tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28602897289619540992024-02-07T18:28:59.122-08:00BioInspired InkBiomimicry and Bioinspiration from Evolutionary Biologist and Author, Dr. Tamsin Woolley-Barker. Find out how four billion years of evolution can inspire brilliant business innovation, efficient industrial design, eminently livable architecture, and intelligent organizational processes.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-7610457225301830162016-12-05T09:48:00.001-08:002016-12-05T10:01:33.911-08:00DrTamsin.com is the New Website and Blog!Please do visit my new website, <a href="http://drtamsin.com/">DrTamsin.com</a>, where you can see what I've been up to!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-23379666742920849972016-12-05T09:33:00.000-08:002016-12-05T09:59:03.999-08:00How Would Nature Elect a President?<br />
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You can check out my latest <a href="https://biomimicry.org/nature-elect-president/">article</a>, hosted by the Biomimicry Institute's blog, <a href="http://askingnature.com/">AskingNature.com</a>. This post is all about Collective Intelligence, Distributed Leadership, and Parasitism (oh it's non-partisan, but still). Plus it features the Clinton's cat, Socks!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-1521869599486002862016-12-05T09:29:00.001-08:002016-12-05T10:03:20.277-08:00Disruptive Innovation Strikes Again<br />
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Just had the pleasure of participating in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's annual Disruptive Innovation Festival! Here is the 18-minute TED-style video from it, all about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wyJCHkbGPs">What can Superorganisms teach us about Collective Intelligence?</a> It's shot in one of my favorite places––the breathtakingly beautiful Anza Borrego Desert! <br />
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Enjoy, and THANK YOU for watching!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-70919605415185419782016-12-05T09:24:00.003-08:002016-12-05T10:03:33.289-08:00The Book on Amazon! And DrTamsin.com is Live!<br />
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Juicy update! <br />
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Things are picking up steam over here. We have a March 2017 publication date for the book, now titled <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Teeming-Superorganisms-Together-Infinite-company/dp/1940468426">Teeming</a>: How Superorganisms Work to Build Infinite Wealth in a Finite World. It's available on Amazon now. The publisher tells me they already have 1500 preorders in the US, and more internationally! This is very good... Barnes and Noble picked it up, which is apparently a rare and wonderful thing! Sounds good to me, anyway. <br />
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Meanwhile, I've launched the new website. Head over to <a href="http://drtamsin.com/">DrTamsin.com</a> and check it out! You can subscribe to my newsletter, and see what I've been up to!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-90940764090165401922015-12-13T21:33:00.002-08:002015-12-13T21:33:57.476-08:00Letters From The Tangled Bank is available!Happy to say that my e-book 'Letters from the Tangled Bank' is finally ready! Please feel free to read and enjoy...<br />
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http://issuu.com/tamsinwoolley-barker/docs/letters_from_the_tangled_bank_tamsi/1<br />
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Now I just have to finish <i>BioInspired Inc</i>! One more week and the first draft will be a wrap. I CAN'T WAIT. Merry Christmas to me!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-29117134073520701182014-11-10T12:49:00.002-08:002014-11-10T12:49:30.295-08:00Three-quarters funded, thank you!!!Wow! I am just blown away by so much support. We are three-quarters of the way to funding this <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233840956/superorganizations-how-would-nature-design-a-compa" target="_blank">Kickstarter campaign</a> to self-publish my book, with 15 days to go! That's just $220 per day to make it! By jove, this just might happen. Thank you to all who have backed the campaign, including these latest wonderful amazing folks!<div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-54322930197912393962014-11-07T11:53:00.000-08:002014-11-07T11:53:25.144-08:00$10K today on Kickstarter! Thank you! <div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38; overflow: hidden;">
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I can't believe I just hit $10K on Kickstarter!!! We are two-thirds of the way there. "Just" 5K more in the next two weeks, and my project will be funded... can we do it? I think we can!</div>
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THANK YOU each and every one of you for your support. I really can't believe it. I am so excited to get this thing out there. THANK You to the following people, you ROCK!!! And to all the other people who have been spreading the word! You're da bestest. Let's make like a slime mold and spread these awesome spores!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-10273528223178823062014-11-06T09:06:00.002-08:002014-11-06T09:07:30.075-08:00Kickstarter trending....<a href="http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/233840956/superorganizations-how-would-nature-design-a-compa/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/233840956/superorganizations-how-would-nature-design-a-compa/minichart.png" alt="SuperOrganizations: How Would Nature Design A Company? -- Kicktraq Mini" title="SuperOrganizations: How Would Nature Design A Company? -- Kicktraq Mini"></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-26039345165138539132014-11-04T14:33:00.000-08:002014-11-04T14:33:28.046-08:00Think Dif Part Two!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px;">
Part 2 of my Disruptive Innovation Festival (DIF) series for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation airs <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1734354459" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">this Friday at 9:30am PST</span></span>. This one is LIVE, and gets into the ACTUAL biology of ultra-social organisms like ants and termites and what we can learn from them about making our businesses faster, smarter, and more valuable, followed by a live Q&A. This one will be crazy cool, don't miss it. Once again, it's free, just register </div>
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<a href="http://thinkdif.co/emf-stages/biomimicry-unveiled" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://thinkdif.co/emf-stages/<wbr></wbr>biomimicry-unveiled</a>. Feed me some good questions! This link also has the first video on it (in which I imitate a baboon).</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-54660765995522807152014-10-30T09:43:00.001-07:002014-10-30T09:45:00.145-07:00Kickstarter Halfway Mark! Right on Schedule!Thanks to so many wonderful people, my Kickstarter campaign is humming right along. I'm 6 days from the halfway mark on this 40 day campaign, and I'm just $376 away from halfway funded. Hope I can keep it up! I have such a wonderful community of people backing me, I just know we will make it.<br />
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As promised in my incentives, here are the amazing fantabulous folks who have pledged and pre-ordered so far! A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you! We WILL make it happen!!! Please join us! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233840956/superorganizations-how-would-nature-design-a-compa<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-62688422374742661722014-10-30T09:33:00.000-07:002014-10-30T09:33:55.651-07:00Welcome Biomimicry San Diego!<span style="font-family: inherit;">We are excited to bring the newest Biomimicry Regional Network into the fold! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Biomimicry San Diego was founded by Clean Tech Leader Jacques Chirazi, myself, and Science Illustrator and National Geographic Explorer Nan Woodman. Today, our group includes Scripps Institute of Oceanography Marine Biologist Lauren Linsmayer, Industrial Designer Jo Fleming, and BioEngineer Leon Wang. We are a killer team! You can find out all about us at </span>http://biomimicrysandiego.org/<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<div id="yui_3_17_2_1_1414686285664_272" style="color: #444444; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span id="yui_3_17_2_1_1414686285664_271"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Biomimicry San Diego is a local organization working to bring the biomimicry approach to innovation and human problem solving. </span></i></span></div>
<div style="color: #444444; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a regional network of Biomimicry 3.8, our mission is to empower the San Diego region, through education and community engagement, to sustainably emulate the effective 'designs' that have evolved here to solve to exactly the same challenges we face. </span></i></div>
<div style="color: #444444; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<i style="letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="yui_3_17_2_1_1414686285664_289">Biomimicry San Diego is dedicated to reconnecting people with nature, and aligning human systems with biological systems. Our vision is a high-tech economy where human and biological system designs flow together </span>seamlessly.</span></i></div>
<div style="color: #444444; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<i style="letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our team offers education and consulting to apply biological insights to systematic sustainability challenges. Our collaborative partnerships and services support interdisciplinary dialogue across industry sectors and regions, while re-connecting all of us to the local ecosystem that supports us.</span></i></div>
<div style="color: #444444; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<i style="letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you have any questions or inquiries, please contact us at <a href="http://biomimicrysandiego@gmail.com/" style="color: black; line-height: 1.68em; text-decoration: none;">biomimicrysandiego@gmail.com</a></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://biomimicrysandiego@gmail.com/" style="color: #111111; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></i></h3>
<h3 style="color: #111111; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://biomimicrysandiego@gmail.com/" style="color: #111111; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></i></h3>
<h2 style="color: #111111; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 1em 0px 0px;">
<strong><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://biomimicrysandiego@gmail.com/" style="color: #111111; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></i></strong></h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-21133550521472140842014-10-29T09:20:00.000-07:002014-10-30T09:45:27.011-07:00Inhabitat Backs My Kickstarter!How cool! Inhabitat.com posted a wonderful article to promote my Kickstarter campaign. What lovely people. Thank you! Will you consider taking them up on this? This book is going to be great and you can be a part of it! <a href="http://inhabitat.com/help-make-this-fascinating-biomimicry-book-a-reality-and-get-cool-perks/#comments">http://inhabitat.com/help-make-this-fascinating-biomimicry-book-a-reality-and-get-cool-perks/#comments</a><br />
<br />
Or, just go straight to Kickstarter and add your two cents!<br />
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233840956/superorganizations-how-would-nature-design-a-compa<br />
<br />
Thank you!!!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-7153175836084792132014-10-22T09:38:00.003-07:002014-10-22T09:38:57.357-07:00Speaking at DIF- From SuperOrganism to SuperOrganization: Lessons From Nature on Collaboration and Resilience<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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I will be speaking this Friday at the Disruptive Innovation Festival, a free online event from the
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, exploring the future of the economy and emerging
opportunities. Please register now to see my thrilling session (yes, I promise it will be!) and all the
other great presentations, including Janine Benyus, Sir Ken Robinson, Bill
McDonough, Jeremy Rifkin, Fritjof Capra (and li’l ol' me)!
