#ThinkfullyHabit: Nurture nature
When stuck on a challenge or problem, try thinking specifically about what you can learn from nature.
It’s a particularly fruitful area for inspiration and has led to many fascinating innovations; from hospital surfaces inspired by sharks, to the bullet train inspired by the kingfisher.
“Look deep into nature, then you will understand everything better.”
WHY?
We can often get stuck looking at the same reference points when gathering ideas so this is a great way to open up to new sources of inspiration. There's even a field of science (Biomimetics) that imitates ideas from nature to solve human problems, and it’s led to some incredible breakthroughs.
Here's the firefly and the LED light bulb example;
Fireflies are ‘bioluminescent’ which means they can produce their own light from light-emitting organs on their lower abdomen which glows to attract mates or prey.
When on fieldwork in Central America, Belgian physicist Jean-Pol Vigneron was amazed by the clouds of twinkling fireflies during twilight and brought some specimens back to his lab to examine. He discovered an unexpected pattern of jagged and misfitting scales on the firefly’s abdomen which enhanced their glow because the sharp edges minimised internal reflections, meaning more light was let out*.
You can see the scales like a “factory roof” on this zoomed in image;
Vigneron and his team decided to investigate how these nanoscale features could be applied to LED design. They went on to create a coating for LED bulbs that mimicked the abdomen design on the firefly and increased LED light extraction by up to 55%!**