adventure
Looking to nature for inspiration allows researchers to think outside the lab by Stephanie Dutchen
INTO THE
ILLUSTRATION BY LOU BROOKS
Joanna Aizenberg discovers that
a butterfly’s wings change color when exposed to liquids other than water and considers how she can integrate that color-tuning property into noninvasive diagnostic devices. n Jeffrey Karp wanders through a cactus garden in Arizona, gauging whether the barbs at the ends of the plants’ delicate spines could inspire improvements in surgical tools. n Jon Clardy heaves aside a shovelful of soil in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, hoping the bacteria in the ant nest he’s
unearthing will lead to a treatment for invasive fungal infections. n For all three researchers, looking to nature inspires unconventional solutions to biomedical problems. Key to their success is an adventurous spirit and an eagerness to veer off the beaten track, literally and conceptually. n “There are many systems I study in nature that nobody has looked at,” says Aizenberg, the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science in Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and leader of the adaptive material technologies platform at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
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