Today’s Solutions: December 15, 2024

The Flair: this redesigned fan

The Flair: this redesigned fan uses up to 85% less energy than conventional fans

AC systems and fans use up to 22 percent of the world’s electricity. This generates as many CO2 emissions as all the world’s cars. Strangely enough, however, the design of the fan hasn’t changed in 100 years. That’s why Jay Harman’s design firm, PAX Scientific, has designed a new, Read More...

How termites, beetles, and fro

How termites, beetles, and frogs are inspiring self-cooling buildings

When we need the most innovative solutions for structural issues, designers often turn to nature and its creatures for inspiration. The latest example of biomimicry comes from Mick Pearce, a Zimbabwean architect, who recently designed and constructed a self-cooling building modeled on the mounds Read More...

Inner structure of seashells i

Inner structure of seashells inspires scientists to make shatter-proof glass

Prized for all of its amazing properties, glass has numerous practical, technological, and decorative uses. However, for all its strengths, glass is an inherently brittle material. That’s why scientists have continuously been looking for ways to improve the material by making it more Read More...

Scientists used biomimicry and

Scientists used biomimicry and bacteria to create strong biocompatible material

Although 3D printing has been a game-changer in many industries for creating new synthetic materials, scientists are also turning to nature in order to develop some of the strongest synthetic materials available. One natural substance scientists have studied as a model for creating synthetic Read More...

Swedish food packaging design

Swedish food packaging design combines beauty and functionality of nature

Food packaging is typically made of landfill-bound materials like plastic, aluminum-lined paper or Styrofoam that outlive their content way longer than necessary. Tomorrow Machines has come up with alternative solutions whose materials, functionality and esthetics borrow from nature. We watched the Read More...

Solid workers

Solid workers

All the ants on earth weigh as much as seven billion people. That calculation comes from German biologist Bert Hölldobler and American biologist Edward Wilson in their book The Ants (1990). Ants are constantly busy, carrying things from here to there without leaving a trace of trash behind. Ants Read More...

What would nature do?

What would nature do?

The emerging science of biomimicry promises inventive breakthroughs in nearly every field of technology and designJanine Benyus | November 2004 issue Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature, looking to nature as a teacher. One language caveat here: Inherent in the phrase “looking to Read More...