The Shark’s Paintbrush
Biomimicry and How Nature Is Inspiring Innovation
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.70
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Steven Crossley
-
By:
-
Jay Harman
About this listen
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.
©2013 Jay Harman (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Biomimicry
- Innovation Inspired by Nature
- By: Janine M. Benyus
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes listeners into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; and many more examples.
-
-
Dated but good
- By stephen taylor on 09-05-21
By: Janine M. Benyus
-
Being Wrong
- Adventures in the Margin of Error
- By: Kathryn Schulz
- Narrated by: Mia Barron
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. If being wrong is so natural, why are we all so bad at imagining that our beliefs could be mistaken, and why do we react to our errors with surprise, denial, defensiveness, and shame?
-
-
A good read
- By Mike Kircher on 10-06-10
By: Kathryn Schulz
-
The Tipping Point
- How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.
-
-
My tipping point…for audio
- By Mod on 04-17-12
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
The E-Myth Revisited
- Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
- By: Michael E. Gerber
- Narrated by: Michael E. Gerber
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this audio edition of the totally revised underground best seller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business, from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed.
-
-
Saved my Life
- By Christine on 09-17-08
-
Good to Great
- Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
- By: Jim Collins
- Narrated by: Jim Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Built To Last, the defining management study of the 90s, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
-
-
Good info, over-the-top narration
- By Anaxamaxan on 08-31-10
By: Jim Collins
-
Zero to One
- Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
- By: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- Narrated by: Blake Masters
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
-
-
Seems Insightful Until You Think A Little Deeper
- By Mark Brandon on 10-31-14
By: Peter Thiel, and others
-
Biomimicry
- Innovation Inspired by Nature
- By: Janine M. Benyus
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes listeners into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; and many more examples.
-
-
Dated but good
- By stephen taylor on 09-05-21
By: Janine M. Benyus
-
Being Wrong
- Adventures in the Margin of Error
- By: Kathryn Schulz
- Narrated by: Mia Barron
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. If being wrong is so natural, why are we all so bad at imagining that our beliefs could be mistaken, and why do we react to our errors with surprise, denial, defensiveness, and shame?
-
-
A good read
- By Mike Kircher on 10-06-10
By: Kathryn Schulz
-
The Tipping Point
- How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.
-
-
My tipping point…for audio
- By Mod on 04-17-12
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
The E-Myth Revisited
- Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
- By: Michael E. Gerber
- Narrated by: Michael E. Gerber
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this audio edition of the totally revised underground best seller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business, from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed.
-
-
Saved my Life
- By Christine on 09-17-08
-
Good to Great
- Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
- By: Jim Collins
- Narrated by: Jim Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Built To Last, the defining management study of the 90s, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
-
-
Good info, over-the-top narration
- By Anaxamaxan on 08-31-10
By: Jim Collins
-
Zero to One
- Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
- By: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- Narrated by: Blake Masters
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
-
-
Seems Insightful Until You Think A Little Deeper
- By Mark Brandon on 10-31-14
By: Peter Thiel, and others
-
Principles
- Life and Work
- By: Ray Dalio
- Narrated by: Ray Dalio, Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ray Dalio, one of the world's most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he's developed, refined, and used over the past 40 years to create unique results in both life and business - and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.
-
-
Idea-meritocracy/Principles Reference
- By P Eberle on 06-30-18
By: Ray Dalio
-
The Lean Startup
- How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
- By: Eric Ries
- Narrated by: Eric Ries
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
-
-
Informative, mature but not original or essential
- By Jason Comely on 02-19-13
By: Eric Ries
-
Contagious
- Why Things Catch On
- By: Jonah Berger
- Narrated by: Keith Nobbs
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do some products get more word of mouth than others? Why does some online content go viral? Word of mouth makes products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. It's more influential than advertising and far more effective. Can you create word of mouth for your product or idea? According to Berger, you can. Whether you operate a neighborhood restaurant, a corporation with hundreds of employees, or are running for a local office for the first time, the steps that can help your product or idea become viral are the same.
