Thanks for bringing back memories. As a kid, I was always fascinated (and still am) by the helicoptering action of maple seeds when my sisters and I dropped then into the air from our deck.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/TRC/Aeronautics/Maple_Seed....

Agreed. There is a whole field called biomimicry that tries to apply systems found in nature to solve engineering problems. This TED video explores the topic pretty well: http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_shares_nature_s_desig...