The Shark's Paintbrush

Starred review from May 6, 2013
The world’s most elegant engineer is without a doubt Mother Nature. She’s efficient, creative, and has time on her hands to put her innovations to the test, and Harman thinks we can learn a lot from watching her work. His company, PAX Scientific Inc., focuses on sustainable design solutions based on mimicking biological adaptations. Sounds far out, but the practice has been around for a while. Archimedes’ screw, a type of water pump that is still used today, is an early example of taking a concept from nature—in this case the spiral—and putting it to practical use. The eponymous paintbrush is equally fascinating. German scientists developed a special paint that, when applied to the hull of a ship in such a way as to mimic the water-repellent design of sharkskin, reduces drag by 5%. This can result in savings of 2000 tons of fuel per ship, per year. Looking elsewhere, scientists are learning about anticoagulants from leeches, acoustics from dolphins, antibiotics from Komodo dragons, shock absorbers from woodpeckers, and computer networks from slime molds. Harman points out that many of these developments would not only save money, but also prove an enormous boon to the survival of Mother Nature. His vision of a biomimetic “new global economy” is timely, crucial, and thrillingly eye-opening. Photos & illus. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International.

May 15, 2013
Green entrepreneur Harman offers a trendy pitch for innovative green capitalism. The author is the founder and CEO of PAX Scientific, a green corporation that specializes in engineering designs for "more-energy-efficient industrial equipment...based on nature's fluid flow geometries." He suggests that corporations should increasingly look to nature for inspiration, as has the modern pharmaceutical industry--e.g., synthesizing the active ingredients found in quinine and penicillin. An early such example of biomimicry, writes Harman, was Archimedes' screw. Even something as mundane as barbed wire has a natural model in the use of "fencing woven from naturally occurring briars," and the invention of "the hoop-and-loop structure" of Velcro was inspired by George de Mestral's annoyance at being attacked by burrs while hiking. At Cornell University, the long blades of wind turbines have been replaced by panels made from foam blocks that vibrate, creating a "vibro-wind" similar to tree leaves shaken by the wind. At the University of Maryland, they have created a "a mini, single-bladed, helicopter" based on the "single-winged samara seed." The author also discusses the advances made by his own company and makes the unsubstantiated claim that PAX fans are 50 percent more energy efficient than those of competitors. Would-be entrepreneurs will appreciate Harman's account of the difficulties he has experienced trying to find seed capital and to market his inventions, as well as his game plan for issuing common stock in order to attract "source money from angel investors." The author is not shy about self-promotion: "Now I find myself credited with being among the first scientists to make biomimicry a cornerstone of modern future engineering." A useful update on recent developments in biomimicry and an intriguing case for innovative green technology that goes beyond sustainability.

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