Climate change and biodiversity loss are laying bare our dependence on the natural world for everything from the food we eat to the air we breathe.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are laying bare our dependence on the natural world for everything from the food we eat to the air we breathe.
But nature also holds the solution to other problems, inspiring scientific discovery in a host of unexpected ways.
Nature is "a source of inspiration for science, because it has figured out the way Earth supports life," said Lex Amore from the Biomimicry Institute.
"It is imperative we look to the biological blueprints that have been successful over millennia to launch groundbreaking ideas faster."
From smelly durian fruit that could charge electric cars to sea sponges that might help build better spaceships, here is a selection of this year's scientific work inspired by nature.
Read also: What Is "Ecocide" And Should It Be A Crime?
Parasitic Wasps
Removing tumours and blood clots through minimal invasive surgery may soon become easier thanks to a flexible, ultra-thin and steerable needle inspired by parasitic wasps.
These formidable insects inject their eggs into living hosts such as caterpillars through a hollow needle called the ovipositor.
Scientists from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands studied the ovipositor's delivery mechanism, with blades that slide up and down alternately, using friction to push the eggs through.
Researchers designed a needle made up of sliding rods that imitate the ovipositor, according to a recent study in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
They say the new needle is capable of reaching deeply buried parts of the body to inject medicine or remove harmful formations, while minimising trauma and patient recovery time.
This is a starkly different outcome than for the targets of parasitic wasps, whose larva often devour their caterpillar host from the inside.
Spider Silk
Spiders make silk to entangle unsuspecting bugs, but now humans can use it to make optical lenses capable of picturing viruses that are invisible to the naked eye.
In a June study published in the Journal of Applied Physics, scientists said they used daddy-long-legs' dragline silk -- which makes a web's frame -- as a support for the lens.
In experiments, they covered a strand of spider silk in wax then dripped resin onto it. As it condensed, the silk naturally formed a dome, which researchers baked in an ultraviolet oven.
The resulting optical lens is about the size of a red blood cell and could be used to picture nano-scale objects like viruses or the insides of biological tissue.
As the lens is made from natural, non-toxic material, it can safely be used inside the body.
Read also: 3 Ways To Make Your Home Environmentally Sustainable