NEXT TIME you have a problem, ask yourself: what would a plant do? Billions of years of evolution have given animals and plants plenty of time to come up with ingenious solutions to the trials of life, and technology is increasingly being based on their innovations.
Speaking at TEDGlobal in Oxford yesterday, Janine Benyus, who specialises in the field of “biomimicry” entertained the audience with examples. The Galapagos shark, for example, prevents bacteria sticking to its skin and that design has been adapted to coat hospital surfaces.
Elsewhere, the design of humpback whale fins has been adapted to reduce the drag on giant windmills, and the way trees build strong structures with minimal materials is being applied to the design of cars. How ants work together to find food means your appliances may be better able to “talk to each other” and run your household more efficiently.
Benyus’s talk was among several concerned with biodiversity and climate change that featured yesterday. Perhaps the most ambitious project showcased was a seed vault built into a Norwegian mountain and which already houses samples from 425,000 plants. It will ultimately house a million samples. Cary Fowler of Global Diversity Crop Trust summed up one problem of persuading the public of the importance of saving plants from extinction, saying: “You don’t look into the eyes of a carrot seed the way you do of a panda bear”.
However, being faithful to the words behind TED’s acronym – Technology, Entertainment, Design – there were also talks on how the internet can be good for dictatorships, a fascinating display of optical illusions and a standing ovation for Lewis Pugh, who swam a kilometre across the North Pole to highlight the impact of global warming. He couldn’t feel his fingers for four months afterwards.
There were also worried gasps when neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe told of being able to alter a person’s moral judgments through pulses directed at the brain and how the Pentagon has been phoning her looking for the information. “They’re calling, but I’m not talking to them,” she said.
