鈥淚nnovation inspired by nature鈥� is the subtitle of Janine Benyus鈥檚 Biomimicry (William Morrow, 1997), a topic bound to fascinate Tim Smit, chief executive of the Eden Project in Cornwall. He finds in Benyus鈥檚 book a timely call to the scientific community to break down barriers between disciplines.
He鈥檚 rereading George Orwell鈥檚 1984 (Penguin, 1982) on the advice of his 17-year-old son. The novel 鈥渂lew my socks off all over again鈥�, he says, as a reminder of how vigilant we need to be not to succumb to the blandishments of the establishment if the price is that we lose our courage to speak out for fear of losing its warm embrace.
Another must for anyone who wants their creative batteries charged, Smit says, is The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher (Phaidon, 2001), a thoughtful book on design, thinking and how to blow ideas to smithereens.
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