http://thinkdif.co/emf-stages/superorganizations-6-principles-for-long-lasting-effectiveness
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-8096554721443375952014-10-17T00:15:00.000-07:002014-10-30T09:46:01.813-07:00Kickstarter Launch!And now.... the moment we've all been waiting for! The launch of my Kickstarter campaign to fund the final stages of my book! Getting this thing off the ground was a lot harder than it looks. Please do come visit and pre-order yourself a copy! Thank you SO so much for all your support!<br />
<a href="http://e3.kickstarter.com/mpss/c/0wA/6TYCAA/abWNm_3MSLa1DIkLW6fsXg/h6/-2Bx6UmRJF2c7MmJHVtZ9fkaDg8dRuzEWcPZwZ6Q-2BiiGQ-3D" style="background-color: white; color: #00a0ff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 23.9999980926514px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://kck.st/ZIn1eA</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUxIEyj3XZQ-gocylhRQoKupLhQGOOqauUQXBcPmwAvBCJ4sXsWhzWX-Qw4lCHEd0mzmy_8JXxVLk8lmRoM9QtCS7VoYQ9-nRTsa5RhUi4NhqloBikgQ9WUtUsAyk8VlB8-BV7T4ev4I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-14+at+9.33.41+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUxIEyj3XZQ-gocylhRQoKupLhQGOOqauUQXBcPmwAvBCJ4sXsWhzWX-Qw4lCHEd0mzmy_8JXxVLk8lmRoM9QtCS7VoYQ9-nRTsa5RhUi4NhqloBikgQ9WUtUsAyk8VlB8-BV7T4ev4I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-14+at+9.33.41+PM.png" height="320" width="240" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-89817665762248886622014-06-19T17:32:00.000-07:002014-06-19T17:32:14.753-07:00What if Business Was BioInspired? (from the Sustainable Brands Conference)I had the pleasure of attending the Sustainable Brands Conference in San Diego last week as a member of the press. It's always exciting to see big name corporations embracing sustainability, but this year I felt like a tipping point is in the works. Many big names are now trying to go beyond sustainability, and into regeneration. Could ecosystems thinking become a reality? Here is an article I wrote for Triple Pundit on my take. More to come!<br />
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http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/06/business-bio-inspired/#commentsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-12451018136051047362013-08-28T10:24:00.001-07:002014-06-19T17:36:17.181-07:00Inhabitat - Design Will Save the World!If you're wondering why I've been quiet lately, it's because I've got a new gig writing a regular feature for Inhabitat! In case you're not familiar with them, Inhabitat.com is a hyper-cool sustainable design website with the motto "Design Will Save the World." What's not to love about that? I pitched them the idea for a new column, The Biomimicry Manual, and they gave me the green light! The idea is to showcase "geewhiz green gadgets" from Mother Nature, getting biomimicry thinking out into the mainstream design community. I'd like it to be a household word and way of thinking, making it more approachable and comfortable to non-biologists. Whenever anyone does anything, they will hopefully start asking themselves, "how would Nature do this?" first.<br />
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And of course, I LOVE writing them. They are so much fun. And I will never run out of crazy beasts to write about. I've written on the aye-aye and echolocation, hagfish and spandex, the bombardier beetle and fuel injection, the pompeii worm and pollution clean-up, and many more. You can check out all my features here http://inhabitat.com/author/tamsin<br />
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Thanks for reading, and enjoy!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-41940013733902673452013-08-20T17:32:00.000-07:002014-06-19T17:37:46.017-07:00The Global Biomimicry Conference<br />
In June, I had the great pleasure of participating in the 7th Annual Biomimicry Education Summit, and the first ever Biomimicry 3.8 Global Conference, hosted together by the University of Massachusetts in Boston.<br />
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Over 350 dedicated, talented, and far-thinking teachers, designers, architects, biologists, industrialists, and policy-makers from across the globe came together to ask "How can humans create conditions conducive to Life?" Not just sustainable economies, cities, and manufacturing, but a regenerative way of life that creates biodiversity instead of destroying it.<br />
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Over the course of three intense and exciting days, three major themes emerged:<br />
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<li>How would nature design buildings and cities that fulfill the ecosystem services of the original habitats they replaced? </li>
<li>How would nature design the materials we use to build them? </li>
<li>And how would nature redesign our whole economy to encourage such regeneration? </li>
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And lucky me, I was asked by Triple Pundit to cover these themes for their readers. Check out my five part series here! Number three (on 3D printers) is my favorite.</div>
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http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/creating-conditions-conducive-life-first-biomimicry-38-global-conference/</div>
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http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/biomimicry-generous-city/</div>
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http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/biomimicry/</div>
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http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/green-chemistry-biomimicry/</div>
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http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/regenerative-economy-biomimicry/</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-50398079977401293582013-08-03T20:47:00.000-07:002013-08-03T22:31:36.866-07:00Domesticated 3D Printers?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NIo-lZUCh2r-Xw70RhhZxHATsF23wjqshf8LK5qTR4oHYOA2wjf26qXpw9Y4BPtscQKuI9P1BhJCxy0udYfwth7Uy4vGj16CAAyc5cGpOCOb2ix2C_YEQ6Yigk_8Zl0E4rZBLd8h8ag/s640/blogger-image-2029153907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NIo-lZUCh2r-Xw70RhhZxHATsF23wjqshf8LK5qTR4oHYOA2wjf26qXpw9Y4BPtscQKuI9P1BhJCxy0udYfwth7Uy4vGj16CAAyc5cGpOCOb2ix2C_YEQ6Yigk_8Zl0E4rZBLd8h8ag/s640/blogger-image-2029153907.jpg"></a></div>The incredibly accomplished Neri Oxman's from MIT's Media Lab presented on the future of 3D printing at the Biomimicry Conference. This stuff is pretty revolutionary and exciting to me, especially since I really didn't know much about 3D printing. It's a game-changer for sure.<br>
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But Oxman pointed out that 3D printing technology is just in its infancy. Right now, it has three serious limitations. First, our materials are primarily non-structural, toxic, and non-degradable plastic resins. No bueno. More sick people and sick environments. Second, the size of the printing "frame," or gantry, limits the size of the object. Third, the printers accrete horizontal layers, one at a time, on top of each other. But of course, that's not how living tissues build themselves.</div>
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So, Oxman's team at Mediated Matter invented a freeform 3D printer. It might be the world's first, but they found it too primitive to execute their artistic vision. In the end, they used domesticated silkworms as living 3D printers, a brilliant workaround. The worms "printed" the beautiful Silk Pavilion now hanging in the MIT Media Lab lobby, with "smart" variations in density and patchiness responding to light and substrate. In essence, each silkworm served as an all-in-one biocomputer, programmed by DNA, and freeform printer. </div>
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And what about the material in the printer? What could be more eco-friendly than printing with biodegradable silk, produced on-site, simply by feeding the silkworms plant material? We can imagine neighborhood "Maker" shops, creating objects to order with domesticated printers, not unlike a herd of goats or a yogurt 'culture' of microorganisms. Every family might have a carefully tended tank of silkworms or spiders or mushroom mycelium or vines, each bred to execute the simple rules we require for our objects.</div>
