When you're not on AnswerMug, what are the things you best love doing?

Wow, what an intriguing supposition, how thought-provoking!  I guess you’re right, because the ability to fly was inspired by enviously watching birds and insects do it.
~ 

You know you can edit without deleting.

  

 

  Of course I know that. It’s just that I can’t stand the little “this has just been edited” box.


~

 

I know, right? But sometimes I force myself to let it ride.

 

i due two

Not tutching that one. Correct it yourself. Or don't.

eye know rite

What...you're afraid to let peeps know you made a mistake?

 

  Moi?  Make mistakes?  

(Fellas, git rid o’ dis Professor Element character. Not only does he know too much, but he’s also raisin’ a stink by askin’ a whole lotta questions, so it’s time for him ta go bye-bye.  Oh, and I don’t hafta tell ya that it needs ta look like a accident . . . )

~

That little edit notice is such a tell-tale.
Much cooler to make it look as though one never makes typos.

Then I wondered if we might have been inspired by other things that dally and drift in the air:
dandelion clocks (parachutes),
sycamore seeds (gliders, paragliders, boomerangs),

Helicopters: A. Box Elder (Acer negundo, Aceraceae); C. Big-Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum, Aceraceae); E: Evergreen Ash (Fraxinus uhdei, Oleaceae); F. Tipu Tree (Tipuana tipu, Fabaceae).

Flutterer/Spinners: B. Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa, Scrophulariaceae); D. Tree Of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima, Simaroubaceae); G. Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia, Bignoniaceae).

 

  You’re right!  I never thought of those possibilities before, thanks for pointing them out. 

  Now you have me wondering if any sea-going vessels, both surface and below water, might have been inspired by humans studying nature. That expands to swimming and diving also, including any apparatus used for them; fins, air tanks, ballast belts, googles, etc. 
~

Yep.
I think most human inventions have come from observing nature.
We spend eons being so familiar with things that we take them for granted.
And then one day some lateral thinker comes along and sees how one thing that works one way here can work in a different way there.
I remember you asked something about Velcro once - coming from plants with fuzzie surfaces on stems or leaves that enable them to stick to things and climb, or fuzzy seeds that stick to the coats of animals and thus spread.

Wow, I asked that about the inspiration for Velcro?  Sure sounds like something I would post, lol. You have a great memory. With the sheer volume and utter variety of questions I’ve posted, there’s no way my feeble memory harnesses them all.

:)

But sometimes the way we get inspiration is sideways, less direct.

If there were no critters-who-could-fly-at-will, might we have dreamed up flight from watching the behaviours of seeds flying on the wind?

Might we have invented helicopters from Box Elder, Big-Leaf Maple, E: Evergreen Ash and Tipu Tree 
or
parachutes and paragliders from the Empress Tree,  Tree Of Heaven, or Jacaranda?

What kind of things are in your garden?

Which ones?

Vegetable garden - tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc.
Flower gardens - currently the morning glories, snapdragons, and gladiolas are in bloom, but the amaryllises should start to bloom in about a week. 
Rock garden - rocks (quartz crystals and such) and small statues (rabbits, squirrels, and such).

Well, not knowing you had so many different gardens. I like them, just even hearing about them. They all sound most wonderful. Tomatoes would be my favorite vegetable you listed. Such nice flowers. And I too, love cool and unique rocks like that too. :)