If you have 23 minutes to spare, and I would strongly urge you to have them, then have a look at this beautiful and important talk on TED.

Author Janine Benyus provides fascinating examples of biomimicry - humans mimicking nature in the products we build and the systems we implement. (Recorded February 2005 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 23:59)

Many of the talks on TED are rivetting, but this one is in a class of its own. Janine Benyus
is President of the Biomimicry Institute. She’s the author of six books, including Biomimicry: Inspired by Nature