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It's certainly a compelling sci-fi concept, and food for thought. This idea is 'bio-utilization,' using other species to make our things. Many feel that "Making" (with biomimicry) should instead be a process of learning from other makers. In Janine Benyus' words, "It's time for humans to start making our own materials." </div>
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Where and why we want to draw the line on that is a conversation that needs to take place, both within the biomimicry community as well as outside of it. Of course, we depend on domesticated species of all kinds, not just goats and yeast, but the crops we eat and the fibers we wear, the wood we build with, honeybees and silkworms, and even our pets. And nature does it too. Leaf-cutter ants have spent millions of years domesticating a certain fungus, and other ants tend aphids that they have selected for cow-like qualities like moving slowly, being docile, and eating a lot. Domestication is really just a kind of symbiosis. We modify each other. The entire web of life is like that. Is there a difference? I guess we are taking away the other species freedom to choose their own mate and chart their own evolutionary course. But hey. Nobody said life had to be fair now, did they?</div>
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There is also the question of how could we feed all those Makers? That's a big question for another day.</div>
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In any case, it is incredible to consider the diversity and clean beauty of form and function in natural materials. Can we learn from them, and make our materials "smarter?" Oxman suggested we could print variable-density concrete to provide structure where it is needed and conserve material where it is not, just like bone. And if we could scan and print freeform, could we not print objects perfectly designed by the space itself to fit? Just like living things grow and change to fit their environment? Or, what if we could print with carbon nanotubules, making a 4D printer? This material would change through time, responding to light, heat, force, or humidity to create a "smart" object that adjusts to the environment automatically. Or maybe we can cultivate self-assembling underwater structures from CO2, just like the corals do today? There are so many possibilities, it truly boggles the mind.</div>
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For now, the most important thing may be the fact that this is actually going to happen. 3D printing is coming soon to a town near you. It represents a radical opportunity for us to rethink our whole way of life, and we have to do it right. As Janine Benyus said at the end of Oxman's talk, (and I paraphrase) "let's make sure these printers aren't "tiny volcanoes on our desks," creating a new environmentally unsustainable hazard. Let's make sure that we develop and use locally abundant and benign feedstocks," preferably from the excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and oceans. Let's make things the way Nature does, digesting our 'products' at the end of their life and feeding them back into the "printer" to make more conditions conducive to life.</div>
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You can read more at <a href="http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/biomimicry/" target="_blank">http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/biomimicry/ </a>part 3 of my 5 part series on the 2013 Global Biomimicry Conference!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-13427285167520631702013-08-03T15:11:00.000-07:002013-08-03T22:32:23.610-07:00Nature's Little 3D Printers<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqsMNvtn03qwtS0OXjUymgPlgzJhMxO_miEf2E-pbONNU-AbwV36AHEMHvpbn2R4NZQXYKjKD3bSX_BrLdqRMlleN7bFQRR414pKd-cSbbXh7nXhTFLNq5DFEfEFeqaFRm5AxOE8kyPBM/s640/blogger-image--1479629142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqsMNvtn03qwtS0OXjUymgPlgzJhMxO_miEf2E-pbONNU-AbwV36AHEMHvpbn2R4NZQXYKjKD3bSX_BrLdqRMlleN7bFQRR414pKd-cSbbXh7nXhTFLNq5DFEfEFeqaFRm5AxOE8kyPBM/s640/blogger-image--1479629142.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div>Day Two of the <a href="http://biomimicry.net/" target="_blank">Biomimicry Conference</a> continued this theme with an exciting futuristic presentation by one of Fast Company's 100 Most creative People, MIT Media Lab Director <a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/" target="_blank">Neri Oxman</a>. Oxman is on the forefront of the 3D Printing revolution, looking to create "smart" materials that act as natural ones do. In Nature, said Oxman, bones thicken in response to force, leaves grow toward light, and trees branches are shaped by wind. Why not a wrist splint that adapts to where you feel pain? Why not a lounge chair that shapes to your body and adjusts to your weight? Nature uses a stripped down palette of materials, which can dramatically change their properties with simple structural adjustments. Skin on your face, for instance, is not the same as that on the soles of your feet. What about printing with fiber optics to make light-production intrinsic to an object? Making a pair of glasses as a single object with variable transparency, rather than a separate frame and lenses made from different materials.<br>
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But Oxman's team at Mediated Matter found themselves frustrated by the primitive state of our current 3D printing technology. Then, they asked "How would nature design a 3D printer?" and decided to study the "simple rules" used by domestic silk worms to determine where and how to 'print' their silk.</div>
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The silkworms act as living 3D printers. The team constructed a Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome scaffolding, and released 6500 <i>Bombina moryx</i> silkworms. The worms "printed" the beautiful Silk Pavilion now hanging in the MIT Media Lab lobby, with "smart" variations in density and patchiness responding to light and substrate. In essence, the silkworm is a combined biocomputer and freeform printer, programmed by its DNA, and printing with biodegradable silk, produced on-site by simply feeding the silkworms plant material.</div>
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What does the future hold for this exciting idea? The printing material could be changed through genetic engineering (spiderwebs?) or the "simple rules" themselves (make it differently). Realistically though, that's a hell of a lot of silkworms for a structure about as big as an igloo. Which most likely makes this an art object and a teachable moment, rather than a scalable technology. What can we learn from these and other "living printers," like spiders, mushrooms, or corals? Imagine "growing" elements of your home, lighting, or furniture. Imagine downloading blueprints, possibly genetic, from the internet, and uploading them into printing robots that act like silkworms or other creatures? </div>
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Of course, visions of a radically different manufacturing future make people a little nervous. What could be the unintended consequences? Genetic engineering in particular puts many people on red alert, and the domestication of other species can be seen as a violation of their sovereignty. What right do we have to breed silkworms to be flightless moths acting as our slaves? To take away their mate choice? These are questions worth considering as we think about what kind of future we would like to have. What would nature do? </div>
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Janine Benyus stood up to offer her belief that biomimicry in material science should be a "process of learning from other fabricators. If you're wearing cotton, a plant made it for you. If you're wearing wool, a sheep made it for you. It's time for humans to start making our own materials." </div>
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To read more, look for my article on Triple Pundit, part 3 of a 5 part series about the Conference!</div>
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<a href="http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/biomimicry/">http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/biomimicry/</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-70242654252250154292013-08-03T11:09:00.001-07:002013-08-03T22:45:30.964-07:00Lessons from the Ostrich EggI've been sharing my experiences at the recent <a href="http://biomimicry.net/educating/summits-workshops/education-summit/" target="_blank">Biomimicry 3.8 Global Conference</a> in Boston, where a heady mix of dreamers and doers came together to talk about how to build our future the way nature would do it. <br>
