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How Inventors Find Inspiration in Evolution
 For centuries, engineers have turned to nature for inspiration. Leonardo da Vinci dreamed of gliding machines that would mimic birds. Today, the close study of animals and plants is leading to inventions such as soft batteries and water-walking robots.
Cassandra Donatelli, a biologist at the University of Washington, Tacoma and an author of a recent review of the burgeoning field of "bioinspiration," credits the trend to sophisticated new tools as well as a new spirit of collaboration.
Continued here |
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WorkWorkWorkWorkWorkRecessions have become ultra-rare. That is storing up trouble - The EconomistFrom 1300 to 1800, economic historians estimate that England and then Britain were in recession almost half the time. The economy was volatile, with storming recoveries following crashing downturns. As capitalism matured and policymaking improved, recessions became less frequent. In the 19th century the country was in recession only a quarter of the time. Then, in the 20th century, downturns became even less common, as was also the case in other rich countries. And today things look even more placid: recessions have become something of an endangered species. WorkWorkWorkMexico has become a less deadly place under Claudia Sheinbaum - The EconomistStickers declaring that "#ElBuenoEsHarfuch" ("Harfuch is the one") still adorn car windows in Mexico City. The slogan dates from Omar Garcia Harfuch's mayoral bid in 2023. During his four-year stint as the city's security chief under then-mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, the murder rate fell by about 40%, one of the biggest drops in the country. This made him wildly popular. He won Morena's nomination in a landslide, then stood aside for the female runner-up so the party could meet its gender quotas. Instead he followed Ms Sheinbaum to the National Palace in October 2024 as her security minister, to apply his intelligence-led approach to tackling Mexico's drug gangs on a national scale. Many Mexicans believe he is their best hope of stemming the violence that has plagued their country for years. WorkSpace food made from astronaut pee to be tested aboard the ISS | The Independent Future astronauts on long-duration missions to the Moon or Mars could survive on a protein powder made from "thin air" and urine, the European Space Agency has announced.A new pilot program aims to test the feasibility of producing a protein powder called Solein, which requires just microbes, air and electricity to manufacture. WorkCan the tallest running shoe out there chart the path for Nike's comeback? - WSJElliott Hill is trying to regain Nike's lead in the innovation race--and its chunkiest running shoe ever may be the model for getting there, he says.With more than 2 inches of stack height, the $230 Vomero Premium is now the tallest running sneaker you can buy since it landed on store shelves last month. But it is how the uber-cushioned shoe was developed--in about eight months, instead of the typical 18--that Nike's chief executive wants to replicate across the sneaker giant. WorkWorkWorkOpinion | A.I. Chatbots Should Be Legally Allowed to Keep Your Secrets On New Year's Day, Jonathan Rinderknecht purportedly asked ChatGPT: "Are you at fault if a fire is lift because of your cigarettes," misspelling the word "lit." "Yes," ChatGPT replied. Ten months later, he is now being accused of having started a small blaze that authorities say reignited a week later to start the devastating Palisades fire. WorkWorkWorkWorkApple Pulls China's Top Gay Dating Apps After Government Order | WIREDApple has removed two of the most popular gay dating apps in China from the App Store after receiving an order from China's main internet regulator and censorship authority, WIRED has learned. The move comes as reports of Blued and Finka disappearing from the iOS App Store and several Android app stores circulated on Chinese social media over the weekend. WorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkExclusive: Altman And Masa Back a 27-Year-Old's Plan to Build a New Bell Labs Ultra There's very little about Louis Andre on the internet, which will stand out as strange in a few paragraphs' time.I can tell you that he's 27 years old and grew up in Europe. He has a French mother and a father who hails from Madagascar. Andre began studying neuroscience and computer science at University College London before embarking on a scientific odyssey, hopping to labs at Princeton and Stanford and a Parkinson's disease-related biotech startup backed by Sergey Brin.As of Monday, however, Andre will find himself at the center of much attention. He's revealing a new company called Episteme that's backed by Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and a host of other (as of yet) undisclosed investors, as Core Memory can