Biomimicry in Space | Radiation Protection

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Traveling in space is hazardous to your health. Missions to Mars, or extended travel anywhere in our solar system will certainly expose our technology and our bodies to solar flares without the protection of earths magnetosphere. Further complicating the problem is that a lot of the radiation shielding we use today is heavy (lead or water are often used depending on the radiation). And every pound of material needed in space costs about $10,000 to put into orbit. So, how nice would it be if just a few pounds of material could protect an entire space-shape from radiation?

Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungi that thrives under high radiation, and it uses a mechanism of radiation protection that just might be the key for unlocking a whole technology platform of high efficiency radiation management. Read on to find out more. Continue reading →

Mars for Earth | A Flywheel of Innovation

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We should go to Mars, because I think it might just be the best way to create a better Earth. The challenges faced in going to Mars and the subsequent innovations and solutions are the very same solutions we need to protect our own home, advance our economy, and increase cooperation between nations. In fact, Mars is really just a local jaunt. Our sights should be set on interstellar travel, but more about that later.

Neil deGrasse Tyson has called our space exploration and institutions that are funded to accomplish these visionary goals the ‘flywheels’ of innovation that we tap to solve societies needs. I agree. In fact I think that has been part of our problem. We have been looking to technology from the 1960′s, that was meant to keep people alive for just a few days or weeks as our template for success – rather than thinking about the technology needed to keep a human population alive and thriving for years, or even generations. NASA and our culture of (1960′s) technology-worship has had myopic goals and standards. If we want to live in a better world we need to critically look at our technology and recognize what it will take to get us to Mars, or even beyond.

Let’s look at just one example of how this line of thinking can create a better world?

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Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology is Indistiguishable from Nature

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This Arthur C. Clarke misquote was the tagline I used when I first started this blog. I loved the vision inherent in the statement – still do.

After a few weeks however I realized that my focus for writing began to be pulled towards finding rationalizations between existing technology and natures technology – instead of critically looking at the ‘gaps’, I was a cheerleader for emergent design. I eventually moved to the more critical ‘Mind the Gap’ sub-title to remind me what I’m looking for.

But, sometimes I still want to be a cheerleader- and the many designers that have filled in the tattered edges of my life are giving me a run for my money to really think critically about what it means to envision the future.

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The Future Will Rely on This Map

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This might be one of the most important maps for our future. The WWF (world wildlife fund) created this unique perspective of the world by combining two important factors; the abiotic and the biotic pressures on ecosystems that result in producing 825 unique terrestrial ecoregions. As a consequence this map begins to inform us of the regional systems upon which we depend, and forms a basis for creating solutions that are sensitive to the unique factors of place.

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How is Richard Branson Like a Beaver?

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The beaver (Castor canadensis) is a stately and playful rodent. Last spring, on a jog past their lodge I was shocked to see one (I named him Richard) just a few yards in front of me – staring me down. It was clear that Richard was not intimidated, but with a cheeky and sarcastic air anyone would find adorable, he ever so slowly strode off to the pond. I know why I tweaked Richard, I interrupted his transformation of the forest. Because that is what beavers do, they take a forest and make a pond. Beavers are known as ‘Ecosystem Engineers’, in that they transform their world by changing the context. Beavers not only increase the diversity of a location, but create a new context in the forest for life to thrive.

If we look at the numbers, Beavers take a monotonous expanse of forest, and actually increase the biodiversity by more than 30% . This greater diversity of environment, and the increase in related biodiversity has been found to be a key to long term resilience of the entire forest itself. This begins to beg the question – why aren’t more people in the financial sector (or any sector) creating ‘ponds’, adding new contexts to stodgy old enterprises, or to be really simplistic here with the biomimicry- change the speed of financial transaction, service, or investment in order to change the conditions?

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