Nature's Wild Ideas
How the Natural World is Inspiring Scientific Innovation
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A lively and endlessly fascinating deep-dive into nature and the many groundbreaking human inventions inspired by the wild.
"Delightful."—The Guardian
"Fans of Helen Scales won't want to miss this."—Publishers Weekly STARRED Review
When astronomers wanted a telescope that could capture X-rays from celestial bodies, they looked to the lobster. When doctors wanted a medication that could stabilize Type II diabetic patients, they found their muse in a lizard. When scientists wanted to drastically reduce emissions in cement manufacturing, they observed how corals construct their skeletons in the sea. This is biomimicry in action: taking inspiration from nature to tackle human challenges.
In Nature’s Wild Ideas, Kristy Hamilton goes behind the scenes of some of our most unexpected innovations. She traverses frozen waterfalls, treks through cloudy forests, discovers nests in the Mojave desert, scours intertidal zones and takes us to the deepest oceans and near volcanoes to introduce us to the animals and plants that have inspired everything from cargo routing systems to non-toxic glues, and the men and women who followed that first spark of “I wonder” all the way to its conclusion, sometimes against all odds.
While the joy of scientific discovery is front and center, Nature’s Wild Ideas is also a love letter to nature—complete with a deep message of conservation: If we are to continue learning from the creatures around us, we must protect their untamed homelands.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Science journalist Hamilton debuts with an impressive look at the myriad human innovations that have been derived from animals and plants. With a breezy prose style, Hamilton explains how the lobster, whose eye "is 256 times more powerful at catching beams of light in the dark than a human eye is in daylight," inspired the idea for "a telescope that could catch X-rays millions of light-years away." Scientists looking to develop nontoxic waterproof glue, meanwhile, turned to blue mussels, which stick to surfaces with a natural adhesive; a study of a venomous reptile's blood sugar levels resulted in a "synthetic lizard-inspired medication" for diabetics; and the structure of a pomegranate influenced the design for lithium-ion batteries. Hamilton concludes with a call to protect the planet: rather than creating "continued heaps of waste depleted resources," she urges people to "see ourselves as guardians" of nature rather than its "conquerors." Her tour is enhanced by a healthy dose of humor (of lobsters, she writes, "it's easy to judge a creature that urinates out of its face") and amusing accounts of her fieldwork, which on one occasion involved following an ant for over half an hour. Fans of Helen Scales won't want to miss this.
