Lichen grows on the sunny side of the bark of a tree, capitalizing on the warm of the environment. I’m fascinated by the compass termite amitermes meridionalis, native to northern Australia, that builds its nest like a sundial. The long axis of a nest (which look like a tombstone) runs north to south to minimize exposure to intense mid-day rays. The south face of the nest is made of a higher thermal mass material – cob, the north face made with straw bale. Its air conditioning system involves small capillaries as intake and a large central chimney as exhaust, a wonderful example of thermoregulation.
With 3.8 billion years of R&D, nature proliferates in well-adapted solutions — solutions solved in context and the context is EARTH. Learning from nature, taking nature’s advice, is the premise for the book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, authored by Janine Benyus.