Basic scientific research is often geared towards the biology of humans or more experimentally tractable organisms that share biology with humans. However, evolution has run many experiments distinct from human biology resulting in groundbreaking innovations (CRISPR, GFP, PCR, optogenetics and many more). Here, I will highlight how studying a broader range of organisms can shift our understanding of the rules of life and impact our ability to engineer it. While the path from basic science to application can often take many decades, hundreds of scientists, and a great deal of luck, to accelerate useful discoveries we founded Arcadia Science. Our mission is to transform evolutionary innovations into real world solutions by openly developing more efficient, scalable, and replicable ways to leverage the biology of diverse organisms.