We need a new approach to design. Schools need to rethink standard engineering practices that rely on huge energy inputs, toxic substances, high pressures, excessive heat, overuse of materials and noise pollution. The Gulf Oil Spill Disaster is a byproduct of the kind of design and engineering practices that don’t work well on planet with [...]
The best commercially viable solar panels sit atop buildings and houses converting about 20% of the sunlight that falls onto them into electricity. In the world’s most cutting-edge research labs, scientists are making panels that are about 40% efficient. These are some of the best solar panels that have ever been made.
Or are they?
You may [...]
This video touches on a couple things I believe schools need to get serious about: the need to teach integratively and the idea that nature, due to its billions of years of research and design, has much to show us. (In nature, poor designs are relegated to the fossil heap). The designs we see today [...]
In the 21st century, we’ll need to stop ignoring nature as a teacher. With problems like war, poverty, pollution, climate change, desertification, etc., we need all the help we can get. Why is it that for so long, we’ve ignored the best research and design firm ever? This is an R&D outfit that has been [...]
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