-
-
A Primer on Viral & Memorable Marketing
- By Douglas C. Bates on 04-01-13
By: Jonah Berger
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
The Future Is Faster Than You Think
- How Converging Technologies Are Disrupting Business, Industries, and Our Lives
- By: Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler
- Narrated by: Peter H. Diamandis
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In their book Abundance, best-selling authors and futurists Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler tackled grand global challenges, such as poverty, hunger, and energy. Then, in Bold, they chronicled the use of exponential technologies that allowed the emergence of powerful new entrepreneurs. Now the best-selling authors are back with The Future Is Faster Than You Think, a blueprint for how our world will change in response to the next 10 years of rapid technological disruption.
-
-
Totally Mixed on This One
- By D. Sooley on 02-03-20
By: Peter H. Diamandis, and others
-
Made to Stick
- Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
- By: Chip Heath, Dan Heath
- Narrated by: Charles Kahlenberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the human scale principle, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their power from the same six traits.
-
-
Even Better The Second Time
- By Jeremy Devens on 09-05-09
By: Chip Heath, and others
-
To Sell Is Human
- The Surprising Truth about Moving Others
- By: Daniel H. Pink
- Narrated by: Daniel H. Pink
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day more than 15 million people earn their keep by persuading someone else to make a purchase. But dig deeper and a startling truth emerges: Yes, one in nine Americans works in sales. But so do the other eight. Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others.
-
-
Lenghty book with a few solid tips on persuation
- By Gerardo A Dada on 01-21-13
By: Daniel H. Pink
-
Blue Ocean Strategy
- How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
- By: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an audiobook that challenges everything you thought you knew, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne assert that tomorrow's leading companies will succeed, not by battling their rivals for market share in the bloody "red ocean" of a shrinking profit pool, but by creating "blue oceans" of untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.
-
-
Get the actual book
- By Robert Donoghue on 08-29-06
By: W. Chan Kim, and others
-
Let My People Go Surfing
- The Education of a Reluctant Businessman - Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual
- By: Yvon Chouinard, Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove, Yvon Chouinard
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his long-awaited memoir, Yvon Chouinard - legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc. - shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth. From his youth as the son of a French Canadian blacksmith to the thrilling, ambitious climbing expeditions that inspired his innovative designs for the sport's equipment.
-
-
Good presentation, though a little preachy
- By Jim Perkins on 05-25-17
By: Yvon Chouinard, and others
-
The Design of Everyday Things
- Revised and Expanded Edition
- By: Don Norman
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious - even liberating - audiobook, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints.
-
-
Designers Start Here (missing visual references)
- By sammy k on 09-01-19
By: Don Norman
-
The Four
- The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google
- By: Scott Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are the four most influential companies on the planet. Just about everyone thinks they know how they got there. Just about everyone is wrong. For all that's been written about the Four over the last two decades, no one has captured their power and staggering success as insightfully as Scott Galloway. Instead of buying the myths these companies broadcast, Galloway asks fundamental questions.
-
-
Pessimistic and narrow minded
- By Patrick on 01-19-18
By: Scott Galloway
-
Crossing the Chasm
- Marketing and Selling Technology Projects to Mainstream Customers
- By: Geoffrey A. Moore
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the best-selling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets. This edition provides new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing, with special emphasis on the Internet. It's essential reading for anyone with a stake in the world's most exciting marketplace.
-
-
Outdated
- By Rebecca Savage on 01-05-15
Related to this topic
-
Biomimicry
- Innovation Inspired by Nature
- By: Janine M. Benyus
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes listeners into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; and many more examples.
-
-
Dated but good
- By stephen taylor on 09-05-21
By: Janine M. Benyus
-
The Nature of Nature
- Why We Need the Wild
- By: Enric Sala
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this inspiring manifesto, an internationally renowned ecologist makes a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense.
-
-
Amazing
- By Lars Pardo on 11-21-24
By: Enric Sala
-
The Upcycle
- Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance
- By: William McDonough, Michael Braungart
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Upcycle is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, the most consequential ecological manifesto of our time. Now, drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of putting the cradle-to-cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don't just reuse resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve them as we use them.
-
-
A "must read" for the environmental movement.
- By Love owls on 07-09-13
By: William McDonough, and others
-
Slime
- How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us
- By: Ruth Kassinger
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Slime we'll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market. Ruth Kassinger takes listeners on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes, and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.
-
-
Fairly entertaining and informative...but
- By Timothy on 08-27-19
By: Ruth Kassinger
-
Abundance
- The Future Is Better Than You Think
- By: Steven Kotler, Peter H. Diamandis
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing synthetic biology, and other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous 200 years.
