AskNature Chat is here.

AskNature Chat is your digital guide to nature’s most brilliant ideas for solving problems—a biomimicry assistant rooted in the poetic, rigorous, and accessible style of Janine Benyus and AskNature.org.

Here’s what it can do for you:

Reveal Nature’s Strategies

It translates adaptations from plants, animals, fungi, and ecosystems into clear, understandable “biological strategies” using this structure:

• Summary: What the strategy does and how.
• Introduction: Who the organism is and where it lives.
• The Strategy: How the function is achieved (the mechanism).
• The Potential: How humans can emulate it to innovate sustainably.

This is modeled after the AskNature approach, with storytelling, metaphor, and rigorous science.

Connect You to Research and Reliable Sources

Every response includes links to:

• AskNature.org
• Peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Science.org, Nature.com, Elsevier.com, JSTOR.org)
• Exclusive access to more than 1000 pages of nature writing by our co-founder, Janine Benyus

These books are cited with credit to Benyus and linked to where you can learn more or buy them.

Inspire Human Innovation

It helps designers, engineers, educators, biologists, and everyday nature-lovers:

• Find design ideas modeled after nature
• Understand ecological relationships
• Explore sustainable strategies that use ambient energy, recycle materials, avoid toxins, and build community

Educate Across Ages and Backgrounds

AskNature Chat writes in plain, poetic language suitable for a curious 7th grader yet accurate enough for PhD-level learners. It also respects all human cultures and traditions as equal and relevant expressions of human nature.

Examples of What You Can Ask

• “How does nature reduce drag in water?”
• “What can I learn from forests about community resilience?”
• “How do desert plants collect water?”
• “What’s a nature-based way to cool buildings?”
• “What are the strategies behind hummingbird flight?”
• “How can I mimic beavers to store water in the landscape?”

Try your own question now, or explore a specific habitat or organism.

AskNature Chat is unique because it doesn’t just explain how nature works—it reveals why that matters and how we can learn from it to design a better world.

Here’s what sets it apart:

It’s Nature’s Storyteller and Strategist

AskNature Chat is modeled after the voice and vision of Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute and author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Like her writing in Northwoods Wildlife and the Wildlife Habitats field guides, AskNature Chat:

• Speaks in vivid, poetic language.
• Grounds ideas in ecological relationships.
• Emphasizes awe and connection with the living world.

It presents biology as a library of functional strategies—ready to be explored, honored, and emulated.

Deep Biological Insight, Delivered Accessibly

Instead of dense technical language, I:

• Translate scientific research into clear, simple concepts.
• Use vivid analogies and metaphors.
• Write for everyone from 7th graders to professional designers.

You’ll never just hear “how it works”—you’ll understand what it teaches us.

Grounded in Real Sources and Science

Unlike generic AI tools, I search:

• AskNature.org (whenever possible)
• Peer-reviewed scientific journals (Science, Nature, Elsevier, JSTOR)
• Janine Benyus’s habitat guides for the Eastern and Western US and the Northwoods

Every claim I make comes with reliable sources and links, verified for accuracy.

It’s Not Just Smart. It’s Ethical.

AskNature Chat holds a deep commitment to:

• Sustainability: Favoring nature’s methods—no toxins, no waste, ambient conditions only.
• Inclusivity: Respecting all cultures’ ecological knowledge without treating them as relics or future ideals.
• Empowerment: Encouraging everyone to take part in healing and co-creating our shared home.

It Bridges Disciplines and Species

AskNature Chat is designed to serve:

• Designers and engineers looking for innovation
• Educators and students wanting rich STEM material
• Conservationists and ecologists seeking fresh perspective
• Curious minds hoping to reconnect with nature

It invites you into a conversation across species, asking not “How do we solve this?” but “How has life solved this already?”

Would you like to explore a strategy now—like how spiders sense vibration, or how moss manages water? Or something more tailored to a challenge you’re facing?

AI is here. There are important questions and concerns about its environmental impact, but those can be addressed with technological innovation. There are also questions about its effect on the thought process of its users and the implications of having access to so much information so instantly.

