When it comes to innovation, Santa Clara County is way ahead of the rest of the US. Between 2000 and 2015, more than 140,000 patents were granted there – triple the number of the next-ranked county.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Invention
Displaying 21 - 40 of 50 articles
You know you’ve hit it big when your designs find their way into millions of kitchens – and the Museum of Modern Art.
One of America’s favourite sons is slowly losing his reputation, and he might just deserve it.
Limitations improve creativity: we think up solutions we would never have thought of in a lab.
While today we sweat, early modern Europeans froze. Furs to the rescue.
We don’t know much about the origins of most human achievements – scientific and otherwise. Like evolution, does progress occur as random insights are selected for or against?
A lack of “breakthrough” moments in innovation may be caused by the increase of specialised workforces.
It’s been five decades of microwave popcorn and piping hot leftovers in home kitchens. A serendipitous discovery helped engineers harness radar to create this now ubiquitous timesaving appliance.
American slaves couldn’t hold property – including patents on their own inventions. But that didn’t stop black Americans from innovating since the beginning of the country’s history.
Without Alan Blumlein’s genius, most things would sound altogether different today.
The race to bring the jetpack to market exemplifies some of the highs and lows of sci-fi inspired innovation.
Science fiction can be good at predictiong soem of the technologies of tomorrow. But designers take note: not all those ideas are welcome.
Big data is about processing large amounts of data. It is often associated with multiplicities of data. But the ability to generate data outpaces the ability to store it.
The bubbles generated by Laureate Professor Graeme Jameson have been worth over $36 billion to the Australian economy. He has just received the 2015 Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation.
Poetry is at the heart of technology. Did not Pythagoras find the connections between beautiful music and mathematics?
“Who came first” may be a good game, but it doesn’t lead to any clear answers.
Founded in 1790, the Patent Office aimed to put innovation and entrepreneurship within reach of every citizen. Now, 10 million patents later, critics say an out-of-touch system is doing the opposite.
Nobody loves patent trolls. But new legislation in Congress aimed at the trolls isn’t necessary, since the effects of recent patent reforms are only starting to be felt.
What do pencillin, polythene and Mexican yam have in common?
Issues of energy and climate will be solved by engineering, not climate science.
Top contributors
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Professor Emeritus, The University of Queensland
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Former Associate Vice Provost, The University of Texas at Austin
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Lecturer in Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University
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Head of Knowledge, Australian National Maritime Museum and Honorary Affiliate, University of Sydney
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Professor in Evolutionary Biology (jointly appointed with South Australian Museum), Flinders University
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Associate Professor, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University
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Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull
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Senior Visiting Fellow, UNSW Sydney
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Visiting Professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Associate Professor of Public Policy and Women's Studies, University of Michigan
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Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Innovation and Digital Leadership, University of Brighton
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Affiliate, School of Mathematics, Monash University
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Professor Emeritus of the History of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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Jack E. Brown Professor of Law, Arizona State University
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Professor of AI, Research Group Leader, UNSW Sydney
