Janine Benyus, Biomimicry Mama

We’ve been turned on to biologist Janine Benyus since we saw her TED talk from a few years back. Her non-profit the Biomimicry Institute looks to nature for design solutions, not just in form, but in technology. Her talk consists of all types of sci-fi topics: mollusks that chow down on CO2, migrating birds that don’t bump into each other, bacteria-cleaning seaweed, leaves that act like detergent and whales working as wind turbines. Except those things are all real, and they’re concepts that her scientists have been honing as sustainable solutions to our problems.