“The best thing you can do for your health? Hang onto your sense of fun, Christa. Especially in your work. It’s important.” This is what my wonderful general practitioner, Dr. Peter Lotfi, said to me at the end of my annual physical this week.
I’m feeling great though I still get some anxiety going to the doctor. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when all my bloodwork and tests came back with perfect results.
I’m always asking Dr. Lotfi what I can do to safeguard my health after going through active cancer treatment and now receiving maintenance treatment to prevent cancer recurrence. While we talked about diet, exercise, stress reduction, and the different medications I take, his biggest advice was to never lose my sense of fun.
We talked about how difficult the world is, especially in our country, with the current political climate. In the midst of all that, he doesn’t want me to lose my sense of joy, which is a way to preserve mental and physical health that doesn’t cost anything and has only good side effects.
In that spirit, last night one of my best friends, Ashley, and I got dressed up and went to a cocktail party on the 87th floor of a building on Wall Street. It was for Silhouette Eyewear, a sustainable eyewear brand that manufactures glasses from biowaste. I was invited because I write about sustainability and Ashley was happy to join me. The glasses are colorful, extremely lightweight, comfortable, flexible, and durable — all the benefits of plastic without using fossil fuel. (I’m sporting a cute pink pair that I love in the first photo.)
After the party, we wandered around the Financial District, reveling in all of the hidden art deco that people pass by every day. The fun door with mirrors in the photo below is an example. Ashley and I are tour guides, historians, and writers who love this beautiful town.
To end the night, we found a new favorite pizza place called Siena Pizza & Cannoli on Rector Street, named after that gorgeous Italian city in Tuscany.
Tucking into our delicious pizza slices, I said a silent thank you to Dr. Lotfi. A sense of fun in everything we do and everywhere we go really does make life better.
“What are the characteristics of perfect product packaging?”
A business school professor teaching a product development class on packaging looked around at her students eagerly raising their hands.
“Inexpensive.”
“Perfectly fits the product without wasting space.”
“Lightweight.”
The professor opened her bag and took out a banana. She peeled it and began to eat it as students continued calling out answers.
“Biodegradable and non-toxic.”
“Eye-catching color.”
“Protects the product it holds.”
The professor nodded. These were all solid, practical answers. She finished the banana and held onto the peel.
“What about this?” she asked, holding up the banana peel. She could see the proverbial lightbulbs popping into her students’ minds. Inexpensive, perfectly fits product, lightweight, biodegradable, non-toxic, eye-catching color, and protects the product.
“Nature is a packaging genius,” she said with a smile.
From that classroom to major CPG companies, innovations in packaging are emulating nature’s packaging prowess while also tackling the massive waste conundrum that packaging has handsomely contributed to for decades.
Agricultural waste transformed into plastic alternatives
A packaging dream scenario is emerging: using agricultural waste to create alternative materials that replace fossil fuel-based packaging at similar costs and outperform them, all while being biodegradable and non-toxic. In 2024, Dr. Nasim Amiralian developed a process to turn sugarcane waste into packaging that also keeps food fresher longer. Sold by Australian company C4C Packaging, it’s used by Australian wineries and beverage companies. EverGrain, a subsidiary of AB InBev, upcycles grain waste from their beer production into packaging films. This is where circular economy principles meet economics meets business needs to protect the health of the planet. What a party!
Using clay to extend the life of fruits and vegetables
While most companies think of packaging as subservient to the product, British cosmetics and personal care company Lush turned around that idea. Long a pioneer of “naked packaging”, meaning it reduces the packaging to as little possible to protect the environment, Lush’s shampoos, conditioners, body wash, and other products are made as solid bars, often wrapped in simple, post-consumer, recyclable paper. Its bold packaging and product form statement causes its loyal fans and customers to rethink sustainable practices in other areas of their life. I love to see a product company living and creating by their values and purpose.
What I love about all these examples is that they are working with nature to solve problems at a systems level, C4C Packaging, EverGrain, India Institute of Technology, and Lush all recognize that we all share this one planet not only with each other but all species. We can only get to the future together so the needs of others must be as important to us as our own needs. Empathy and ingenuity are a powerful combination, and nature is a brilliant guide and teacher.
A cure for cancer may be swimming 2,200 meters (~7,200 feet) below the surface of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) are deep-dwelling animals who live to be ~400 years old in the wild without a shred of medical care. The secret to their longevity is likely in their genes that fend off cancer.
