What we can learn from butterflies

Ever since I first read Janine Benyus’s Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, I’ve descended into a rabbit hole in search of what “intelligence” really means (and who has it). Perhaps that’s why I love the name of this newsletter so much. [It’s a worm, after all. A humble, indispensable critter buried beneath the soil.]
Benyus’s central argument is that the “smartest” solutions to human problems already exist in nature. We just need to know where, and how, to look for them. (For instance: wind turbines inspired by humpback whales.)
So perhaps it’s no surprise that I was riveted by a recent piece on monarch butterflies. The piece explains how monarchs actually navigate: with two independent compasses built into their biology. On clear days, they orient themselves using a solar compass. But when clouds roll in or weather becomes unpredictable, they switch to a backup magnetic compass that reads ultraviolet light to sense the angle of Earth’s magnetic field.
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