A biomimetic
cabinet ofcuriosities.

Evolution is an unrelenting problem-solver. Across the living world, plant and animal species branch and develop, burrowing into the earth, rising into the skies and swimming through the depths. As they diverge and reconverge, patterns emerge.

Wings can be made of skin, bone and feather, or cuticle, cut and polished by the same constraints of the natural world ﹘ air resistance, gravity. Countless crustaceans insist on developing to look just like crabs ﹘ a process known as carcinization.¹ Sharks, penguins and dolphins ﹘ fish, bird and mammal ﹘ morphed into remarkably similar forms, each shaped by the demands of moving efficiently through water.

Evolution sculpts, adds and takes away in its tortuous pursuit of the most adaptable solutions. Given enough time, it explores an extraordinary range.

So when we face problems of navigation, coordination, sensing or movement, we need not begin from scratch. We can look to our earthly co-inhabitants and learn from their ingenuity.

Inside this cabinet are seven specimens: seven instances in which we looked beyond ourselves for inspiration, and found that another species had already had a breakthrough. These specimens also challenge an assumption: that sophisticated solutions require intelligence or structures that resemble our own.