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We asked ourselves "How would nature design buildings and cities that fulfill the ecosystem services of the original habitats they replaced?" and then, the more nitty-gritty question, "How would nature design the materials we use to build them?"<br>
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Tom McKeag, co-editor of the beautifully-designed and bio-inspired digital magazine, <a href="http://zqjournal.org/" target="_blank">Zygote Quarterly</a>, talked about the elegant simplicity of the ostrich egg. The egg has contradictory design requirements. It has to be strong enough to survive intact, but break apart for hatching. It has to be easily turned by the parent, but not roll away. It has to let waste gases out, but keep fluids in. All these contradictions are opportunities for innovation, he said. <br>
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Nature solves problems like these with "smart" low-cost structural arrangements of a handful of polymers, rather than creating a new polymer or plastic for every problem, or "plugging in" an energy-intensive answer. The sea cucumber, for example, instantly goes from soft to rigid, just by changing the orientation of tiny cellulose "whiskers" in its jelly. Nature uses very few materials, locally sourced, recycled, and recyclable. Simply genius.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-8447246655111628742013-02-07T22:03:00.000-08:002013-02-07T22:05:25.504-08:00Book Review Published Today!<br />
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I recently wrote a summary review of Giles Hutchins' excellent book, <i>The Nature of Busines</i>s, for it's North American publisher, and I was excited to see it appear today on CSRWire! I think its a great summary and interpretation of a very insightful book, and I'm quite pleased with it. Here is the link:<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Evolutionary Biology As a Model For Sustainable Business: A Review of Giles Hutchins' The Nature of Business" http://bit.ly/Xo8ZrP </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As always, thank you for reading!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-21052453304391519992013-01-21T21:56:00.000-08:002013-01-24T09:26:30.697-08:00The Nature of Business: Guest Blogger Giles Hutchins <i>I am privileged to have Giles Hutchins, the author of The </i><b>Nature of Business</b><i> and the director of UK consulting firm </i><b style="font-style: italic;">Biomimicry for Creative Innovation</b><i>, </i><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-style: italic;">as my guest blogger today! Giles </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-style: italic;">has over 15 years of business transformation experience and is working on a BBC/Open University documentary about the ways nature can inspire businesses to become more sustainable and resilient. He regularly lectures at conferences and business schools, and blogs at <a href="http://www.thenatureofbusiness.org/">www.thenatureofbusiness.org</a>. </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-style: italic;">For more information about Giles' excellent and highly acclaimed book, please view his two minute <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2LN3rrkiW0&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">video clip</a>.</span><br />
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<b>Building A Bridge Between Business and Nature</b><br />
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The ecological, social and economic crisis now upon us is as much a crisis of spirit as it is a crisis of resources. Indeed, part of the crisis of spirit is because modern society and industry tends to perceive the Earth as a set of resources, and values it as such. What scope is there for this paradigm to change in order to perceive the Earth as an animate, living system in which humans play a constructive, not destructive, part? In order to live differently... we must think differently, and this relates to the way that we see ourselves in the world.<br />
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Just as our need to transform business is now becoming apparent, so is our need to transform our engagement with and response to nature. In fact, our sensing and responding to nature holds much learning to help business transform. <b>Understanding the patterns and principles of nature can provide insight into how best to future-proof business for the unpredictability ahead.</b><br />
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All organizations operate within a community – an environment of interconnections – likewise so too do the people within organizations. The age-old adage ‘no man is an island’ is the same for an organization. <b>In fact, just like an ecosystem in nature, the more diverse the relationships and resources an organisation makes use of, the more resilient it becomes.</b><br />
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Organizations of the future are: collaborative, innovative, networking, emergent, dynamic organisations, more akin to living organisms. There are a plethora of nature’s insights that can be applied to business – all that is lacking is the ability to convert these insights into a business frame, for example:<br />
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<li>Mycelium networks provide insight for a responsive and adaptive organization </li>
<li>Nature (and business) is emergent and interconnected, not predictable and linear</li>
<li>Nature does not do waste. Waste of one is food for another.</li>
<li>Natural ecosystems develop niches where each aspect of the material throughput is used.</li>
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<b>A business inspired by Nature is one that is resilient, optimizing, adaptive, systems-based, values-led, and life supporting - these are ‘nature’s business principles’. </b>These principles do not seek to reduce organizational behavior to biology, rather, they suggest a set of behaviors and qualities that simply echo the law of the system – Earth – upon which our lives and our businesses depend. They recognize the complexity of human nature and nurture, and are neither a model nor a theory, but rather a philosophy that reminds us that while humans are a special species on Earth0, we are still part of nature and subject to its law. <b>If we do not conduct our business within the constraints of the system, we will inevitably go out of business.</b><br />
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The circular economy, industrial ecology, cradle-to-cradle, the learning organization and biomimicry all share a common foundation: they take inspiration from nature. Nature has been dealing with dynamic change and complexity for over 3.8bn years, and the more we re-connect with nature, the more we open ourselves up to the wisdom that lies all around us.<br />
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What is desperately lacking in today’s framing of sustainable business, and for that matter wider business transformation, is a language and engagement approach for business people to unlock nature’s wisdom and in so doing re-enchanting ourselves with nature - re-establishing our vital bond with our environment. <br />
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By framing experiences people have with nature, nurturing them with examples of business inspired by nature, seeding ideas of new ways of operating, we can catalyze the re-connection across the currently broken bridge of business and nature. The re-building of a bridge between business and nature calls on skills and expertise from multi-disciplines: biology, eco-psychology and business change, for instance. This fusion of skillsets, with the right vision and mission, can help equip local, national and global business people with the wherewithal they need to adapt, innovate, embrace change and engage in meaningful business transformation towards a sustainable future.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-51213311430729573182012-09-15T12:23:00.002-07:002012-09-16T20:42:18.490-07:00How Would Nature Design a Diaper? Please Share!<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBlcaevYB-UD9APtLrwkODmudWx-8MqPjYRwgeN36iMyMGUxxtouzodJCrP2-KD3CTaQBCF_jLe9-cceUZ6lcRqEqheNPILhxZO74YWX4c1hkghbdx8dk_lkMyjLXz3IavRfmjBjnu4y0/s1600/imgres-12.jpeg" /> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhKTHUAl2yrBLLjcg1NiPal7RkkhGfzT9yn8WeFbXU7cmByULBZon92mQFMF6SJa961ca9CmA1_qb50AVJz3_HgkNjN3njqVcNnltlShZSmn9yzjb49aqGKrMYf2wq9JigXrHYrgwtG8/s1600/imgres-3.jpeg" /><br />
