Why does the bumblebee have better aerodynamics than a 747? What structural design is shared by a tornado and a blood vessel?
Since the Industrial Revolution, manufacturers have built things by a process known as "heat, beat, and treat." They use enormous amounts of energy to heat raw material, shape it with heavy machinery, and maintain its design, strength, and durability with toxic chemicals. Now, in a world of depleted natural resources, entrepreneurs and scientists are turning to nature to inspire future products that are more energy and cost efficient. Biomimicry, the science of employing nature to advance sustainable technology, is arguably one of the hottest new business concepts. At the center of this growing movement has been award-winning inventor and biomimetic entrepreneur Jay Harman.
In The Shark's Paintbrush, Harman introduces us to pioneering engineers in a wide array of businesses who are uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels. He shows business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs how we can reconcile creating more powerful, lucrative technologies with maximizing sustainability. He injects a whole new vocabulary and way of thinking into the business sphere that speaks to both small start-ups and corporate giants.
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“Jay Harman is the quintessential biomimic, a principled inventor who
sees solutions everywhere he looks in the natural world. And he looks deeply,
with the soul of a student. He moves with grace from a world of waving sea kelp
to the world of sustainable design, bringing nature’s wisdom into the board
rooms of global companies, to the design tables of the engineers and designers
who make our world. This is more than a business book, more than a memoir, more
than a new way to solve global challenges. It’s a book about a new way to
think.”
—
Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry