Very interesting article in The Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize, Bacteria and the power of teamwork, which reveals the amazing ability of bacteria to "quorum sense" - i.e. know when they have critical mass to achieve their objective. Quorum Sensing is hugely important for human groups and one we often get badly wrong!

Brainz.org has a very good article which gives 15 excellent examples of designs inspired by nature (biomimicry or biomimetics).

One of the deadliest invisible killers in teams is the perception of unfairness: that some are rewarded beyond which their contribution merits. "Fairness perception" is a massively important but poorly understood team concept, which even extends beyond human teams into the animal kingdom. Here is how to successfully manage it.

Scientists from the University of Zurich have discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain that underlie broken promises. Patterns of brain activity even enable you to predict whether someone will break a promise.

A new area of research called "complexity science" embraces the notion that an ant colony and the human brain, the stock market and Facebook all have something in common. All are complex systems, basically huge networks made up of individual components whose behavior is difficult to predict. Kathleen Ryan O'Connor reports on Bioteams and Research from Binghamton University NY.

Michel Bauwens is founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives which explores "peer production, governance, and property" and resonates in many ways with Bioteams. Michel addresses his most frequently asked question "So what is P2P anyway?"

The European Commission have recognised the massive strategic economic importance of Digital Business Ecosystems by publishing a hugely impressive multi-disciplinary book (240 pages) which seems to resonate with my own implementation-oriented ideas on Bioteams and The Networked Enterprise and merits detailed study by anyone interested in the convergence of business networks, digital technology and systems/ecosystems thinking. Download it free.

It is a natural human trait to believe that we (the species) are the inventors of all clever things. Not so. One of the humbling things that biomimicry teaches us very quickly is that many times Mother Nature has beaten us to it! For example, take one of our proudest achievements: elections and democracy....

In Collision detection Clive Thompson comments on a new study published in The Journal of Human Movement Science (Dec 2007), which suggests that when you can see other workers performing different tasks out the corner of your eye, it slows you down.

Dominic M. Thomas at Emory University suggests five key triggers which can be used to intervene with a virtual team which is heading for a problem before it is too late to do anything to fix it.