An international team of 28 scientists recently published a paper mapping the Greenland shark’s genome. And the results are astonishing. The shark’s genome has two remarkable features: many duplicate genes give the shark an enhanced ability to repair damaged DNA, and their genome has an altered p53 protein that makes the protein more robust. What do those two things have to do with cancer? As it turns out, everything!
Damaged DNA and cancerDamaged DNA that isn’t repaired causes mutations in genes that regulate how a cell grows and divides. This damage causes cell growth to skyrocket uncontrollably leading to tumors, a.k.a. cancer. There are many ways DNA can be damaged — UV rays from the sun when we don’t wear sufficient sunscreen, tobacco smoke, exposure to toxic chemicals, aging, and the normal processes of living.
Most of the time and for most of our lives, our bodies recognize the damaged DNA and either repair the cell or purge that cell through our natural waste processes, kicking the damaged cell out of our bodies so it never causes problems. However, these damaged cells can be sneaky and hide, or the amount of damage can be very extensive, making it difficult for our bodies to repair or remove all of it.
The Greenland shark’s enhanced ability to repair damaged DNA is an incredible adaptation that helps prevent cancer. Knowing that DNA damage is such an asset for the shark’s longevity further spurs our cancer research to seek out new treatments and therapies to enhance human abilities to repair DNA damage.
p53 protein and cancer The p53 protein is a powerhouse in the bodies of almost every animal. p53 is a tumor suppressor, protecting cell DNA from damage, initiating repairs when it detects damaged DNA, and kicking damaged cell out of the body when necessary. Greenland sharks have a more robust p53 protein than other animals, allowing them to be more highly attuned to protect against and repair DNA damage.
Biomimicry, nature preservation, and biodiversity conservation is vital for human health Among its many attributes, nature is a research lab, pharmacy, library, and archive. The species with whom we share this planet hold the answers to every question we have. It takes time, effort, and funding to study nature and find these answers.
By employing biomimicry (the emulation of nature’s design genius, such as the adaptations of the Greenland sharks that give them such great longevity), protecting nature, and safeguarding biodiversity, we are providing ourselves with a source of unlimited creativity, knowledge, and wisdom. Our lives, and the lives of all beings, are intricately intertwined. Nature will help us thrive if we care enough to help nature survive.
Have you ever thought about bees as your life or career coaches? As an aspiring beekeeper, I’m fascinated by how these incredible creatures live and work. Their hives are a model combination of structure and flexibility.
Experts versus generalists
Some bees are genetically predisposed to have certain talents making them suitable for specific jobs. Others prefer to learn new skills and have new experiences, so they may hold a whole host of different jobs. Some have multiple jobs at the same time. Most bees are generalists; they cycle through different jobs at different stages of their lives and depending upon what the hive needs at any one time.
By nature, I’m curious and have an interest in a lot of different areas. None of us is just one thing. We contain multitudes. We can live our lives spherically, in many different directions, and be better for it.
Unified by a common purpose
While each bee has their talents and preferences, all of them work in service of their hive. They have one guiding mission – to perpetuate the health and longevity of their hive long after any one individual has passed away. For example, middle aged bees usually begin foraging. However, if the population of the hive needs to increase to maintain its health, a middle-aged bee will delay the foraging portion of their lives in favor of tending to the brood of baby bees (known as larvae.) Similarly, if the population of the hive is booming and more foragers are needed to collect nectar, pollen, and water to keep the hive healthy, she will begin to forage sooner than middle age.
This reminds of looking at our career choices through three lenses: what are we good at, what does the world need, and what do we enjoy doing? What is our higher purpose, and how do our lives and careers serve that purpose?
Managing career transitions
Though a worker honeybee only lives for a month or two, she often holds many jobs in that time and sometimes has more than one job at once. As soon as she emerges from her cell, a young bee gets to work around the hive, cleaning brood cells (including the one from which she just emerged) so that the queen bee can lay new eggs. Younger bees work inside the hive (like a child learning to do chores around the house) and older, more experienced bees work outside the hive, foraging for nectar, pollen, and water. Bees are never afraid to try something new, to be beginners. They are secure in their abilities, and they believe in one another’s abilities.
