Jan. 29, 2008 Could lessons learned from Mother Nature help
airport security screening checkpoints better protect us from
terror threats? The authors of a new book, Natural Security: A
Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World, believe they can -- if
governments are willing to think outside the box and pay heed to
some of nature's most successful evolutionary strategies for
species adaptation and survival. "Biological organisms have
figured out millions of ways, over three and a half billion
years of evolution, to keep themselves safe from a vast array of
threats," said Raphael Sagarin, a Duke University ecologist who
co-edited the book with Terence Taylor, an international
security expert. "Arms races among invertebrates, intelligence
gathering by the immune system and alarm calls by marmots are
just a few of nature's successful security strategies that have
been tested and modified over time in response to changing
threats and situations," Sagarin said. "In our book, we look at
these strategies and ask how we