Tanks of luminescent jellyfish and rippling seaweed line the walls of an open space on the bottom floor of the Rhode Island School of Design’s Nature Lab. But a transformation is underway; by the end of 2018, the room will become a “maker space” inviting students to conceptualize and engineer nature-inspired systems to address real-world issues.
“We’re very interested in employing natural technology — looking at how nature works as an ecosystem in a way that human beings don’t,” said Jennifer Bissonnette, biological programs designer at RISD and a leader of the project. “We create so much waste. We’ve created so many environmental problems and social problems because of the way our society functions.”
The Nature Lab currently contains tens of thousands of preserved specimens, as well as live animals and tools like electron…
