Inspired by ant turrets and the flight paths of flies

摘要

"The designer knows he has reached perfection, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." I recalled this anonymous quote when, as a young biologist in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1970s, I was working for the health ministry's Blair Research Laboratory - named after former health secretary Dyson Blair. Blair had persuaded me to change fields, from schistosomiasis control to technological solutions for public health, and tasked me with designing new toilet systems for use in rural areas.