Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

by Ozan Varol

Combinatory play also helps. You can draw inspiration from how objects are used in other fields. For example, the airbags that landed my group’s rovers safely on Mars used the same mechanism that cushions a collision with your steering wheel in a car accident. The same fabric used in astronaut spacesuits is also used by Embrace to make a temperature-controlling swaddle.38 George de Mestral created Velcro after he saw his pants covered in cockleburs following a walk.39 He examined the cockleburs under a microscope and discovered a hooklike shape that he then emulated to create the hook-and-loop fastener called Velcro—with one side stiff like the cockleburs and the other side smooth like his pants.