1. Where Quantum Probability Comes From by Sean Caroll (science, Quanta) 2. A Famous Argument Against Free Will Has Been Debunked (science, The Atlantic) 3. ‘Ulysses’ on Trial by Michael Chabon (history, books, The New York Review of Books) 4. A New Timeline of the Day the Dinosaurs Began to Die Out (science, NYT) 5. The Massive Cost of Not Adapting to Climate Change (climate, economics, Fortune)
1. How American Colonialism Put Puerto Rico in Crisis (new book, MJ) 2. Can Apple Or Amazon Become Full Stack Banks? (Forbes) 3. Russia’s Huge Gold Stash Is Now Worth More Than $100 Billion (Bloomberg) 4. A most peaceful revolution by Nic Carter (Bitcoin)
Our work on liquid-surface interactions just got published in Communications Physics. Great work by Daniel and the team at IMRE! Congratulations to all! You can read the paper here. Comments welcome. AbstractRecently, there has been much progress in the design and application of oil-repellent superoleophobic surfaces. Polyzwitterionic brush surfaces are of particular interest, because of their ability to repel oil under water, even in the absence of micro-/nanostructures. The origin of this underwater superoleophobicity is […]
Innovation is not a fixed-rate process and can be influenced by our ability to exploit the existing stock of knowledge, especially if that knowledge translates into broader distributions of available product complexity. However, before we build products we need to assess existing knowledge. If we are lucky enough to have already the right data we can use data analytics for that purpose. Modern tools for data mining, management, retrieval and processing allow for fairly complex, […]
An interesting paper on influencing the rates of innovation – how more likely we are to come up with new or more complex products given a set of technologies, or components, that are already available to us now. (…) we measure how the number of makeable products (words, recipes, cocktails, and software products) grows as we acquire new components (letters, ingredients, beverages, and development tools). We do this for an arbitrary order of component acquisition […]
Original publication is here [1]. A commentary in Nature here. Dockless shared e-scooters are touted as a solution to the last-mile problem, a means to reduce traffic congestion, and an environmentally preferable mode of transportation. While these e-scooters have no tailpipe emissions, full consideration of the life cycle impacts is required to properly understand their environmental impacts. (…)Our study differs from previous research by conducting a full LCA to address the environmental impacts associated with the […]
On a macro level, knowledge creation relates to innovation and how it influences economic growth. Knowledge creation, however, originates at the micro level. Microeconomic evidence for knowledge creation and innovation at the level of individual inventors is however lacking. One interesting question is whether, and how, collaborations between individual scientists benefit knowledge creation. Such studies are important as they can inform policies. In context of innovation and economic growth, fostering collaborations and promoting collaborative spirit […]
How to Say “No” at Work Without Making Enemies by Joseph Grenny You define the contours of your character and the shape of your life by what you say “no” to. For example, saying no to invitations is the way you safeguard the attention you need to say yes to what matters most. Saying no to demands that compromise your values is how you secure your hold on those values. Articulating your reservations about a […]
Interesting paper by Emdad Islam and Jason Zein [1] on whether high technology firms led by inventor CEOs with hands-on innovation experience (the Netflix’s Reed Hastings types) have higher corporate innovation output and impact compared to companies led by non-inventor CEOs. Pinpointing the corporate traits that would predict innovation is tricky. Many spurious correlations may exist and filtering predictive features is challenging. For example, Reeb and Zhao [2] note that from thirty-five previously identified determinants […]
1. 6 Reasons We Make Bad Decisions, and What to Do About Them by Mike Erwin, Harvard Business Review, Aug 01, (2019) Nice and simple summary of the most common reasons we make bad decisions. These are all good points backed by research. Analysis paralysis is probably something I can relate to, while I think that for my kids the steady state of distraction that the new technologies bring, make them unable to pause and […]
Oragious 