About the author

Dan Rhoads

Dan is a postdoc working at the University of Cyprus in developmental biology. He has a BSc in molecular biology and a PhD pharmacology and biochemistry.

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I just came across a very interesting book relating to biotechnology, but sadly it’s not due out until next year. By Janine Benyus and Gunter Pauli, Nature’s 100 Best: World-Changing Innovations Inspired By Nature, this book promises to tell of stories of past innovations coming from biology.

A collaborative effort of Janine Benyus’ Biomimicry Guild and Gunter Pauli’s ZERI Foundation, Nature’s 100 Best brings to light fascinating secrets of nature capable of revolutionizing nearly every aspect of our economy, and changing our destructive relationship with the environment to one of mutual benefit. The team behind Nature’s 100 Best recognizes that the best way to solve the world’s most intractable problems is to look where we haven’t looked before: in the extremely successful R&D lab that’s been operating on this planet for 3.8 billion years. In that time, 10-30 million species have learned to do everything we want to do, without guzzling fossil fuels, polluting the planet, or mortgaging our common future. They’ve learned what works, what is appropriate, and what lasts here on earth.

There is no landfill in nature, only a ready market for everything that is produced. Entrepreneurs and readers of all stripes will learn that our biological elders have already developed the technologies needed to: Keep the Earth’s climate tuned for the needs of all life-forms; Harvest, store, and distribute energy locally, cheaply, and in a variety of ways; Separate salt from water with sun power; Sequester carbon while increasing the fertility of soils and sea; Spin CO2 into durable plastics that biodegrade on cue; Produce fiber, food, and fuel without erosion or pesticides; Manufacture without fossil-fuel driven heat, pressures, and toxins; Stay germ-free without developing antibiotic resistance; Bounce back from floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, wind, disease, and fire; Keep an incredibly complex economy productive for all; Innovate as changes in the environment require while always reducing their footprint to zero; And much more.

Nice description. Now it makes me want to hear about the 100 Best of Nature themselves.