Enjoy the magnificently bold colors of nature and ponder their pigments and structure. Think of what nature is doing here, and ask yourself: what more could come of utilizing structural color in our designs? How might we take this genius strategy and color our world like nature does?
The infectious enthusiasm that beginners find once they realize how approachable biomimicry is inspires me to continue introducing this discipline to anyone and everyone interested in learning from nature. The natural world is as infinite an entity as we have. When you introduce your beginners to biomimicry, you’re opening a whole new window into the world around them. I don’t know any work that’s more satisfying than that.
New materials, synthetic biology, and a circular economy are still in their early stages. As with any exponential technology, trends start small before taking off. There are dozens of design competitions around the world like Circular Economy 2030, OPENIDEO, Solve by MIT, and of course, the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, among many others. I am optimistic that a circular economy is achievable in our lifetime.
In Part 1, we heard from the co-founders of ECOncrete®, the company that was awarded the 2020 Ray of Hope Prize® last week. Scientists Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, Ph.D. and Ido Sella, M.Sc. offer us more insight in the second part of our interview about how their diverse team comes together and what they hope to do with this year’s $100,000 grand prize.
After receiving this year’s $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize®, we sat down (virtually, of course!) with ECOncrete® co-founders Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, Ph.D. and Ido Sella, Ph.D.. These scientists have a vision: transform the way our future coastlines look and function by building marine infrastructure projects that benefit the environment and humans.
