Ep 9 How Nature Prevents Systems from Being Ignored

How economists in Ho Chi Minh city changed how we think about alerts in critical infrastructure after studying the Madagascan hissing cockroach.Function: Prevent systems from being ignored over time Biological model: Madagascan hissing cockroach and adaptive signallingEngineering translation: Adaptive hospital nurse-call alarm design Sources / further reading • Cobus V, Heuten W. To beep or not to beep? Evaluating modalities for multimodal ICU alarms. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction. 2019;3(1):15. https://share.google/uzCZzmFPXLXKPXT1n• Edworthy J. Medical audible alarms: a review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2013;20(3):584–589. • Howell J, Knight V. Quieter nurse call system to reduce alarm noise in hospitals. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. 2024;318:2–5. https://share.google/Phyj6HWFTmOpqKF9j• Rauland Australia. Reducing alarm fatigue in hospitals: a quieter approach with Concentric Care. 2024. https://share.google/tfZVygRKuuoGI8Ekm• Triet LM, Truong Thinh N. Mitigating Neural Habituation in Insect Bio-Bots: A Dual-Timescale Adaptive Control Approach. Biomimetics. 2026;11(1):13. https://share.google/mNyQxKVCIBkdsg4ZYImage credits • Cockroaches, Miskolci Állatkert via Miskolc Zoo • Hospital via Envato Written and produced by Melanie Farmer. Podcast: Wild engineers. For learning and inspiration. Music and production completed in Movavi 2026. Please validate any design application for technical use.