According to Genesis 1:28, humans must: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” This Judeo-Christian ethos of human domination has spread throughout much of the world. But the new six-part docuseries, Evolve, which launched on Curiosity Stream yesterday, proposes an alternative way of thinking, wherein instead of seeking to conquer the globe and its creatures, homo sapiens learn from 8 billion years of evolutionary experience of even the lowliest of insects in order to adapt, survive, and thrive on this planet.

Our guide in Evolve’s around-the-world-in-many-ways futuristic quest is the adventurous biologist and documentary filmmaker Patrick Aryee. If Jules Verne’s protagonist, Phileas Fogg’s nineteenth-century, hemisphere-hopping was inspired by a desire to win a bet, Aryee is wagering on far greater stakes: The survival of the human race and the other species of our climate crisis-besieged world.

For Aryee, who has previously worked as a researcher for Sir David Attenborough, the key is for people to not look down their noses at Earth’s 8.7 million species but to respectfully study them and “mimic” the innovations found in nature to improve humanity’s prospects, in a more environmentally conscious manner. “Our survival in the future lies in tapping into nature’s strategies,” insists Aryee.

To prove this point, the series, filmed on four continents, documents emerging, biomimicry-based technologies being developed across the world. And then it takes things a step further. Using cinematic special effects, including superimpositions, animation and eye-popping CGI, it offers a visual exploration of a future where the technology is already applied, and the problem the technology aims to address is solved.

In Survive, the second of the series’ six, almost hour-long episodes, for instance, Aryee transports viewers to Namibia, where we behold the mound-building termite’s 16-foot mound comprised of five tons of soil. He marvels at this architectural feat, in particular, at how the mound’s top acts as “the lungs of the system, intercepting wind.”

From there, he whisks us away to England, where taking his cue from these humble insects, Rupert Soar, Associate Professor in Sustainable Technologies at Nottingham Trent University’s School of Architecture, is redesigning his house. The new construction’s roof is extended to allow oxygen in and CO₂ out, and emulating the Namibian mud, Soar uses porous bricks. The goal of the termite-inspired architecture is to reduce energy consumption. Through computer-generated imagery, the episode then imagines futuristic buildings that would be right at home in a scene from a Hollywood science fiction movie.

Evolve Trailer from CuriosityStream Production on Vimeo.

The third episode, Cure, finds the intrepid Aryee rummaging through the ruins of Qasr Bshir, a well-preserved Roman fort in the Jordanian desert, in search of a lethal scorpion. After he captures the deathstalker scorpion, Evolve jump cuts to Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where pediatric oncologist Dr. Jim Olson puts the insect’s venom to work in a campaign against brain cancer in children. The scorpion’s poison “can get into the brain and catch onto brain cancer cells, attaching phosphorescent molecules to light them up… this tumor paint is more sensitive than MRIs,” Dr. Olson explains

Throughout the episodes, Aryee crisscrosses the globe on the land, under the waves and in the air, from Maui to Florida’s Captiva Island to the UK to Alaska and beyond to show how biomimicry can help us in different ways — from copying the texture of shark skins to design materials that can prevent superbugs and bacteria from spreading, to learning how “roaches’ evolutionary genius can be packed into microrobots” for “search and rescue missions to locate victims after earthquakes” and other natural disasters, “robobees” modelled on bumblebees that can pollinate flowers as a way to offset the impact of colony collapse disorder.

The series highlights how repurposing nature’s inherent evolutionary genius can also be deployed for the benefit of ecosystems as well. Such as experimental glass with patterns derived from spiderwebs that can used in high rises to deter window collisions that kill up to 1 billion birds in just the United States every year, or coral reef-inspired porous concrete that enables aquatic life to thrive in artificial waterfronts.

Some of the bio-solutions featured in the series do seem a little too science-fiction inspired, or at the very least, raise questions about cost and scalability, but as Ayree explains in this LA Daily News interview: “The key was to have a balance between some of those far-fetched ideas, which allow the audience’s mind to go wild – and there’s some joy in that – with the stories that are true and actionable today.”

For a series entitled Evolve, the programs also never bother to briefly explain what evolution, or what Darwin’s theories of survival of the fittest and natural selection are. But that is a minor quibble.

Overall, the British-Ghanaian presenter is an affable presenter in the tradition of those hallowed hosts of other nature documentaries, such as Attenborough, astronomer Carl Sagan and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson – mixed with a dash of Indiana Jones. Although Ayree occasionally mugs for the camera, and as he himself observes after nonsensically singing some lyrics from a Wizard of Oz song, he can sometimes be an “annoying TV host,” on the whole, Ayree emanates zeal, without coming off like a zealot.

At a time when the world seems to be throwing more problems at us than solutions, this solutions-oriented nature series might be just the thing to watch.

Evolve can be watched on Curiosity Stream, a subscription service offering nonfiction films.