La natura geniale

How and why plants are going to change (and save) our planet.
A ‘green’, innovative essay by the manager of the interdisciplinary project that created the world’s first plant-inspired robot, which features at the heart of Stefano Mancuso’s bestseller, Plant Revolution.
The scientist who invented the first robot inspired by plants relates the incredible meeting between biology and technology that is rewriting our future and perhaps even our very survival as a species. From robotics for nature by nature.

English sample available

Written from inside one of the planet’s most avant-garde scientific laboratories, Barbara Mazzolai’s The Genius of Nature tells us how science is trying to discover Nature’s hidden secrets and about the meeting between biology and technology that’s taking place, and which is destined to rewrite the future of our species.
What can plants teach us? Which of their secrets could help us build a better future, less gloomy than the one we are now beginning to glimpse? Will technology ever be able to reproduce the hidden, clean power of the plant world? The answer to all these questions lies in the pioneering work of the woman who invented the first ever robot inspired by the plant world. Perfectly adapted to their habitat, plants represent an evolutionary alternative that’s practically a mirror image of that of the animal world: while humans and animals have evolved by prioritising traits linked to movement and speed, it is slowness that’s at the heart of the plant world’s resilience. If, until yesterday, we had no doubt which of the two strategies was the most successful, nowadays the odd doubt does arise, triggered by the global ecological crisis we have unleashed.

From her extraordinary viewpoint as a key player in the ongoing bio-technological revolution, with scientific rigour and excellent communication skills, Mazzolai offers inspiration and enlightening thoughts concerning the present and future of the “blue planet”.