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Biomimicry Design Challenge, open to all!<br />
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I received an email this month from Kristin Follmer, a recent Rural Health and Sanitation Volunteer in the Peace Corps. She was stationed in Paraguay, where fresh water and sanitation infrastructure tend to be poor, and childhood intestinal infestation, primarily tapeworms and Giardia, is shockingly common (as high as 80%). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_PqhzRzccoAsrHFowHpsWRu2BRYllobnVmH3oVgKNq7v3LLMqGO4NP9UUKM5xYFMOhDbdAf3q1QZKlq-Z8D7tmpBVDefzYEsKhoTVOxdFhA-Dw-aqFJkFIL-MGyYTycOJGcOC28Qxbk/s1600/imgres-13.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_PqhzRzccoAsrHFowHpsWRu2BRYllobnVmH3oVgKNq7v3LLMqGO4NP9UUKM5xYFMOhDbdAf3q1QZKlq-Z8D7tmpBVDefzYEsKhoTVOxdFhA-Dw-aqFJkFIL-MGyYTycOJGcOC28Qxbk/s1600/imgres-13.jpeg" /></a></div>
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Kristin relates that education, hand-washing, construction of sanitary latrines, and protection of fresh-water are vital for controlling infestation, but there is one major obstacle: rural Paraguayans have no good solution to dirty diapers. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioX_xqeojuyRwjsLzYDDmtTiT9R6keOVgMYgyM_tqKUWMRkMTxZPuCpBRQRW4-T8VsNxXRddMdxxyKs_Sc-SfUwQLXRhiWNASsfctQesIoXr1oL-_i9VRsjkTWWpuCvPQ2Gck40QUoFaU/s1600/imgres-11.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioX_xqeojuyRwjsLzYDDmtTiT9R6keOVgMYgyM_tqKUWMRkMTxZPuCpBRQRW4-T8VsNxXRddMdxxyKs_Sc-SfUwQLXRhiWNASsfctQesIoXr1oL-_i9VRsjkTWWpuCvPQ2Gck40QUoFaU/s1600/imgres-11.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioX_xqeojuyRwjsLzYDDmtTiT9R6keOVgMYgyM_tqKUWMRkMTxZPuCpBRQRW4-T8VsNxXRddMdxxyKs_Sc-SfUwQLXRhiWNASsfctQesIoXr1oL-_i9VRsjkTWWpuCvPQ2Gck40QUoFaU/s1600/imgres-11.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioX_xqeojuyRwjsLzYDDmtTiT9R6keOVgMYgyM_tqKUWMRkMTxZPuCpBRQRW4-T8VsNxXRddMdxxyKs_Sc-SfUwQLXRhiWNASsfctQesIoXr1oL-_i9VRsjkTWWpuCvPQ2Gck40QUoFaU/s1600/imgres-11.jpeg" /></a><br />
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Diapers litter the streets to be shredded by dogs, (who find them to be a delicacy, spreading gelatinous mulch like ambrosia on the fifth of July). Kristin has found bio-inspired thinking to be useful in her work, planting trees (nitrogen fixers) around latrines to assist decomposition, and she asks if you, the reader, can come up with a bio-inspired solution to the problem.<br />
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According to Kristin, there are two main challenges to the problem. First, there is no good place to dispose of the diapers. Most families burn their trash and organic material like leaves. Peace Corps encourages people to dig a trash pit in their yards, but many families do not want to live alongside their trash when they can burn it so easily. Fresh dirty diapers don’t burn well, so some people throw them down the latrines, but that’s not a popular choice because they don’t want to their latrines to fill too quickly. Kristin’s friend, Sonia collected her daughter’s dirty diapers, then brought them into town, to be taken to a municipal dump. Another neighbor, Fulana, left the diapers with the other trash, to be burned later in the week, giving the local dogs a chance to root through and spread diaper trash around the block. Another popular dumping ground is the bottom of an isolated road, where intense rainstorms routinely washed the trash downstream.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9uJXzG8BJtrfk7pjY0o9cQi2wSOsFmC-TXgFj_CDMg5tEjVK3efTCrAoL4i7SAGvqj902i8RQLnmSUTD-HPdff7TbFTh-YI6LzWPtQE8YvcbhCfTLop5UZqLIT96k3tmY9LMxdhyphenhyphenL4OA/s1600/imgres-6.jpeg"></a><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjyw7hkEwL1nSUN5j7B3yCMga_Yg32jX5jterxTfLferrFu4__wxfa8EXNIlHnTF7d1TnCLiuSjtLh3DSxiqBNl0D_piiOnyuBc4co4wzroI1QZkG1JikKltepNnh2NhBX-hJL_UQHDO4/s1600/imgres-2.jpeg" /><br />
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Second, there is no running water. Most families have hand-dug wells, but no plumbing. Sonia, for example, walks to her mother-in-law’s home several times a day to draw water from the well, carrying it about 50 meters home. That may not seem far, but it takes a lot of water to cook, clean, bathe, wash clothes, wash hands, water the flowers, and drink. No one wants to add washing cloth diapers to that. Plus, a mother would need to find a place to dump the poopy water afterwards. This water, probably contaminated with parasite eggs, will likely to end up in streams where kids bathe, or create muddy puddles for pigs to wallow. One common type of parasite is transmitted from soil through bare feet, and mothers washing clothes are often surrounded by small children. And of course, it vital to protect drinking water, which most people drink from their wells without treatment.<br />
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Although it would certainly be possible for a woman to use cloth diapers, Kristin doesn’t know anyone who does. Even though a single disposable diaper costs the same as three eggs or a half-liter of fresh cow milk, which is significant to these poor families, they still prefer disposable because of the water and laundry issues. But Kristin feels that an alternative that was cheaper than disposables would be adopted quickly, as Paraguayans don’t like dirty diaper trash either.<br />
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Can you help? I think this is a great challenge, and Biomimicry can be a useful tool to address it with. My hope is that we can create a conversation around the challenge, and draw a variety of great minds in to this approach. Please send me your thoughts and ideas, and I will present updates here. Ideally, we can get some school classes to participate, so please do forward this on to any science, design, or engineering teachers you may know! Kristin says she can help speculate on the cultural acceptance of any solutions that may emerge, something that would make sense to a Paraguayan.<br />
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For those of you that have no experience tackling a Biomimicry challenge, here are some guidelines for the process. I’d recommend starting with one of <a href="http://www.ted.com/speakers/janine_benyus.html">Janine Benyus’ TED talks on youtube</a>, then asking yourself, “what is the real challenge here?” Obviously, you can’t ask “How would Nature design a diaper?” Nature doesn’t do diapers. So, dig deeper. You might abstract the question to “How does Nature remove waste, or unwanted substances.” Or, “How does Nature deal with bacteria?” There is also the question of “how does Nature prevent leaks?” We want a solution that a mom would actually LIKE! You may find that you want to change the entire system, going back further than the diapers!</div>
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Next, do your research. Look for organisms that tackle these kinds of problems. You will probably want to look at <a href="http://asknature.org/">AskNature.org</a> for some of Nature’s tried and true engineering solutions. Don’t be afraid to play with ideas, no matter how strange or silly, and above all, HAVE FUN! Keep me posted along the way. Let's brainstorm together! Kristin and I are excited to hear what you come up with! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-91316363601931956522012-09-04T23:33:00.000-07:002012-09-04T23:43:31.162-07:00Mimicking the Mimic<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9371156416876831" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thaumoctopus mimicus</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">,
better known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimic_Octopus" target="_blank">Indonesian Mimic Octopus</a>, is one of my absolute
favorite creatures. Other octopuses artfully blend into rocks and
seaweed while stalking their unsuspecting prey, but the Mimic skillfully
shape-shifts through a cast of bold, flashy, even frightening animals.
