BioInspired! So What? Now What!

My apologies if you have seen this already through the B3DCommunity mailing list. 

Randy Olson talked about the value of a 'unifying principle' in his ZQ09 interview along with Brian Palermo.  If there is sufficient interest, I would like to do a webinar at the end of May on what a unifying principle or narrative for B3D might look like.  I think a good unifying principle has three criteria:

• makes sense of and provides insights into the current collection of observations
• creates opportunities for further exploration, research and practice
• is defensible

Evolution definitely satisfies these criteria. Note that evolution does not explain all of biology - we are not talking about some sort of 'grand unifying theory'. It would be hubris to suggest that we can come up with a unifying principle for the breadth of depth of B3D.  I believe we can come up with one that applies to an area of B3D. If we are successful, it will change how we think about B3D, focus how we communicate and encourage us to explore new opportunities.

If you are interested in participating in the webinar on this topic, please head over to http://doodle.com/m5d3wig95qk6fb4q, select your local timezone, expand all 15 options, enter your name in a new row, check off the dates/times that work for you and click on the Save button. If none of the options are acceptable but you are still interested, please select the 'Cannot make it' button.

Thanks, Norbert