Case Studies
Israel: An Unlikely Innovation Capital
The image that most people in America have of Israel is that of a small, beleaguered country surrounded by enemies. However, as the Jerusalem Post recently noted, the Jewish State has become a hotbed of innovation and high technology, rivaling even Silicon Valley. Israel ranks fifth on the Bloomberg
Surplus of Tech Workers and Culture of Openness Support Innovation in Finland
In 2014, Finland-based Nokia was sold to Microsoft, who promptly laid off 18,000 workers, mainly in Finland. This came on the heels of 10,000 Nokia layoffs in 2012. Nokia’s story is an unfortunate one, which I’ve discussed before. But the really interesting part is how Finland recovered from that cr
Short-Term Thinking is a Barrier to Innovation in America’s Private Sector
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been discussing the innovation problem America faces and its various points of origin, from our education system to government initiatives. Obviously, there are many factors that determine how innovative our nation is overall, but since the private sector is usually whe
Innovation in America: How the Government Helps and Hurts
Formerly a global hotbed of innovation, the United States in recent years and decades has regressed back to the mean as several other countries are catching up. In a previous post, I’ve examined the role our education system plays in hampering (and helping) innovation. But what role does our governm
200 Years of Great Ideas and Hard Work Led To the Overnight Success of Your Smartphone
As I discussed in a previous post, the basic components of success are the idea, hard work, timing, and maybe a little bit of luck. Here, we’ll look at how that formula worked to create the massive success of the modern cell phone. Success As you walk down the street in any major city in […]
United States Innovation Problem and How We Can Solve It
The United States used to be the undisputed global leader in innovation. In the past, we put a large portion of our considerable economic power behind research and development, with the goal of becoming and remaining the most innovative country in the world. However, in the past few decades, America
Pinocchio with a PhD: An Appeal for Ethical Innovation
In recent years, a growing number of innovators has falsified or fabricated their ideas and their work in order to gain prestige and undeserved credibility. Furthermore, instead of this scandal being the work of a few innovators led astray, it seems that the issue of unethical behavior in research i
What innovation can you leverage from military bombing to kill bacteria and viruses in the human body?
Gizmodo recently reported that some researchers at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense are working on a new way to attack bacteria and viruses in the human body using buckyballs. A buckyball is a molecule that contains 60 carbon atoms arranged in the shape of a football. While scientists ha
A Killer Idea: Licensing an innovation back to the original innovator
The innovation of inflatable space station modules, now being developed by Bigelow Aerospace as the basis of a commercial space station, has a strange history. The concept was actually developed by NASA as part of a project called Transhab, which contemplated attaching inflatable modules to what wou
A Unique Innovation: A Microscope that Fits in Your Shirt Pocket
When Manu Prakash took his idea to Bill and Melinda Gates, he probably encountered no small amount of skepticism. His innovation? A paper microscope that weighs less than a few coins, fits in your pocket and costs about one dollar to manufacture. He named it the foldscope. But Prakash had done his
