We do not kill spiders in our house.
So, when we see one, like we did last night hanging from a single strand descending from the ceiling, we get the spider and move it outside or maybe just ignore it. Our family doesn’t “Kill Nature”.
From a philosophical perspective there is no real difference between the value of life of a spider, a raccoon, a cow, a whale or Me. Nature owns many treasures, and they can be discovered.
Nature’s designs have been the catalyst for engineering, medicinal science, technological and architectural innovations for thousands of years.
Spider web architecture is a geometrical phenomenon. Spider Silk has a tensile strength that is stronger than steel, extensibility that is comparable to rubber, higher performing then Kevlar and has a high-water uptake comparable to wool.
What is even more amazing is that spiders prevent the natural decay of their prey by “by adding anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties to the web. Even the process of dehydration is prevented by this design.”
Bees are amazing.
The hexagonal structure of a beehive has awed scientists, naturalists and engineers for hundreds of years. Its beautifully simple design maximizes storage capabilities, while minimizing the number of resources required to build it. The individual honeycombs are built at exactly 13 degrees upright from the ground so that the honey does not seep out.
The bee’s building plan is interesting, in that, 3 or 4 groups of bees begin the project from different parts of the ultimate hive. The hive takes shape, and the bees continue their building by forming honeycombs closer and closer to the middle.
The building is so precise that at the point where the bees meet the hive is fitted together seamlessly. And all of this is done in the dark.
This hexagonal hive structure has been used in architecture, medicine, science, aeronautics, and engineering.
The dragonfly’s flight characteristics, its ability to accelerate, glide, dart, fly in 6 different directions and sustain flight over hundreds or thousands of miles, have fascinated scientists for years.
The dragonfly has 2 sets of counter-stroking (they do not move together, but alternate) wings and performs at least four distinct flight styles: “counter-stroking (where fore- and hind-wings move up and down about 180 degrees out of phase), phased-stroking (where the hind-wings cycle about 90 degrees – a quarter cycle – before the fore-wings), synchronized-stroking (where fore- and hind-wings move in unison), and gliding.”
“Thrust generating mechanisms in dragonflies are complex. Whereas aircraft use only two methods for generating lift (and one of these only for very short periods) dragonflies use at least four distinct physical processes: classical lift, supercritical lift, vortices, and vortex shedding.”
This is why the dragonfly’s flight physics have been used by aeronautical, flight, and mechanical engineers for design and engineering of aircraft from helicopters to jets.
Nature has afforded us other clues to unlocking the formula of life on this planet. One of those clues that has withstood the test of time and remains somewhat of a mystery to this day is the “Golden Ratio”.
Mario Livio has best described the Golden Ratio when he said:
Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties. But the fascination with the Golden Ratio is not confined just to mathematicians. Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics.
—Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, The World’s Most Astonishing Number
The value ~1.61 represents one of the few formulations and ratios that is woven into the fabric and is part of the building blocks of our physical Earth and might even be a universal law like that of gravity.
The Golden Ratio, which can be visualized like this:
is a ratio that can be found in the proportions of your physical body. Your hand is ~1.61 the length of your forearm, your hand and forearm 1.61 the length of your entire arm. Leonardo Da Vinci’s illustration, below, from De Divina Proportione applies the Golden Ratio proportions to the human face. Or, here:
The Golden Ratio can also be found in every facet of nature like nautilus shells, sunflowers, trees, forests, streams, and mountains where you would be hard pressed to find anything not manmade that didn’t abide, in some respect, by the golden ratio.
Nature:
Architecture:
Nature is not chaotic or coincidental, but rather enlightened, deliberate and organized.
Nature abides by its own rules, removed from the mechanized and technological world that we have created all around us. Nature does not track its evolution by the Gregorian calendar, which was designed by the Vatican to synchronize with commerce and banking cycles.
Nature’s time is governed by the seasons, the moon and planets.
Nature’s sounds are rhythmic, and healing and designs are lessons in efficiency and productivity. Nature’s smells are calming and grounding like a pine forest or morning dew or a stream or a cold night or a fall day or roses, lavender, daisies or eucalyptus or snow. Nature’s tastes are invigorating and delicious like fresh picked strawberries or blueberries or watermelon or fresh picked carrots or tomatoes or onions or walnuts, almonds or dates.
Living in a world disconnected from nature can have long lasting effects on your mind, body and spirit.
Buildings, bridges, your body and mind weaken after prolonged periods of operating in frequencies and rhythm cycles that are out of alignment. Spending time in nature recalibrates and synchronizes your spiritual and physical bodies to the rhythms and frequencies of health and longevity.
If you are ever feeling out of sync or disconnected, down or frustrated take some time to reengage with nature. Take a walk in a forest, sit in a field, swim in a river or stream or lake, climb a mountain, or just wake up at dawn and listen. You will be pleasantly surprised at how grounded and centered you feel after.