-
-
Perhaps multiply his time estimates by 10
- By Rick on 11-06-21
By: Steven Kotler, and others
-
Plastic Ocean
- By: Capt. Charles Moore, Cassandra Phillips
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prominent seafaring environmentalist and researcher shares his shocking discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, which inspired a fundamental rethinking of the Plastic Age and a growing global health crisis.
-
-
Informative
- By Paul on 01-30-23
By: Capt. Charles Moore, and others
-
Biomimicry
- Innovation Inspired by Nature
- By: Janine M. Benyus
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes listeners into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; and many more examples.
-
-
Dated but good
- By stephen taylor on 09-05-21
By: Janine M. Benyus
-
The Nature of Nature
- Why We Need the Wild
- By: Enric Sala
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this inspiring manifesto, an internationally renowned ecologist makes a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense.
-
-
Amazing
- By Lars Pardo on 11-21-24
By: Enric Sala
-
The Upcycle
- Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance
- By: William McDonough, Michael Braungart
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Upcycle is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, the most consequential ecological manifesto of our time. Now, drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of putting the cradle-to-cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don't just reuse resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve them as we use them.
-
-
A "must read" for the environmental movement.
- By Love owls on 07-09-13
By: William McDonough, and others
-
Slime
- How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us
- By: Ruth Kassinger
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Slime we'll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market. Ruth Kassinger takes listeners on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes, and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.
-
-
Fairly entertaining and informative...but
- By Timothy on 08-27-19
By: Ruth Kassinger
-
Abundance
- The Future Is Better Than You Think
- By: Steven Kotler, Peter H. Diamandis
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing synthetic biology, and other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous 200 years.
-
-
Perhaps multiply his time estimates by 10
- By Rick on 11-06-21
By: Steven Kotler, and others
-
Plastic Ocean
- By: Capt. Charles Moore, Cassandra Phillips
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prominent seafaring environmentalist and researcher shares his shocking discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, which inspired a fundamental rethinking of the Plastic Age and a growing global health crisis.
-
-
Informative
- By Paul on 01-30-23
By: Capt. Charles Moore, and others
-
The Vertical Farm
- Feeding the World in the 21st Century
- By: Dickson Despommier
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. The vertical farm has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. These farms, grown inside skyscrapers, would provide solutions to many of the serious problems we currently face.
-
-
Excellent Brainstorming - Not reality
- By Texas Community Project on 01-25-11
-
The Ocean of Life
- The Fate of Man and the Sea
- By: Callum Roberts
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this vibrant hymn to the sea, Callum Roberts - one of the world’s foremost conservation biologists - leads listeners on a fascinating tour of mankind’s relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on Earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, Roberts looks at how the taming of the oceans has shaped human civilization and affected marine life. Like Four Fish and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Ocean of Life takes a long view to tell a story in which each one of us has a role to play.
-
-
Immediate fan of Mr Roberts
- By Anna on 06-25-24
By: Callum Roberts
-
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
- The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
- By: Bill Gates
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Bill Gates
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."
-
-
Be curious, not furious
- By Axel Merk on 02-20-21
By: Bill Gates
-
Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper
- How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong
- By: Robert Bryce
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this provocative and optimistic rebuke to the catastrophists, Robert Bryce shows how innovation and the inexorable human desire to make things Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper is providing consumers with Cheaper and more abundant energy, Faster computing, Lighter vehicles, and myriad other goods. That same desire is fostering unprecedented prosperity, greater liberty, and yes, better environmental protection.
-
-
I thought I was getting a book on the future.
- By Grant on 08-02-14
By: Robert Bryce
-
Resilience
- Why Things Bounce Back
- By: Andrew Zolli, Ann Marie Healy
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Katrina. Haiti. BP. Fukushima. The Great Recession. Those are just a few of the catastrophic disruptions the world has endured in recent years. As we try to respond to such crises, key questions arise: What causes one system to break under great stress and another to rebound? How much change can a complex system absorb while still retaining its purpose and function? What characteristics make it adaptive to change? Provocative and eye-opening, Resilience sheds light on the nature of change.