Would-be predators retreat from a convincing deadly sea snake, a
menacing lionfish with venomous spines displayed, a boldly cruising
open-water stingray or poisonous flatfish, or the bullet-fast claws of
the mantis shrimp. Meanwhile, a lusty male crab is fatally attracted to
an alluring but murderous ‘female’ crab, and at the end of the day, our
little octopus male repeats this deception on his own species, sneaking
(in drag) to mate, right under the nose of a larger male.</span> This mimic has been observed imitating at least fifteen different species.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
mimic octopus adapts to a surprising array of situations with a
remarkably flexible strategy: it mimics the successful adaptations of
other species. Humans, too, have hit upon this strategy: Biomimicry
allows us to consciously imitate the special powers of other species,
broadening our ability to adapt to novel situations. And, like the
octopus, we require flexibility, thoughtful use, and speedy action (in
the face of impending climate change). </span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Can
we mimic a species that mimics other species for a living? (If we
really want to fall down a rabbit-hole, we can mimic the tiny <a href="http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/a-mimic-octopus-mimicked-by-a-jawfish-179523.html" target="_blank">fish that mimics the octopus</a> mimicking other species. But let’s avoid that). What
can this octopus teach us as we embark on our Biomimicry venture? And
what about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimicry" target="_blank">other species that mimic</a> for a living? </span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2JX0eZhqCL_BOZGNfiwoN_fhrM66wV_w1uiNAjA_7m8RDXq0AUZyylk1OFBi6CTOvZ7Q7aWl-7-4yWiThMF0YOTIpxkq1CfFz0ePWusDJI6OSfkEFLC46qG75ufmuimgKYtEkKrFRpg/s1600/images-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2JX0eZhqCL_BOZGNfiwoN_fhrM66wV_w1uiNAjA_7m8RDXq0AUZyylk1OFBi6CTOvZ7Q7aWl-7-4yWiThMF0YOTIpxkq1CfFz0ePWusDJI6OSfkEFLC46qG75ufmuimgKYtEkKrFRpg/s400/images-10.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Octopus tool use</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Many
organisms copy others for personal gain. Some use the strategy to avoid
predation. The viceroy butterfly mimics the unpleasant tasting monarch,
hoping hungry birds will pass it by. The harmless king snake mimics the
deadly coral snake in bold warning coloration. Ground squirrels rub
their tails with rattlesnake skin sheddings, waving them vigorously when
the snake approaches: beware, I am a bigger snake.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Others
use the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” approach to lure their prey. The
Alligator Snapping Turtle opens its pitiless maw, wiggling its pink
tongue suggestively like a soft juicy worm. The assassin bug masterfully
plucks the strings of a spider web, imitating the spider’s struggling
prey until the hunter rushes out, becoming the hunted. Parasitic larvae
of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lampsilis</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
shellfish imitate small helpless fish, inviting ingestion by larger
fish. The larvae pass through to the predator’s gills, upon which they
dine until adulthood.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some
species pretend to be females of other species, luring careless males
in for a dangerous liason. (And yes, it is always the male who is
tricked). Bolas spiders emit a chemical much like the female </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Psychodid</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> moth’s sex pheromone. When the male comes in to cruise her, he flies headlong into a sticky, dangling decoy.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4OWs96KES0gpVtXTIsSGQeAx8tPRYR5iNPTJrfUW6C-ePBIAMZz9zvcREGTpYRltnCmfu5PphmfptyDjIfQgl7oVWxQD7ECEExEjVpGIpEn2yqRnKoTPjB-jKINqoLnmAFoNdfyOs4L4/s1600/20071031-Pharyngula-Indo-Malayan_mimic_octopus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4OWs96KES0gpVtXTIsSGQeAx8tPRYR5iNPTJrfUW6C-ePBIAMZz9zvcREGTpYRltnCmfu5PphmfptyDjIfQgl7oVWxQD7ECEExEjVpGIpEn2yqRnKoTPjB-jKINqoLnmAFoNdfyOs4L4/s640/20071031-Pharyngula-Indo-Malayan_mimic_octopus.jpg" width="376" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mimicry
is also used to enhance reproductive success. Some males pretend to be
females of their own species, allowing sneaky access to mates. Even
plants have this trick down: orchids specialize in masterful imitations
of female insects, luring males into elaborate acts of
cross-pollination. Parasitic cowbirds use mimicry to secure quality
daycare for their offspring, laying eggs that look like those of other
birds. The changelings hatch in the host nest, and promptly push the
native eggs overboard. The unsuspecting native mother cares for the
parasitic brood as if it was her own.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By
now you are probably thinking, “These species are poor examples for us!
They only mimic to eat and avoiding being eaten, and to make more of
themselves! We want to mimic other species so we can survive profitably
and sustainably. What can these other species possibly tell us?<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Maybe
it’s true. As humans, we wish to mimic abstracted strategies to make a
living that supports us for the long haul. Generally, we aren’t seeking
to deceive a third party (though biomimicry can certainly take us this
route if our “survival challenge” is a biotic one, such as managing
malaria or preventing birds from flying into windows). In addition. we
learn to mimic strategies within a single lifetime, or transmit our
discoveries culturally to the next generation. Surely the octopus and
the other organisms we have mentioned are going through the motions of a
hardwired, if elaborate, genetic dance. How far can the octopus’
strategy inform our own need for a radically flexible adaptation, one
that can shift with the prevailing winds of both the marketplace and
climate change?</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj58AfFIIQ0Cu5k84JL2fCTMNYVf9RhmE-WRpRuqwm1OSOOuHDnBk9E2Ede2GZ26oCkg210RoZhNGWuq5Xi_3RD6k3hiP2jQJ1tIq8lTKagQ0IU2TLog3Lp3QTzWJwfBYEBusa84ArVWn4/s1600/mimi.Jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj58AfFIIQ0Cu5k84JL2fCTMNYVf9RhmE-WRpRuqwm1OSOOuHDnBk9E2Ede2GZ26oCkg210RoZhNGWuq5Xi_3RD6k3hiP2jQJ1tIq8lTKagQ0IU2TLog3Lp3QTzWJwfBYEBusa84ArVWn4/s400/mimi.Jpg" width="392" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In
Biomimicry, it’s important to go beyond the superficial and delve
deeply into an adaptation’s biology. Let’s do that with our Mimic
Octopus: no, it does not learn its duplicitous trade from a caring
parent or teacher. But it is <a href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6474/" target="_blank">deucedly intelligent</a> nonetheless, capable
of advanced reasoning and even self-awareness. Perhaps it acquires its
methods the hard way: through a short lifetime of trial-and-error.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
octopus brain is small, no larger than that of a lizard (pretty
remarkable, considering that of its’ clammy relatives have no brain at
all). Researchers like “relative brain size” as a comparative measure of
intelligence across unrelated species. This puts the octopus around the
level of a komodo dragon. But wait. It turns out that fully
three-fifths of the octopus’ brain cells reside </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in its arms</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">…along
with taste buds and photoreceptors remarkably similar to those in our
eyes. Their whole body is an inside-out decentralized brain, with
sensory organs built right in! If an arm is detached by a predator, it
will still attempt to hunt and grab prey, stuffing it greedily to where
its mouth once was. Octopi seek and store tools for later use (they plan
suits of armor and doors for their dens), have distinct moods (red for
rage) and capricious whims (squirt the cute keeper). They even play with
balls and bottles, have a sense of self (implied by their thoughtful
mimicry of other species), and can solve virtually any puzzle if there
is a juicy crab at the end of it. Childproof Tylenol bottles? No
problem. They are notorious midnight aquarium marauders, sneaking into
other tanks nearby, returning home once satiated with neighborly
concern. These are the hallmarks of true intelligence, which we
associate exclusively with a select cadre of long-lived, social mammals
