Inventing The Almost Impossible

Looking to pioneer scientific and technological breakthroughs that create entirely new industries? This book serves as your guide. It goes beyond patents, diving deep into the intersection of foresight, engineering, and business. Explore how teams at renowned organizations such as ARPA-E, IKEA, and H2 Green Steel create radical innovation. Through critical analysis, industry case studies, and teaching examples, an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars, practitioners, and mavericks offer practical advice for bringing visionary development to life. Whether you're seeking to invent the seemingly impossible or solve problems for which no market exists yet, this book renews the research agenda for the deliberate study of invention. It will inspire and provoke you to expand your thinking and push boundaries.

Fans of Sarah Dessen, Stephanie Perkins, and Jenny Han will delight as the fireworks spark and the secrets fly in this delicious summer romance from a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. A fun and relatable summer read for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han." -School Library Journal When Jade decided to spend the summer with her aunt in California, she thought she knew what she was getting into. But nothing could have prepared her for Quentin. Jade hasn't been in suburbia long and even she knows her annoying (and annoyingly cute) next-door neighbor spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E. And when Quentin learns Jade plans to spend her first American summer hiding out reading books, he refuses to be ignored. Sneaking out, staying up, and even a midnight swim, Quentin is determined to give Jade days--and nights--worth remembering. But despite their storybook-perfect romance, every time Jade moves closer, Quentin pulls away. And when rumors of a jilted ex-girlfriend come to light, Jade knows Quentin is hiding a secret--and she's determined to find out what it is. "Unique, well-plotted summer romance" --Booklist

How we can invent—but not predict—the future of cities. We cannot predict future cities, but we can invent them. Cities are largely unpredictable because they are complex systems that are more like organisms than machines. Neither the laws of economics nor the laws of mechanics apply; cities are the product of countless individual and collective decisions that do not conform to any grand plan. They are the product of our inventions; they evolve. In Inventing Future Cities, Michael Batty explores what we need to understand about cities in order to invent their future. Batty outlines certain themes—principles—that apply to all cities. He investigates not the invention of artifacts but inventive processes. Today form is becoming ever more divorced from function; information networks now shape the traditional functions of cities as places of exchange and innovation. By the end of this century, most of the world's population will live in cities, large or small, sometimes contiguous, and always connected; in an urbanized world, it will be increasingly difficult to define a city by its physical boundaries. Batty discusses the coming great transition from a world with few cities to a world of all cities; argues that future cities will be defined as clusters in a hierarchy; describes the future “high-frequency,” real-time streaming city; considers urban sprawl and urban renewal; and maps the waves of technological change, which grow ever more intense and lead to continuous innovation—an unending process of creative destruction out of which future cities will emerge.

Invention to Innovation charts a course for scientists, leaders, investors and policy makers to translate research into growing innovative, competitive companies and industries. With extensive experience and insights gained over three decades, Dr Larry Marshall demonstrates how science can generate new value that grows markets and creates jobs while also delivering social, environmental and economic benefits. Through a combination of advice, examples and vision, this thought-provoking work shows how Australia’s world-class science can navigate across the ‘Valley of Death’ to become successful innovations and grow our economy. With contributions from leaders in business, research, venture and scientists who have made the leap to become ‘scientist CEOs’, Invention to Innovation is essential reading for anyone who believes Australia’s excellent science deserves a vibrant, globally competitive innovation ecosystem to ensure our sustainable and prosperous future. Praise for Invention to Innovation: "The Digital Future has huge potential to unlock new waves of innovation and economic prosperity for all Australians. It's a future where Aussie kids see Aussie scientists and Aussie entrepreneurs solve Australian problems and take them to the world. Larry is passionate about this future for our children, and this book is all about how to make it happen." Melanie Silva, Managing Director of Google Australia and New Zealand "Powered by his extensive scientific entrepreneurship, Dr Larry Marshall shows us how to couple science with innovation to produce prosperity. Human ingenuity is an inexhaustible resource; this book explains how to mine it and refine it into societal value." Dr Alan Finkel, former Australian Chief Scientist, President of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Chancellor of Monash University, CEO and Founder of Axon Instruments "For Australia’s budding technology entrepreneurs, [Invention to Innovation] is an excellent ‘how to’ manual, full of practical advice, and offering useful, tangible guidance on how our scientists and entrepreneurs can seize the tremendous opportunities Australia offers." Michelle Simmons, CEO and Founder of Silicon Quantum Computing and 2018 Australian of the Year "Few scientists have transitioned to become business leaders, or to create public companies, but Larry Marshall has done just that – and by sharing uncomfortable truths, failures and successes, all anchored by the real life experience of someone who has crossed the Valley of Death more than once, Larry seeks to provide other scientists with the confidence that, they too, can do it." Catherine Livingstone, AO, former Chair of CSIRO, Commonwealth Bank and Telstra; former President of the Business Council of Australia; and former CEO of Cochlear "Australia has a proud history of scientific research and industrial innovation. But despite this, we’ve got a lousy track record of translating this innovation into real impact, especially commercial impact. ... We will only succeed if we try. This book is an important first step towards success." Dr Andrew Forrest, AO, Chairman and Founder of Fortescue Metals Group, Fortescue Future Industries, Minderoo Foundation and Tattarang

Why Has America Stopped Inventing? takes a close look at why America’s 200 year experiment with patents appears to be failing, and why America has all but stopped inventing. It explains why our over-legislated patent system has snuffed out any incentive to invent desperately needed technologies, such as new forms of clean energy. Why Has America Stopped Inventing? shows how this happened by comparing the experiences of America’s most successful 19th century inventors with those of today.

The first comprehensive intellectual history of alphabet studies. Inventing the Alphabet provides the first account of two-and-a-half millennia of scholarship on the alphabet. Drawing on decades of research, Johanna Drucker dives into sometimes obscure and esoteric references, dispelling myths and identifying a pantheon of little-known scholars who contributed to our modern understandings of the alphabet, one of the most important inventions in human history. Beginning with Biblical tales and accounts from antiquity, Drucker traces the transmission of ancient Greek thinking about the alphabet’s origin and debates about how Moses learned to read. The book moves through the centuries, finishing with contemporary concepts of the letters in alpha-numeric code used for global communication systems. Along the way, we learn about magical and angelic alphabets, antique inscriptions on coins and artifacts, and the comparative tables of scripts that continue through the development of modern fields of archaeology and paleography. This is the first book to chronicle the story of the intellectual history through which the alphabet has been “invented” as an object of scholarship.