-
-
Totally Misleading Title
- By Doug on 07-18-12
By: Andrew Zolli, and others
-
Getting Green Done
- Hard Truths From the Frontlines of Sustainability Revolution
- By: Auden Schendler
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soccer moms drive Priuses. Sport utility vehicles are going hybrid. Families are using hemp shopping bags. More and more companies are developing "green" buildings. What's more, the business consultants say going green is easy and profitable. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are still fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why?
-
-
Green's Dirty Little Secrets
- By Martin on 07-10-09
By: Auden Schendler
-
You Belong to the Universe
- Buckminster Fuller and the Future
- By: Jonathon Keats
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A self-professed "comprehensive anticipatory design scientist", the inventor Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was undoubtedly a visionary. Fuller's creations often bordered on the realm of science fiction, ranging from the freestanding geodesic dome to the three-wheel Dymaxion car to a bathroom requiring neither plumbing nor sewage. Yet in spite of his brilliant mind and lifelong devotion to serving mankind, Fuller's expansive ideas were often dismissed, and have faded from public memory since his death.
-
-
Bucky, Bucky, Bucky
- By Amazon Customer on 08-25-18
By: Jonathon Keats
-
Harmony
- A New Way of Looking at Our World
- By: Charles HRH The Prince of Wales
- Narrated by: Charles HRH The Prince of Wales
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the first time, HRH The Prince of Wales shares his views on how our most pressing modern challenges - from climate change to poverty - are rooted in mankind's disharmony with nature, presenting a compelling case that the solution lies in our ability to regain a balance with the world around us. With its holistic approach, this provocative and well-reasoned book takes the discussion of sustainability and climate change in a new direction.
-
-
An Excellent Exploration
- By Sara on 03-31-16
-
Let There Be Water
- Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
- By: Seth M. Siegel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Let There Be Water illustrates how Israel can serve as a model for the United States and countries everywhere by showing how to blunt the worst of the coming water calamities. Even with 60 percent of its country made of desert, Israel has not only solved its water problem; it also has an abundance of water. Israel even supplies water to its neighbors - the Palestinians and the Kingdom of Jordan - every day.
-
-
More water politics story than water technology
- By normal person on 04-12-21
By: Seth M. Siegel
-
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated
- The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late
- By: Thom Hartmann, Neale Donald Walsch - associate editor
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The 11th Hour, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem.
-
-
One of the Most Important Books of our Time
- By Jana on 04-24-20
By: Thom Hartmann, and others
-
Apocalypse Never
- Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
- By: Michael Shellenberger
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die", contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.
-
-
Environmentalist with integrity!
- By Wayne on 07-01-20
-
The Vanishing Face of Gaia
- A Final Warning
- By: James Lovelock
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Vanishing Face of Gaia, British scientist James Lovelock predicts global warming will lead to a Hot Epoch. Lovelock is best known for formulating the controversial Gaia theory in the 1970s, with Ruth Margulis of the University of Massachusetts, which states that organisms interact with and regulate Earth's surface and atmosphere. We ignore this interaction at our peril.
-
-
A New Perspective - A Must Listen - Very Moving
- By Thomas on 01-29-12
By: James Lovelock
What listeners say about The Shark’s Paintbrush
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tcraig Connolly
- 06-15-18
Filter the Ego
Many compelling insights into a discipline that is sure to redefine the way we adapt and navigate a rapidly evolving world.
Told in the first person coupled with the often irritating, almost condescending tone of the narration makes the book difficult to listen to for long periods.
While Hartman’s contributions are many any laudable, he never misses an opportunity to remind the reader (listener) of his impact.
More often than not, the author comes off as too self important to validate a position of magnanimity.
That’s just me though. Others may be able to filter the ego and extract the essence with little or no effort.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David M. Jones
- 10-06-21
Entertaining
This was recommended to me by a friend. I listened to it even though some of the reviews commented on the authors point of view. I thought it was really entertaining. And it captured a lot of information about the biomimicry industry. When I got to the end of the book it made more sense why the author chose to write this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 05-28-22
Overall an excellent book on this topic.
Generally it was an excellent book. The author gave many specific names examples of products that exist in the biomassy space that you can find online.
Probably the most valuable with respect to business was there clearing honest description of how product innovation really works. This book would also be very valuable for anybody in the product development and licensing space.
