What if we could solve big environmental problems simply by shifting our approach -- from relying on human cleverness to mimicking nature? What if architects studied how bees build hives to design sturdier, lighter skyscrapers, and chemists figured out how mussels attach to rocks to create stronger, nontoxic adhesives? This is the premise of biomimicry: Solutions to our most intractable problems already exist in nature and are waiting to be copied. Leonardo da Vinci and the Wright brothers, for example, studied bird flight and drew up designs for the first aircraft. Alexander Graham Bell modeled the telephone receiver on the human ear. Now, a new generation of inventors is systematically examining the natural world to address every-thing from transportation to climate change. Many of these inventors and entrepreneurs are in the West, especially in California. Their claims are startling -- "if these inventions were fully adopted, we could save