MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld talks about his Fab Lab -- a low-cost lab that lets people build things they need using digital and analog tools. It's a simple idea with powerful results:
Biomimicry & Taxonomy. "Nature's elegant solutions to building challenges include the Scots pine's adaptive growth, the thorny devil's passive water collection, and a leaf's on-site energy production. AskNature can help you solve your design challenges. "