GSIF Blog #4

Nature can be unexpected and mysterious, teaching us valuable lessons we can apply to both innovative technology and to life in general. Janine Benyus’s TED Talk focuses on Biomimicry and using patterns and processes in nature to solve technological problems. Specifically, she gives an example of using CO2 as feedstock, similarly to how plants use CO2 to form long carbon chains of glucose and starch they build together to make energy. This demonstrates that similarly to how plants use something that we see as toxic to create useful energy, we can use CO2 in a useful way with a catalyst. This is a great demonstration of being useful and being sustainable in our practices which is essential in a world that is changing rapidly. Small bumps on a whale’s tail improves its ability to glide through the water efficiently and engineers put similar bumps on the side of airplane wings and improved their efficiency by 32% which is a significant fossil fuel savings. Creating technologies that are effective, efficient, and cost-saving are important as well.  A lotus leaf is able to self cleans itself through the surface of its leaves. A company created building paint that self-cleans when it rains. Creating products and solutions that are self-sustaining is essential in social impact work and meaningful while trying to make a positive change.

In the journal, Life’s Principles as a Framework for Designing Successful Social Enterprises, the principle that stuck out to me the most was “Optimize rather than maximize”. What was interesting to me was how this principle discussed how things in nature don’t focus on maximizing the whole, but rather individual components. Individual systems have their own goals but all systems work also towards a common goal. I think in my project this is important because each of us have our own skill-set, technical background, and other strengths. Rather than spread ourselves thin learning every aspect and process of the project, having each person specialize in one facet while still understanding and being fluent in other areas is the best way to approach the project and is also the most efficient. In my life I would also like to apply this concept. I think sometimes I can be a little too big picture without focusing on the smaller details that contribute to the whole. Honing in on things I would like to improve on and making smaller goals as a stepping stone to larger ones can help me fine-tune my strengths, rather than spreading myself thin.

The cradle to cradle design process focuses on optimizing ventures to reduce waste, either reutilizing materials or putting them back into the Earth as bionutrients. My project in particular isn’t creating a new technology or process, but rather making a survey to be distributed. But still during the design and execution process we need to account for waste and energy used to distribute and administer surveys. Considering using paperless surveys if possible would eliminate some waste as well as the physical energy and resources needed to distribute it throughout a country without much infrastructure. In addition, in my life I find it important to not add waste and be as sustainable as possible in order to keep Earth in a livable state .

It is pretty common for my friends to introduce me to what would otherwise be alien concepts. My roommate was telling me about how she met the man who found scutoids. I had no clue what scutoids were until she described them as a geometric solid between two parallel surfaces, a new shape. I hadn’t realized discovering new shapes was really possible. My friend who lives in Greece was telling me about the dynamic at his university. He told me that usually all students rent their own apartments and everyone is mainly self-focused and not usually interested in making connections with other students. Academic life is very separate from social life. This was really surprising and is very different than then the environment at Lehigh and most schools in America where students live, learn, eat, and sleep in the same area and community. Coming to Lehigh I also learned from my friends that athletic-type shoes are called sneakers on the East Coast while in California where I’m from they’re called tennis shoes, even if they’re not used for tennis. My friends pointed out that it didn’t make sense to call all athletic shoes tennis shoes and I had never really thought about the fact that it wasn’t logical. Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed until my friends pointed it out.

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