Whenever I’m trying something new, I think of bees and try to have the courage and confidence they have. Being part of a team means we’re never alone in our work. We’re all in it together.
Caring for the next generation
Taking care of their community is the north star for bees. Caring for future generations is the whole reason they do what they do. A nurse bee feeds and cares for thousands of developing bees, as well as the adult bees in the hive. Nurse bees also build new comb while caring for their bee family and build it with surprising speed. It’s a collaborative effort, with each bee playing their part in service to all the other bees and their collective future.
No one is an island. Taking care of each other in our community is also a way to take care of ourselves.
Minding their home
In addition to building comb, some bees are especially skilled at helping to maintain the temperature and humidity of the hive as weather conditions change. A hive is a dynamic place. When the temperature rises or plummets, or when drought sets in, environmentally inclined bees get to work using their bodies to heat and cool the hive so that their home and the bees who live there remain in tip top shape.
It’s easy for us to be heads-down on our work and consumed with our own lives. It’s worth taking a look around and seeing how we might be able to help the whole system in which we operate. We’ll be better off, and so will our neighbors, if the whole system works better for everyone.
Adventure awaits
As stated before, middle-aged bees begin the foraging chapter of their lives. They start by taking some test flights close to the hive to get their bearings. Within a matter of hours, they get the lay of the land and begin foraging for nectar, pollen, and water. What they collect, how much they collect, how many foraging trips they take per day, how far they travel, and if they attempt to multi-task by collecting more than one kind of material in a single trip depends upon the needs of the hive and the depth of the bee’s experience. Once she arrives back at her hive with the goods, she passes them off to receivers at the entrance of the hive before she either takes a rest or heads back out to forage again.
We spend a lot of time in our comfort zone. Getting out into the world gives us new perspective and benefits our community when we return with new knowledge and new experience.
Communication
The exchange of goods between foragers and receivers is thought to be a time for the bees to communicate. It’s possible that the receiver is letting the forager know what’s happening around the hive so that the forager is able to head out into the world to collect what the hive needs. The forager is letting the collector know what’s happening outside the hive.
If a forager is waiting a long time for a collector to take what she’s brought back, she will also begin to recruit more bees inside the hive to act as collectors, maximizing the efficiency of all of the foragers. She has agency to create a change. Foragers only travel from sunrise to sunset, and sleep through the night, so time is of the essence during daylight hours. Communication keeps the hive humming, literally and figuratively.
Our communities are healthier and happier when communication flows freely between members. Tell your stories and listen to the stories of others. We’re all better off when we share.
Rest
While we’ve given the proverbial title of worker bee to someone who’s always busy, bees prioritize rest for a very good reason – a tired bee doesn’t communicate nor navigate as well as a rested bee. The world is a treacherous place. To survive and thrive, and help her hive do the same, a bee must be well-rested and well-fed.
How many times do we tell ourselves, “Just push through,” when what we really need is to rest and recharge? Make like a bee and take a break. Nourish yourself. You’ll feel and work better when you take better care of yourself.
Looking to the future
No one home will suit a hive forever. While many bees spend their lives tending to the present needs of the hive, someone has to be on the lookout for what’s next. Scouts, who know the neighborhood well from their foraging, are consistently searching for the next home, and the next food and water sources. They will sometimes overnight in a new place to check it out as a potential future home for her hive. Once a home is chosen by the hive, a scout leads the entire swarm to that home, as she is one of the only bees in the hive to have ever been there.
While it’s important to be present, there’s also value to looking ahead every so often, too. Where might we want to go? What might be a future area of learning and experience for us? How might we refill the well?
So often the way we live and work is out of sync with how nature operates. How might our lives and careers be transformed if we took a page out of the bees’ book, establishing a flexible structure in our lives, careers, and communities that takes care of every member and allows every member to contribute?
While we grapple with the battle that lies ahead in our country, I’m finding joy, solace, and rest when I need it in nature. I’m fortunate to live in a neighborhood in New York with a lot of green space. I’m close to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and my neighborhood’s streets are lined with towering London Plane trees that are nearly 130 years old.
When I walk outside of my apartment, I always pause to look at the trees on my block. They have seen so much change, and have continued to rise, to survive. In my meditations, I imagine myself as one of them, reaching ever upward toward the light.