and birds.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWRFAY0cmtkJvwHPJGKNdEiF7v-igB7x_Vcppm-vczA559zVA_SwWFVNncajAf8MLPrzJfYPRJJQ2yyc_DdPNzTi95dtLn2icgZQTgtBzqPAIgV_MVxFi0xpszetihBsgMVu0kRGGUwQ/s1600/Mimic%252BOctopus%252B03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWRFAY0cmtkJvwHPJGKNdEiF7v-igB7x_Vcppm-vczA559zVA_SwWFVNncajAf8MLPrzJfYPRJJQ2yyc_DdPNzTi95dtLn2icgZQTgtBzqPAIgV_MVxFi0xpszetihBsgMVu0kRGGUwQ/s640/Mimic%252BOctopus%252B03.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlmBy_uwQDZn8M_clbF5E16uapfkmFCik0RF7eY41-COD_CiV1md8N9FW-4ndzuMzTuO6XikVv67Fkd8a-Q2QAaXER4TMQhBZNAME_D67Q8_b1rC46PmBzE_AFDIwfVpjnUnm9JI2Rhaw/s1600/Afs4FxaEwA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlmBy_uwQDZn8M_clbF5E16uapfkmFCik0RF7eY41-COD_CiV1md8N9FW-4ndzuMzTuO6XikVv67Fkd8a-Q2QAaXER4TMQhBZNAME_D67Q8_b1rC46PmBzE_AFDIwfVpjnUnm9JI2Rhaw/s400/Afs4FxaEwA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps it is informative to ask </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">why</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
the mimic octopus has this advanced ability. What evolutionary function
does it serve? The consensus among evolutionary biologists has been
that intelligence allows members of long-lived social species to
remember and differentiate one another for complex political
maneuvering. Elephants, dolphins and whales, humans and other apes all
fit this pattern, as do parrots and crows. Octopuses are neither
long-lived nor social, and do not engage in complex political
machinations.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why, then, does their intelligence </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">converge</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> upon our own (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">convergent evolution</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
being the development of similar adaptations in unrelated species due
to similar environmental pressures)? Why does the octopus, a creature so
alien to our sensibilities, whose ancestors had no brains or eyes or
even backbones, have intelligence possibly rivaling a rhesus macaque?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Soft-bodied
and vulnerable, the <a href="http://www.tonmo.com/science/fossils/fossiloctopuses.php" target="_blank">octopuses long ago</a> gave up the security of life in
shells, much like our own ancestors gave up a sheltered life among the
trees, covered in protective fur, doubled over in a gut-guarding crouch.
For both families, the reward has been radical expansion and access to
an untold wealth of open niches. Octopuses occur across the globe, from
shoreline to abyss. (Old folks in the Northwest even spin woolly yarns
about the elusive <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=pacific+tree+octopus&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=NIp&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=H-tGUJPYPIjc2gXznYCoCA&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1277&bih=697" target="_blank">Pacific Tree Octopus</a>). The price of admission for us
both has been a hat full of clever tricks. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Octopuses
and their relatives have maintained their way of life for some 300
million years, while we are new to the game (less than 50,000 years). To
accomplish this hat trick, the octopus has adopted the same flexible,
thoughtful, situation-specific mimicking of champion species that we
have only recently hit upon. It’s a brilliant strategy, and one that we
are eminently pre-adapted to use. If we move quickly, we just might find
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Homo mimicus </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">around 300 million years from now.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2860289728961954099.post-7896817506530573872012-08-09T10:54:00.001-07:002012-08-10T10:47:27.538-07:00Extremophile Planet<div style="font-family: inherit;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuUk17LpH6hsIszIC5MSneNu3loY9vNn_aRUYRolEXUpfJSNoRgZD8d4qR0KuwEPYc1SiUcNHPAUKxRBq6uSJB09v5tuL_0qlGO-KP1_dsOPbTLzySCc-t-yu9wM56cxwBCIKhar_Hoe4/s1600/images-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuUk17LpH6hsIszIC5MSneNu3loY9vNn_aRUYRolEXUpfJSNoRgZD8d4qR0KuwEPYc1SiUcNHPAUKxRBq6uSJB09v5tuL_0qlGO-KP1_dsOPbTLzySCc-t-yu9wM56cxwBCIKhar_Hoe4/s400/images-2.jpg" width="394" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Red Planet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
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{page:WordSection1;} </style><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">Like
millions of other Earthlings, my heart thrilled as <i>Curiosity</i> made
improbable contact with the surface of the Red Planet. <i>The upright ape pries
open another nut</i>, I thought to myself. <i>Our niche expands again</i>.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">The
first photos from Mars look like turn-of-the-century pinhole camera images of
an alien and exotic land. They suggest a window to a past, seen “through a
shattered glass, darkly.” We are here to look for shards of the past,
fragmentary glimpses of what once flourished here. Maybe <i>Curiosity</i> will
tell us about life on Mars, and maybe Mars will tell us something about life on
our own blue marble.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mars appears blasted, utterly
inhospitable. It’s easy to conclude that life made no start on this barren
rock, that no spark ignited the complex dance of carbon. Life may be unique to
Earth. </span><span style="font-size: small;">But the more we learn about the Red Planet, the
less ‘unique’ Earth seems to be. Like claims about humanity’s top rung on the four-legged
hairy ladder of life, our place at the planetary table seems a little less secure.
The boundary
between us and them sidles ever closer.</span><style>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9nyCNgbkYt9L0Yq4g8t-yFn3JCHlKhFgxaqA1xnkAdW8U5ljBRRY7afAhlusnNGE4mYsW6EUnDsH7ptmlsD9E03baviUzUTcwJRHwEb54-9qsONhBlS3sKLlLjtFpfRaGKrvVn_G9us/s1600/300-MarsCuriosity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9nyCNgbkYt9L0Yq4g8t-yFn3JCHlKhFgxaqA1xnkAdW8U5ljBRRY7afAhlusnNGE4mYsW6EUnDsH7ptmlsD9E03baviUzUTcwJRHwEb54-9qsONhBlS3sKLlLjtFpfRaGKrvVn_G9us/s400/300-MarsCuriosity.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">First photos from Curiosi</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvUybbRQfK06lm9LwCYH4_YfL-zL37oJW83fGXTdhZ9fWOJGOCqngFsquDkxDiBvzyrHpjY3l37OKdRoZEWZ6tXimiKy6ZILlgsy0pcC7or-MAc3pw5zn3wKTB4OBl1So7x0gt2JU6ZkY/s1600/6a00d8341c730253ef0167691b32fa970b-800wi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvUybbRQfK06lm9LwCYH4_YfL-zL37oJW83fGXTdhZ9fWOJGOCqngFsquDkxDiBvzyrHpjY3l37OKdRoZEWZ6tXimiKy6ZILlgsy0pcC7or-MAc3pw5zn3wKTB4OBl1So7x0gt2JU6ZkY/s640/6a00d8341c730253ef0167691b32fa970b-800wi.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mt. Sharp : NASA</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Mars has a lot
in common with us, besides being a great home for our discarded electronics. Though
its surface is now too cold and dry to support known life forms, it was once a wet
place, with many of the conditions we hold sacred to life.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Liquid water may still exist below the surface, and with it, simple microbes or
photosynthetic bacteria.</span><span class="mw-headline"><i> </i></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">Mars' south pole contains huge amounts of frozen
water, and recent changes in craters and sediment deposits suggest that liquid
water flows sporadically on the surface. Flash-flood gullies and subsurface
geysers may offer a safe retreat for microbes and even simple plants,
sheltering them from solar radiation. Scientists of some repute suggest that
transient dark spots recorded in NASA’s fly-by imagery represent bacterial
colonies. As springtime sunshine penetrates the ice, these organisms stir and
photosynthesis begins. Pockets of liquid water form, protected from instant
vaporization until exposed to the ruthless Martian surface. Once revealed, our
cosmic brethren desiccate and blacken. </span></div>
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<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF8JNEhMIQFwZYUHxeX6zz8nc0ElqtqHv40rQOaRr_XDmw_7iysIB_oMd9ERUnae9EFOA1RRx4psPIwfK9ZFzEU1FIh-GQPPI7RKDW1zeRoCl7fNLNwxDcTRvL4vXIPoKnYaVby9fI948/s1600/mars3-700x525.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF8JNEhMIQFwZYUHxeX6zz8nc0ElqtqHv40rQOaRr_XDmw_7iysIB_oMd9ERUnae9EFOA1RRx4psPIwfK9ZFzEU1FIh-GQPPI7RKDW1zeRoCl7fNLNwxDcTRvL4vXIPoKnYaVby9fI948/s400/mars3-700x525.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Blasted Martian landscape</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If life is a
simple matter of electrified chemistry, we should find multiple births in
life’s cradle. But every Earthling shares a common genetic ancestry, and it
seems that the “vital spark from inanimate matter to animate life happened once
and only once, and all living existence depends on that moment.” You can’t just
zap the primordial soup and create life.There are a few more ingredients in our
self-replicating confection.</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">The most fundamental is the cell membrane,
collecting and concentrating life’s raw ingredients into tiny reactive beakers.
