http://www.asknature.org/You need to see the site to appreciate its coolness. In particular, look at the Featured Pages, which list example after example of solutions to design problems in the natural world.
For example (from the site):
Lightweighting: Scots pineTrees and bones achieve an even distribution of mechanical tension through the efficient use of material and adaptive structural design, optimizing strength, resilience, and material for a wide variety of load conditions. For example, to distribute stress uniformly, trees add wood to points of greatest mechanical load, while bones go a step further, removing material where it is not needed, lightweighting their structure for their dynamic workloads. At the scale of the cell, trees arrange fibers in the direction of the flow of force, or principal stress trajectories, to minimize shear stress. ...This information can be used by manufacturers of vehicles who might be looking for weighs to reduce weight without sacrificing structural integrity.
There's a lot more on the site to inspire just about any kind of designer. One of my favorites is "Range voting" in honeybee society, which can serve as an example for community organizers:
http://www.asknature.org/strategy/209b5fa3de3573d76df73854f1cd9dbaHoneybees in a colony select a new hive location via range voting."Thomas Seeley, a biologist at Cornell University, has been looking into the uncanny ability of honeybees to make good decisions. With as many as 50,000 workers in a single hive, honeybees have evolved ways to work through individual differences of opinion to do what's best for the colony. If only people could be as effective in boardrooms, church committees, and town meetings, Seeley says, we could avoid problems making decisions in our own lives....
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