The tail of a seahorse can be compressed to about half its size before permanent damage occurs, engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have found. The tail’s exceptional flexibility is due to its structure, made up of bony, armored plates, which slide past each other. Researchers are hoping to use a similar structure to create a flexible robotic arm. [1]

A new digital camera is inspired by bugs. Inspired by the compound eyes of certain ants, beetles and flies, engineers have developed a digital camera that, thanks to 180 tiny lenses, is capable of panoramic views. [2]

It makes you wonder. If our best technology “innovations” are copies of nature’s designs, how “free” is our thinking? Are we destined to be slaves to our environment? Or could we achieve something more?

Thinking out of the box is very difficult.

Especially if you have lived all your life inside that box…