I love biomimicry – the science/art of looking to nature to solve some of our design problems – and I love cycling, so the revolutionary (ha ha!) new aero wheels from Zipp hit both buttons. Zipp have taken inspiration from the way whales maintain speed and manoeuvrability that belies their sheer size and applied it to the humble cycle wheel with quite remarkable results.

Probably the most telling line in the video is “if you look to nature, most of these complex problems have already been solved.” And this is true – the humble leaf is twice as efficient at converting a photon of light into useable energy than a standard solar panel. If the various boffins trying to emulate the leaf are successful, then we get twice as much energy out of each solar panel.

At a macro-level, the circular economy is simply copying the way nutrients are endlessly cycled within nature to produce a sustainable system. Those natural cycles are driven by solar energy and don’t accumulate toxins. So there you have a template for a sustainable economy.

The downside of those Zipp wheels is the cost – almost three times the price of my road bike. So if they want to send me a pair to try out…