Leonardo did not pursue science and engineering in order to dominate nature, as Francis Bacon would advocate a century later, but always tried to learn as much as possible from nature. He was in awe of the beauty he saw in the complexity of natural forms, patterns, and processes, and aware that nature’s ingenuity was far superior to human design. Accordingly, he often used natural processes and structures as models for his own designs.

Fritjof Capra, PhD, is an Austria-born American physicist, systems theorist, educator, activist, and deep ecologist. He is the author of several international bestsellers that connect conceptual changes in science with broader changes in worldview and values in society. Capra is best known for his book The Tao of Physics, which explored the ways in which modern physics has changed our worldview from a mechanistic to a holistic and ecological one.