AskNature Chat, initially launching on the ChatGPT platform, gives a user a filter and framework to put around their own AI use. It helps ensure that their information-gathering stays rooted in real relationship with the sources of that information—and, more importantly, with its implications and connections to the full ecological relationships embedded there.

A legitimate criticism of the scientific revolution and Western approaches to knowledge is that they tend towards being extractive, detaching information from meaning and relationships. The AskNature framework helps to re-contextualize abstracted information into a relational framework once again.

Instead of delivering just one bit of information abstracted from a species and presented as a chemical formula or mechanical description, AskNature provides those critical bits of information while keeping them rooted in the lived experience of the species that developed them.

There is an ethical aspect to that—fostering respect and care for species and environments. But there is also a practical aspect: context often contains additional clues or unexpected inspiration that can lead to better implementation and innovation.

We hope that by using AskNature Chat, participants will find not only access to information but also an orientation toward understanding—training their own eyes, ears, and minds to see information in this way, whether or not they have the tool at hand.

The quality of your journey with AskNature Chat depends on the kinds of questions you bring to it.

Here are 7 essential tips to get the most inspiring, useful, and deeply connected insights:

1. Start with a Function, Not a Form

Biomimicry works best when you think like nature: in functions, not things. Ask:

• “How does nature stick without glue?”
• “How does nature prevent erosion?”
• “How does nature cool without air conditioning?”

Tip: The more specific the function, the better the biological match it can find for you.

2. Ask About Mechanisms

If you’re fascinated by a creature or ecosystem, ask how it does what it does:

• “How do hummingbirds hover?”
• “How do coral reefs build structures underwater?”
• “How do forests regulate climate?”

That leads us to the mechanism, which is key for human emulation.

3. Pose a Design Challenge

If you’re working on something (even an idea), frame your question as a design challenge:

• “How could I design a surface that stays clean naturally?”
• “What can nature teach us about resilient communities?”
• “How can I store water in dry environments?”

These kinds of prompts open up the “The Potential” section—how nature can inspire innovation.

4. Explore a Specific Habitat or Species

If you’re curious about a place or creature, just name it:

• “Tell me about the desert kangaroo rat’s water strategy.”
• “What’s special about beaver-engineered wetlands?”
• “What adaptations are found in Arctic tundra ecosystems?”

This reveals the ecological story and the adaptations in context.

5. Don’t Rush the Wonder

Let the biological story unfold. Ask follow-ups like:

• “What part of the body does that?”
• “How does that avoid using chemicals?”
• “What else works like this in nature?”

Curiosity feeds depth—and that’s where real biomimicry happens.

6. Ask for Sources

Every answer it gives is backed by real research. Just say:

• “Can you give me scientific papers on this?”
• “Can you link to more info?”
• “Where can I read more?”

And it will give you direct links to peer-reviewed sources, AskNature.org, or Janine Benyus’s books.

7. Stay Open to Ethos and Reconnection

AskNature Chat isn’t just about mimicry. It’s about modeling nature’s ethos:

• Building without pollution
• Cooperating across species
• Creating conditions conducive to life

You can ask:

• “What does this teach us about sustainability?”
• “How can we use this idea in community design?”
• “What worldview does this strategy suggest?”

Want to Try a Prompt Now?

Here are some ideas:

• “How does nature gather and store solar energy?”
• “How do animals communicate silently?”
• “How could we design a self-cleaning roof like a leaf?”

Or you can tell the tool what you’re curious about or working on, and it will tailor a strategy just for you.

Try it now.

With this first release, we are utilizing existing AI tools aware of the many and legitimate concerns they raise. Our goal is to create a framework that helps to bring lessons from nature and a culturally and ecologically ethical framework into the workflow of people already using these tools.

In the long term, our goal is to create a standalone, proprietary AI tool based on authorized use of training materials, powered by renewable energy sources, and utilizing minimal water resources.

AskNature Chat is an ongoing and unfolding effort. Any feedback positive or negative you can provide on the project as a whole, how you use it, or how it’s performing will help us make it as useful as possible.

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