Here's my take on a question in Quora: 

What wisdom can we gain from nature?

In the course of my personal as well as professional exploration of creativity, I have come to learn that Mother Nature is the logical playground of ideas and insights.

She has long been the originator - inventor - of much of the technology and engineering we use today.

In other words, she has been modern technology's first teacher.

As a matter of fact, Mother nature has perfected the biomechanics of everything from tiny leaf cells to whale fins over millennia, adapting their functions to be as efficient and effective as possible for each particular set of circumstances and environments. 

So it’s no surprise that designers, architects and engineers are taking cues from nature when they set out to create buildings, trains, prosthetics, robots and fashionable accessories.

Here is a quick and random sampling of her wisdom:

• falling apple -> discovery of gravitational laws (Newton);
• body in bath tub -> principle of water displacement (Archimedes);
• sounds from blacksmith's anvil -> musical notes (Pythagoras);
• church bell, stone thrown into water -> wave effects of sound & water (Leonardo da vinci);
• hollow tube in rye grass -> drinking straw (Marvin Stone);
• butterflies. moths, chameleons, insects -> concealment techniques for army vehicles;
• grapefruit -> New York's TWA air terminal;
• ship-worm tunneling through timber -> under water construction of tunnels (Marc Brunel);
• human eye -> auto focus in camera;
• rattle snake's fangs ->hyper-dermic needle;
• fish's bladder -> underwater ballast of submarine;
• jack rabbit's ears -> evaporative air conditioner;
• ultra-sonic waves of bats -> modern radar;
• squid's propulsion in water -> jet propulsion;
• large eye of the house fly -> geodesic dome (Buckminster Fuller);
• front legs of the mantis -> articulated arm;
• lilia in the mussel -> conveyor belt;
• cheetah's long gripping claws -> sneakers;
• burrs on a burdock plant -> Velcro fastener;
• dandelion seed -> parachute;
• dinosaur's vertebra -> I-beam;
• ridges on the fingerprint -> tyre thread;
• crab's claw -> monkey wrench;
• ant hill -> environmentally sustainable building;
• leaves of the lotus -> water repellence (superhydrophobicity) and self-cleaning properties of paint for buildings;
• geeko's feet -> industrial climbing pads for vertical surfaces like buildings;
• kingfisher's beak -> Japan's Shinkansen bullet train: quiet, uses less electricity, 10% faster;
• bird's skull ->  designer shoes, using less material for optimal efficiency, strength and elegance;
• creature's tentacles -> prosthetic arms with ability to grip objects with simple curling motion;
• spiders -> survivor locating or exploratory tools in hazardous environment; 

In a nut shell, Mother Nature has taught us about the wisdom of biomimicry!