He tells the truth about the product development industry. And how licensing is rarely a practical option given that most companies don't want to license unless you already have proven the product. He suggests that the most realistic and practical option is to go after small concrete markets with finished products from their extensive experience being the most practical approach to commercializing new innovations.
he says that licensing and DC financing and other things can work but they have to be extremely careful because they are far far too often extremely self-interested and not necessarily ethical in the way they behave.
It was an interesting and entertaining read that taught me a lot about real world products that already exist.
He often mistakenly believes that nature is perfect and in perfect balance. in fact nature has reached such exceptional designs by elimination, failure, death and Extinction. lt's called evolution.
all that said nature's had a 3.7 billion year head start on humanity and there is a great deal we can learn from the many successful systems that have arrived through this evolutionary process.
if you are a product developer innovator inventor or just generally curious person I would recommend reading this book to open your mind up to this possibility.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nobody's business
- 08-11-13
Wonderfully entertaining and educational
Where does The Shark’s Paintbrush rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is one of my favorites. I will probably listen to it for a long time. It's one that I would want to hear again and again.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Shark’s Paintbrush?
The story of cutting down the tree was really entertaining. I don't know that I will ever attempt that, but if I do, I will remember to park my vehicle far away.
What about Steven Crossley’s performance did you like?
His voice is rich, deep, calming, and just emotional enough to be interesting.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Mimicking God's design for a smarter, better world.
Any additional comments?
While this was not a religious work, I found myself marveling at God's creation and how we could use His designs in improving our world through technology and general design. This book is funny, intelligent, and very well written and performed. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in nature, technology, ecology, or mechanical or technological engineering.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. W. King
- 06-16-17
To much business
In a world where a business book is a dime a dozen, and biomimicry books are few and far between, the author spends too much time talking about business ideas and financial advice which at times comes across as "my excuse why my personal company didn't sell fans".
However, when discussing biomimicry it was fantastic. Applications and ideas were great and the history behind some current applications.
I just wish it was less biomimicy company stuff, and more application related.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cheryl Abram, author of Firing God
- 07-07-17
Very Relevant
Loved it! Highly recommend. My book The Last Evaluation will certainly include references to biomimicry.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 03-06-22
definitely eye opening
initially started when they know about a new subject and sustainably for materials but gave me way more than I asked for great book definitely recommend good info here
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rachel J.
- 09-08-21
Often Unrealistic, Heavily Biased
This book feels great - until you realize he never discusses the downside to any of these suggestions. You'll quickly find yourself questioning the assessments he makes regarding possible biomimicry tech. Possibly the most glaring one is the suggestion to use energy from hydrogen gas because the only byproduct is water. That's a lovely thought until you remember that it's a highly combustible and extremely unsafe gas. There's a number of Healthcare suggestions that generate goosebumps on physician skin. At some point there was the suggestion to consume parasitic eggs as a treatment. Centuries ago, patients with parasites were treated with mercury. It killed the parasite, but often the patient as well. Just because something MIGHT work as a treatment does not mean it is safe, and there are often much safer alternatives.
Narrator choice was odd and lent to some confusion. Author is Australian and works a lot in US under those laws. For some reason they chose an English narrator so I had to keep reminding myself where a lot of these inventions were being trialed and the legal barriers to implementing them. I'm not sure why they made that choice for narration.
The final straw is the winding story-telling. Some stories are cute, but they were so often unrelated to anything else other than "One time I encountered this animal" that they quickly felt tedious and annoying.
Some great ideas in here, but the overwhelming bias and refusal to acknowledge risks of biomimicry inventions or benefits to using current tech makes it hard to stomach. I got about 80% of the way through before I finally gave up. I would suggest you not even start.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- sligamarole
- 08-23-21
More business less biomimicry
Started off good then descended into a study on business strategy. Author did not stick to the subject.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 05-28-22
~10% through and have to skip passages
seems like the author tries his hardest to sell the movement instead of elaborating on its underpinnings and most engaging arguments (as was promised in the description) - he is dropping names and numbers, and as of yet little facts on the subject of biomimicry, though the only one he has presented so far that has to do with the whirling shape (instead of straight lines) in which fluids and gasses move, depicted in golden ratio, has appeared so novel and so groundbreaking from engineering perspective that I'm willing to give the book a shot. overall wouldn't recommend to spend money on it specifically, but for a plus catalog listen it's okay
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!