report exclusively. Based in San Francisco, Episteme is an effort to create a modern-day Bell Labs or Xerox PARC in that it hopes to attract the world's top scientists and have them work on a wide range of potential breakthrough products. WorkCanada loses measles elimination status after ongoing outbreaks International health experts say Canada is no longer measles-free because of ongoing outbreaks, as childhood vaccination rates fall and the highly contagious virus spreads across North and South America. The loss of the country's measles elimination status comes more than a year after the highly contagious virus started spreading. Canada has logged 5,138 measles cases this year and two deaths. Both were babies who were exposed to the measles virus in the womb and born prematurely. WorkFDA Strips Breast Cancer Warning from Menopause Hormone Therapy | Scientific American A black box warning is the most severe notification of safety issues on a medication and is typically applied to an entire class of treatments based on how they work in the body. The FDA's commissioner Marty Makary called the use of black box warning labels for HRT for menopause "unscientific" in a press conference about the announcement. WorkBuffett Gives $1.3 Billion to Four Charities in Latest Letter - Bloomberg The 95-year-old investor will convert 1,800 of Berkshire's Class A shares into 2.7 million Class B shares, the firm said in a statement Monday. He'll then give 1.5 million of those shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife, and 400,000 to each of his children's foundations, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation. WorkWorkWorkThe US's most ambitious shipyard project just got tougher - WSJWhen President Trump recently announced his support for South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine in the U.S., he singled out the place where he wants it built: a historic shipyard in Philadelphia.Philly Shipyard, bought last year by South Korean naval giant Hanwha Ocean, was already central to Trump's bold plans to revitalize American shipbuilding and narrow a yawning maritime gap with China. WorkA new project aims to predict how quickly AI will progress - The EconomistThe Longitudinal Expert AI Panel (LEAP) sets out to do three things. First, rather than assessing vague claims about concepts like AGI, it offers specific, testable hypotheses. When will self-driving cars account for 20% of American ride-hailing trips? What proportion of the country's electricity will be used for AI by 2040? What will be the benchmark scores for open-source and proprietary AI models in 2025, 2027 and 2030? WorkToxic 'Hammerhead Worm' Is Invading Texas, Triggering Warnings "Don't kill it, don't squish it, don't cut it up," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller warned residents via NBC as a toxic flatworm spreads across North Texas.While this invasive species has been in the US for years, the state's fatally heavy rains, fueled by climate change, are enabling the hammerhead flatworm (Bipalium kewense) to thrive and spread. WorkWorkVideo: How Syria's President Transformed His Image Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara’s meeting with President Trump in Washington signifies a new turn for al-Shara, a former Islamist rebel leader who was once designated by the United States as a terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head. Our reporter Christina Goldbaum describes the meeting. WorkWorkCanada no longer measles-free as outbreaks spread Experts from the Pan American Health Organization, an independent health agency, made the determination after analyzing data on Canada’s outbreaks that showed the virus has spread continuously for a year. WorkRising unemployment could affect budget, interest rates, pay and more This no longer seems to be uppermost in employers’ minds. Whether it is the use of artificial intelligence or just a more gloomy outlook in some sectors – such as the car industry – workers are being let go without much care for the business implications in a month or year when they might be needed again. WorkWorkWorkWhy Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn - podcast How did it all come about? Michael Savage reports on who put the dossier together and outlines the criticisms - of BBC Arabia, and coverage of gender - in it. He explains why BBC watchers are saying that Conservative figures inside the corporation are to blame for the row and are calling it a coup. Helen Pidd asks why the BBC has not done more to defend itself and who will take on these difficult roles now. And finally, how damaging is it to public trust? WorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWork TradeBriefs Publications are read by over 100,000 Industry Executives About Us | Advertise | Privacy PolicyUnsubscribeYou are receiving this mail because of your subscription with TradeBriefs.
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