NewsFusion | 096

NewsFusion for August 2026

Science...

• The extraordinary engineering behind Narwhal tusks and collaboration with Indigenous communities | CBC
• Views of August 2026 solar eclipse captured from space | Space.com
• Unitree founder says "ChatGBT moment" is 10 years away for robots | CNBC

Design...

• French design magazine IDEAT releases 2026 design awards | IDEAT
• Pan-African Biennalle (PAB) set to spotlight spacial practices from and within Africa Sept 7-11, 2026 in Nairobi | ArchDaily
• Teens anti-design iPhone theme defies UI design rules | Creative Bloq

Culture...

• Canandaigua festival celebrates Latin American culture | WXXI News
• What Qatar Can Teach Us About Investing in Culture | The Observer
• Colombia earthquake damaged 40 protected sites and dozens more cultural assets | The Art Newspaper

News Fusion | 086

NewsFusion for May 2025

Science...

• Space debris is an ever increasing problem for space travel | SpaceNews
• Swiss and Italian researchers create RoboCake, a robot with edible parts and battery | New Atlas
• US FDA approves CRISPR pigs for food | Gizmodo

Design...

• Projecting the human factor in fashion design | BoF
• Expo 2025 is promising six months of exciting innovations | Expo 2025
• How a Kingfisher helped reshape Japan's bullet train | BBC

Culture...

• Mindar the android priest in Japan's Kodaiji Buddhist temple | NHK World
• Māori youth learn traditional medicines and share with Elders | NZ Herald
• Rabat is the new must see city in Morocco | Afar

NewsFusion | 034

NewsFusion for October 2016

Science...

• 10...yes, 10 times more galaxies in the universe than we thought | Space.com
• Like false rumors of a celebrity's passing, story of Great Barrier Reef's death grabs international headlines. Luckily there is still hope. | CNN
• Slate reports on survey of readers on topic of nanotechnology | Slate

Design...

• 2016 Dutch Design Week starts October 22
• Beaver biomimicry: beaver fur inspires innovation in surfer wetsuits | CBC
• How to plan for a design job in the year 2030 | Co.design

Culture...

• From Sweden with love: Fika | USA Today
• Bali Declaration at World Culture Forum affirms: culture is basis of future development | The Jakarta Post
• Standing Rock becoming new milestone in Native American rights | The New Yorker

Noise-cancelling...Landscape

Grond-Geluid or "Groundsound' is the title of an acoustic landiscape project of Dutch designer Paul de Kort that reduces noise pollution around Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of the world's busiest airports. Groundsound and the resulting public park, Buitenschot that resulted from the project offer grand ridges that mimic small sand ripples left by waves on a beach but they go a great distance in addressing the low frequency ground noise created by departing flights at the nearby airport.

More on Grond-Geluid...

• Freriks, K. 2013. Thresholds of Silence. Works That Work.
• Kehe, J. 2014. Clever Landscaping That Bounces Plane Noise Back Into the Sky. Wired.

Elephant-inspired Robotic Arm

German design and engineering firm, Festo, has proven once again the biomimicry (looking to nature for inspiration and solutions to human challenges) holds many insights and opportunities. For their new Bionic Handling Assistant, Festo looked to the elephant to model their flexible and lightweight robotic arm that can be implemented across a wide variety of fields from medicine to construction. Working with multiple universities, institutes and companies as part of their Bionic Learning Network that promises to bring many revolutionary new technologies to market based on structures, systems, and processes found in nature.

Flying Under the Radar

The award-winning Nano Hummingbird by AeroVironment is getting a lot of attention these days. One of Time Magazine's 50 Best Inventions of 2011 and Popular Science's 2011 Best of What's New, the little bird bot represents biomimicry at its best. Yes, the mini-hummer was developed for DARPA making it the little-hover-spy-that-could, but it is sure to have many other uses outside the defense industry. One thing for sure, given all the press its received, its far from top secret technology.

Design Idol - Janine Benyus

Janine Benyus is an American author, educator, consultant, and environmentalist. She is a leading expert in the field of biomimicry, which seeks to find solutions to society's social and environmental challenges by emulating nature's designs and processes. Her ideas have sparked innovations in design fields ranging from architecture and industrial design to engineering and urban planning. Benyus has authored six books and co-founded an education and innovation practice in 1998 called Biomimicry Guild that has worked with General Electric, HOK Architects, Levi’s, NASA, and Seventh Generation. Benyus has received many awards including the Rachel Carson Environmental Ethics Award, the 2009 Champion of the Earth Award in Science & Innovation from the United Nations Environmental Programme, and was named one of TIME International's Heros of the Environment. She is passionate about restoring and protecting wild lands and continues to serve as President of the Biomimicry Institute.

Future-ish added Janine Benyus to our PISA List in 2010.

SeanChron - Prince Charles' Harmony

I just finished watching Prince Charles' film "Harmony - a new way of looking at the world" on NBC. Wow! I'm really impressed!!! It is the first such film that truly raises issues of broad sustainability, including both environmental and social elements. Most impressive to me is that the film makes a strong connection to the worldviews and particular challenges of Indigenous Peoples around the world. Among many other people and issues presented in the filrm, Dr. Vandana Shiva (pictured above) told the story of sustainable agriculture, Janine Benyus discussed biomimicry, and Gitg'at Elder and Coastal First Nations Executive Director, Art Sterrit, recounts brokering the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement in British Columbia. A lot of science, a lot of design, a lot of culture...I need to see it a few more times to take it all in! Check out the trailer below:

Harmony Movie Trailer from Balcony Films on Vimeo.

Darwin's Bark Spider spins big brawny silk

Boo! Just in time for Halloween 2010, an article in PLoS ONE, by Agnarsson, Kuntner, and Blackledge introduces us to the Darwin's Bark Spider (Caerostris darwini) of Madagascar, first identified in November of 2009. The spider's silk is ten times stronger than a comparable Kevlar sample and its giant webs have been found spanning small rivers and lakes. Here at Future-ish, we're big fans of biomimicry and sustainable biomaterials, but we're happy that these particular spiders only live in Madagascar. eek. Image: Matjaž Kuntner

Octopus inspired robots

A need to do intricate ocean research in small spaces has produced the latest example of biomimicry. Robotics scientist Cecilia Laschi and her ARTS Lab team at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna have taken inspiration from one of the most flexible, adaptable, and - most importantly - articulated creatures on earth, the octopus. The Octopus Project, part of the Research Centre on Sea Technologies and Marine Robotics, is set to revolutionize soft body robotics. Most importantly, it will allow ocean scientists to explore areas they never could with current robotic technology such as tiny crevices in delicate coral reefs.