Learn from the Inventors

A burr clinging to clothing, the sight of birds soaring in the wind, the grooved surface on the bottom of a dog’s paw--these everyday natural phenomena inspired such varied inventions as Velcro®, human-powered flight, and deck shoes.

Many inventors, even those working with highly mechanical tools and materials, have borrowed from nature. Sometimes this is a deliberate technique, as in turbine inventor Roman Szpur’s observation of the way wind circulates around curved surfaces like feathers or eggshells. At other times, the natural world serves as a place for reflection and daydreaming, as did the bluffside “dreaming place” where the idea of the telephone came to Bell.

The inventors in this section demonstrate the ability to make imaginative and unlikely connections, a skill all of us begin to develop in our early efforts at make believe and pretend play.