Behind the dusty dioramas and drawers of dried birds at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Dr. Christin Murphy stares into the viewing window of a computed tomography (CT) scanner. The buzzing machine, also known as a CAT scan, is normally used in medicine to create detailed 3D images of internal organs. Dr. However, Murphy isn't looking at a human patient; her subject is the whisker of an elephant seal. This is the future of museum research.

“Nature offers solutions to a limitless number of problems. Our biggest obstacle is getting access to the right information,” says Dr. Murphy. She works for the Navy in Newport, where she is at the forefront of bio-inspired research, the process of looking to nature for design innovation.

“The potential for bio-inspired innovation emerging from museums is truly enabled by the digital revolution. It has completely changed the way people look at museums: from dusty halls full of jars of dead things, to these animated high-tech digital models that come back to life./"

Researchers draw design solutions from nature for everything from bullet trains and windmills to sonar and Velcro. But science is limited to a handful of specimens for research. What if there was a way to compare all the designs nature has to offer/"

“Museums have already done the work of cataloging life. People should think of museums as a library of specimens,” says Dr. Murphy. “The advent of digitization technology allows us to scan entire sections of museum collections, many of which are extinct, to obtain these digital 3D models that we have never before been able to examine in depth.”

Dr. Murphy's TEDx Newport talk, “Museums are innovation hubs for technology inspired by nature,” provides a taste of how technology is enabling new research from old collections.

“TEDx is the kind of place where you can have a conversation about these big ideas mid-progress,” she admits. “It's not something scientists are used to, but I think that's the beauty of TED. Those things are welcome on stage.” Scientist, Innovator This talk was delivered at a TEDx event in the TED conference format, but independently organized by a local community. For more information, visit https://www.ted.com/tedx

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