Integritus Prime

I know that 2024 is going to be a very exciting year for me. After a relaxing festive season with loved ones, I feel happy and energized. We are starting the new year with a stimulating subject of biomimicry and Life’s Principles in our Beyond Medicine series, after a hiatus of several months. Marilyn has some training in biomimicry for social innovation and she loves this way of knowing – she says it’s the most inspiring science she’s ever encountered. This is my first time learning biomimicry; I know it’s going to be a huge learning experience for me.

So what is Biomimicry? For me it means learning the processes, principles, models and successes from Nature and imitating them in our lives to solve human problems. In other words, copying Nature’s ideas and solutions to make human life better and more sustainable.

So what is Nature? Nature to me, as a working mother and wife was pretty limited, like rain, sunshine, breeze and parks, as well as the wraths of nature such as cyclones, floods and earthquakes. Little did I realize then, that nature is so vast and varied with so many living beings.

Nature has so many ecosystems and communities with so many community members that function in an amazingly nurturing and cooperative manner. The natural environment includes forests with trees, weeds, animals, birds, worms, bacteria and much more. Nature also includes oceans, rivers, mountains, islands, and deserts with all their plethora of species. Natural systems support all its members by providing food, shelter, manure plus an opportunity for every member to thrive. Nature promotes change in accordance with changing conditions.

In biomimicry, one rule of thumb is that Nature creates conditions conducive to life. This means uplifting all life forms so they have the best chance to thrive. What a beautiful foundation that we can all learn from in a world where there is so much war and destruction.

So, this subject is going to look at the myriad of things that Nature does and how we can learn from them and use these lessons in our own personal lives, work environment and the communities we live in.

Stay tuned for more exciting revelations about nature’s examples in my next blog.

This blog is penned by the inimitable Dr. Margaret Cornelius.