As I was coming home last week, I saw a small vine, climbing up the side of one of the London Plane trees. Small and purposeful, determined to defy gravity through its efforts, on tiny step at a time. How can we keep moving forward, reaching up, even as forces attempt to drag us back?
Crocuses
On a particularly cold day, I saw the crocuses pushing through the bare, frozen ground. They would not be kept from the sun any more. It was time to bloom. I saw them in a small garden at Bowling Green near the ferry terminal, waiting for my friend, Ashley, so we could go together to Ellis Island. (More on that adventure in a separate post.)
“Aren’t they beautiful?” I heard a man’s voice say.
“They are,” I replied as I turned to face him. “Crocuses are small and mighty flowers.”
“What did you call them?” he asked me.
“Crocuses,” I repeated. “They’re the first flowers to bloom. They tell us spring will be here soon.”
“You mean they tell us we made it? We made it through winter?” he asked.
I laughed. “Yes, that’s right. We made it.”
We high-fived. “I learned something today. Miss, God bless you. I’m gonna tell the people who take care of this garden about this.”
I’m stilling think about this man’s joy as he realized we had made it through, that perhaps our best days are still ahead of us. How can we hang onto that idea in the midst of turmoil?
Daffodils in Prospect Park
March’s flower is the daffodil. As a March baby, I always associate their arrival with my birthday. It’s also the official flower of New York City. My dear soul dog, Phineas, loved to put his beautiful, formidable snoot right into them when we’d walk together in Central Park so they always remind me of his beautiful spirit.
My soul dog, Phineas, smelling daffodils in Central Park
On my way to an appointment on Thursday, the first day of spring, I smiled as I saw legions of daffodils swaying in the soft wind. Nothing would keep them from heralding a new season. Nothing would keep them from their joy. Not the rain or the cold or the grey skies. They were born to sing. So are we.
Soon, lavender’s scent won’t be the only reason it causes you to take a deep inhale. In addition to soothing your mind, it’s about to revolutionize the way we store clean energy.
Sodium-sulfur batteries are an alternative to lithium-ion batteries. Unlike lithium and cobalt, sodium and sulfur are abundant, easily obtained, and relatively easy to recycle. However, these batteries can’t store nearly as much energy as lithium-ion batteries, and their storage capacity is degraded even further after a few charging cycles. The challenge for scientists has been how to create a battery that has the benefits of lithium-ion batteries and sodium-sulfur batteries without the downsides of either. Lavender, or more specifically linalool, to the rescue!
“By taking a creative look at nature, we are finding solutions to many of the challenges posed by the energy transition, “ said Paolo Giusto.
Nature to the rescue, again. As a society, we need to recognize that nature is not something to by dominated by our egos, but rather a wider guide, teacher, and partner to help us improve the lives all beings while caring for the one planet we all share.
If you’ve benefitted from the medications Ozempic, Wegovy, and others like them to treat diabetes and support weight management, thank the Gila monster. They have a hormone (exendin-4) that controls their blood sugar and delays the stomach from emptying, prolonging feelings of fullness. It’s similar in chemical composition to our GLP-1 hormone that performs the same functions in our bodies. However, the Gila monster’s exendin-4 allows them to stay healthy while eating only 5 to 10 times per year.
This ability to fast for long periods of time without impacting their health piqued the interest of endocrinologist Dr. John Eng and his team of researchers in the 1980s and 1990s. They set out to discover if a medication that mimics exendin-4 would help humans manage their blood sugar and weight.
A component of their venom, the Gila monster’s exendin-4 while similar to our GLP-1 was found by Eng and his team to be effective for much longer. In clinical trials, one injection of a medication inspired by exendin-4 helped diabetics keep their blood sugar under control for an entire week and decreased their appetite, helping them to lose weight, too.
Though it took decades of testing and evaluation, exenatide, a synthetic version of exendin-4 was approved by the FDA in 2005 to treat Type-2 diabetes. Research continued to evaluate it as a treatment for obesity and weight management. That research led the creation of semaglutide, the active ingredient in the drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
Unfortunately, this creature who survived the catastrophic asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs is steadily being wiped out by us. Their population is declining due to the pet trade and the destruction of habitat from agriculture and urbanization despite the fact that without them, the multi-billion-dollar drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, and others wouldn’t exist.
