Local author Kim Ryall Woolcock trained as a botanist and now writes science books to inspire kids. She especially loves writing about plants and almost-invisible creatures. She is also a BELS-certified editor, helping scientists tell other scientists about their research.
Her children’s book, Design Like Nature explores the topic of biomimicry, the science of copying nature. The book can teach children about how innovators are using bacteria to power lights, how communities build living bridges out of rubber trees, and how scientists copied gecko feet to invent tape that lets a person climb straight up a glass wall. Students are using biomimicry to build inventions that can reduce our ecological footprint, like refrigerators that run on a trickle of electricity from a solar panel, or plastic made out of banana peels.
Books