Second, our inert bubble needs a spark: a source of energy to defy, at least
temporarily, the laws of thermodynamics. Life must acquire energy rather than
lose it if it is to find perpetual motion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">On Earth, bacteria break down molecules and consume
their energy. The methanogens eat methane and wash it down with water.
Other bacteria dine on sulphur, or survive on water alone. These ancient
children feed on the primal matter of Earth. These are the extremophiles, lurid
“colored smears on the surfaces of rocks” that make their homes in Earth’s
forsaken places: boiling sulfuric volcanic vents, lightless ocean seeps, and
the scalding flatulence of explosive geysers. They are gifted problem-solvers
from a time before the Sun’s power was unlocked, and rich subjects for
Biomimicry. Chances are, if we find life on Mars, it will be a similar case of
arrested development. In fact, our methanogens grow beautifully on simulated
Martian soil. Who knows, maybe someday
their extremophiles will inspire our innovations.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjes-jXwq4ViYvY_Z4EE68g3I0SoJCq2C7ayf1keW1DmOhvFzVcql6c0NlkHkFBITqWW_sj8snVUX63sqrGZ5uc3lfnqfZob9gF_e7x5AOtXYEG5OPnfmpSvKnzJ-eVeyv106YHvfoo83k/s1600/ESP_021942_1520-580x580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjes-jXwq4ViYvY_Z4EE68g3I0SoJCq2C7ayf1keW1DmOhvFzVcql6c0NlkHkFBITqWW_sj8snVUX63sqrGZ5uc3lfnqfZob9gF_e7x5AOtXYEG5OPnfmpSvKnzJ-eVeyv106YHvfoo83k/s400/ESP_021942_1520-580x580.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Possible water-formed gullies on Mars</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">On the third rock from the Sun, Earthlings went
even further. By striking a flint on the now-ubiquitous green pigment,
chlorophyll, they tamed fire. With each iota of light energy captured, a little
green creature puffed a single breath of life-giving oxygen into the larval
atmosphere, to be gobbled up by the oxidizers of this New World. They spread
and puffed away, until finally, the photosynthetic bacteria produced oxygen
faster than it could be locked away. Our original life-givers still quietly
exhale today in the far-away acidic and saline lakes where grazing snails fail.
Life creates conditions conducive to life, and so cooperation and collaboration
were there from the beginning. Judging from our own planet, we might expect to
find an entire interconnected ecosystem dining on light energy and methane just
below the Martian surface. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvehFR0IKd09-c30n-a0eDDrajr_yQk_0D3-OneY04iaLmv6WLN55x2-o4oPQ0_DGJYv-TksERmikTGO-wsgC_TTc9x-miohszOBzFLNJeXC3l5eebB8FbSUTF7Wo4NCp7Ixt15VKnXY0/s1600/polar-ice-cliffs-580x435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvehFR0IKd09-c30n-a0eDDrajr_yQk_0D3-OneY04iaLmv6WLN55x2-o4oPQ0_DGJYv-TksERmikTGO-wsgC_TTc9x-miohszOBzFLNJeXC3l5eebB8FbSUTF7Wo4NCp7Ixt15VKnXY0/s640/polar-ice-cliffs-580x435.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Polar ice cliffs: NASA/HiRISE Team</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">At some point, Earth’s
inhabitants got vastly more creative still, and our evolutionary history
radically diverged from the scientists’ most wildly imagined Martian fantasies.
On Earth, multi-celled creatures evolved and invented sex. Today, most Earthlings
scramble distinct sets of genetic information together and dole them back out
in fresh combinations to their children, testing each one on our big blue lab.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyqQ1txYt8-r27zGdV1YIBEad1zi-mCR9WhwzY3MOoyeGMu8LYfLAMbkinjcaYh9EwKIr9OOQw3WwiymGCMbss4K7ZV3aIK2jx09hOnD9zr4SVY_oWFe13CfydTOZUB83ncPNnsPBZCrQ/s1600/NASA-Mohawk-Guy-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyqQ1txYt8-r27zGdV1YIBEad1zi-mCR9WhwzY3MOoyeGMu8LYfLAMbkinjcaYh9EwKIr9OOQw3WwiymGCMbss4K7ZV3aIK2jx09hOnD9zr4SVY_oWFe13CfydTOZUB83ncPNnsPBZCrQ/s400/NASA-Mohawk-Guy-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Are we all Martians? Bobak 'Mohawk Guy' Ferdowsi</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If we do find a
Martian, what are the chances this rare mutation (life) occurred independently?
Isn’t it more likely that our neighbor down the street is a sister from a
different father, especially since our rovers idle at the Martian curb as we
speak?
Our
ancient climates were similar: could life flit between them like finches in the
Galapagos? A billion tons of Martian rock has surfed the cosmic current to our
shores, and some microbes and even lichen can survive such space journeys. If life blew to
Earth on a Martian wind, like dandelion fluff across the Pacific, the spark that
binds us is still singular and special. Life remains “nothing less than the
transformation of matter itself,” forging indifferent elements into a vital,
self- regenerating system, the elusive perpetual motion machine. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Such
journeys evoke Columbus-era species-swaps, like Pocahontas’ descendants
returning home from a life-altering vacation. Maybe all of us, from slime mold
to spider to ape, are born of distant ancestors whose separated-at-birth
children toil on beneath the Martian ice. You can’t help but think the ones left behind got
the short end of the stick. How much more miraculous are Earth’s ecologies compared
with even the richest Martian ecosystem? Where are the rainforests, with over 600
insect species in a single tree, each with a pocket penknife of surprising
talents? Where on Mars will we find ten million species or more coexisting in
bewilderingly interconnected networks? Where does life beget conditions
conducive to life? <i>Curiosity’s</i> blasted vision suggests we won’t find it.
“In the beginning, there was dust, and one day the great, improbable experiment
of life will return to dust” and primeval cells like those we imagine on Mars
will once again “spread their colored slime over the Earth, even as creatures
of complexity and elegance know their last days.” Until then, let’s enjoy our
vacation.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">All quotes and much inspiration are from Richard Fortey’s fantastic evolutionary memoir, <i>Life</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07880338100081300380noreply@blogger.com3