Nature, and the species with whom we share this one planet, are intricately tied to our health and well-being. Stories like that of the Gila monster and Ozempic remind us that nature is a research lab, pharmacy, archive, library, concert hall, and constant source of inspiration. When we threaten the lives of other species, we compromise our own opportunities to live well. There’s no getting around it: We are a part of nature, not apart from nature. How bright our future will be depends on how much we respect and safeguard the natural world, and the health of the ecosystems within which we all live.
Image created by Christa Avampato with Canva Magic Media
When you think about ways to improve the health of human babies, you may not immediately think of helping bats stay healthy. You should. The journal Science published a shocking paper linking a rise in human infant mortality to a declining bat population.
Plagued by an outbreak of the deadly white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that kills bats, North American bat populations are dropping. This means there are fewer bats to eat insects that infest crops. That’s caused farmers to use more chemical insecticide. This insecticide leaches into crops, land, and water. This toxin has increased infant mortality. It’s also lowered crop yields, decreasing farmers’ crop revenue and the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables.
This is just the latest study to show how the health of ecosystems is directly linked to human health and the economy. As much as I’d love for municipalities and companies to care about the planet because we depend on nature for our survival, as climate communicators and nature advocates we often have to make the economic business case to protect the environment. Studies like the one in Science linking bats and infant mortality provide a solid example of how to quantify the cost and value of biodiversity and ecosystem health.
I often hear the media vilify animals like bats without recognizing the vital role they play in our lives and in nature. If we can’t get people to care about bats because they are sentient beings and a part of nature, maybe now we can get people to care about them because they affect babies, the food supply, and our economy. If that’s the argument that works, it’s the argument I’ll make, backed up with research-based science and facts.
In my free weekly LinkedIn newsletter called Togetherhood, I share stories about nature’s wonders. Many of the posts are about my area of expertise— biomimicry. As a product developer, I apply nature’s designs to the human-built world to create a sustainable planet.
A little more about the newsletter – in case you need more convincing to subscribe 😉
1. Why this, why now
Right now we have a window of opportunity to halt and reverse the impacts of climate change. That window won’t be open forever, and if we are to protect and advance progress we need to act, together, now. I hope my stories about the wonders, wisdom, and beauty of nature will inspire all of us to take action to love, safeguard, and regenerate nature.
2. The kind of community you’ll find in the Togetherhood
This community is rooted in love, joy, respect, and curiosity for all species. We are here to learn together and support each other.
3. When I’ll share new stories
I’ll post once a week on Saturdays. I don’t have any plans to make this a paid newsletter. The content is free. It’s my gift to the world to share my expertise, support nature, and inspire wonder.
4. Join me in the Togetherhood
An old growth forest is one of my favorite environments and metaphors for life. It has wonders above and below ground. Every being in a forest is connected to every other being. It’s a web of life, literally and figuratively. I want the Togetherhood to be an old growth forest of stories. Let’s go have an adventure, together.
Years before I listened to this Ologies podcast episode, my boss, Bob G., had introduced me to Janine Benyus and her work in biomimicry — the sustainable application of adaptations in the natural world to the human-designed world. Working with Bob was my first product development job.
Growing up, I was a science and math kid. I abandoned my dream of being a scientist because a college professor my freshman year told me I, “had no mind for physics.” (More on that experience and how I DO have a mind for physics in a future article!) Instead, I majored in economics and history, continuing to love science as a personal passion. This Ologies episode promoted me to look into biomimicry as a bridge between my love for science and my business career in product development.
When I got to work, I Googled to see if there might be a biomimicry class I could take. What I found was that Arizona State University and Janine Benyus had just established a biomimicry graduate program. It was virtual, relatively affordable, and the application window was open. I applied, got accepted, and graduated. After that experience, I went on to get a master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership at University of Cambridge, and I’m working on bringing together all the aspects of my career — writing, storytelling, business, product development, and biomimicry — to build a better world for all beings. Biomimicry changed my life and career, and continues to help me evolve, grow, and thrive.
Looking back, I see now how all those threads made their way into my life through different avenues because I’ve always followed my curiosity, wonder, and joy. We don’t always know how the pieces of our lives and career will fit together. It sometimes takes longer than we’d like because the circumstances of our world need to evolve to catch up with us. Trust the timing of your life. Keep learning. Do the best you can with what you have where you are right now. What you seek is also seeking you. Eventually, you’ll find what’s meant for you and it will be worth all the effort.
Christa Avampato 