The Problem: Needed a train that could travel at high speeds with reduced noise

The Biological Model: The kingfisher's beak allows it to dive into water without a splash

The Innovation: The more streamlined Shinkansen train not only travels more quietly, it now travels 10% faster and uses 15% less electricity

The Problem: Vaccines require refrigeration and many are lost due to breaks in refrigeration during shipment and treatment

The Biological Model: The tardigrades protect themselves from extreme cold or dehydration by going dormant in a sugar coated glassy state, rehydration brings the animals back to life

The Innovation: Wrapping the vaccine virus in trehalose keeps the virus active for six months at a temperature up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit 

The Problem: How to move more quickly through the water?

The Biological Model: Shark skin is covered by dermal denticles in a series of ribbed individual scales with longitudinal grooves which help the shark move effortlessly through the water

The Innovation: Manufacturing boat surfaces after shark skin allow them to move faster and reduces the amount of organisms sticking to the hull by 30%

The Problem: The different parts of the electrical grid don't talk to each other

The Biological Model: Bee hives

The Innovation: Create a network, able to balance loads during pricey peak-power periods when electricity is expensive or unreliable, by providing controllers that communicate wirelessly with each other to maximize efficiency

The Problem: Water scarcity in deserts and dry regions

The Biological Model: The Darkling beetle is able to collect water from fog by positioning its back into the foggy wind, the dew collects on the beetles back which has a Teflon-like coating that allows it to slide into its mouth

The Innovation: A surface made up of hundreds of grooves that grow wider at the bottom with a slick waxy surface made from a pitcher plant to aid in the runoff of collected dew

The Problem: How to create adhesive-equipped robots that can catch space junk such as defunct satellites

The Biological Model: Gecko Feet have a structural design that allows them to climb walls

The Innovation: An artificial gecko adhesive that can carry a human up a wall, and in zero gravity can grip and slow down a solar panel, moving it in another direction