In reality, we haven't escaped the gravity of life at all. We are still beholden to ecological laws, the same as any other life-form.

Organisms dont think of CO2 as a poison. Plants and organisms that make shells, coral, think of it as a building block.

For businesses, biomimicry is about bringing a new discipline - biology - to the design table. It's not to write an environmental impact statement, as most biologists in business do right now.

Green chemistry is replacing our industrial chemistry with nature's recipe book. It's not easy, because life uses only a subset of the elements in the periodic table. And we use all of them, even the toxic ones.

Trees and bones are constantly reforming themselves along lines of stress. This algorithm has been put into a software program that's now being used to make bridges lightweight, to make building beams lightweight.

Everyone is trying to jump on the biomimic bandwagon. But a cork floor is not biomimicry. Neither is using bacteria to clean water.

The answers to our questions are everywhere; we just need to change the lens with which we see the world.