in a different way: How does nature store energy? How does nature produce food? How does nature recycle wastes?
The beauty of nature is that the inventions which have evolved are typically ecologically balanced. Sustainability is essential because organisms that are not sustainable become extinct. Perhaps we too can become sustainable if we learn from all of the other species which have been around far longer than us.
For example, when I navigate to energy storage techniques, there is an entry about how some bacteria use a kind of thermoplastic polyester to store carbon and energy. Learning more about these types of bacteria might inspire some inventions in biodegradable plastic.
