What Drives Innovation: Permission or Freedom?

MercatusCenter
By Adam Thierer

World's First 3-D Printed Bike Frame Weighs Just 3 Pounds

NBC News.com

By Devin Coldewey

Renishaw

 

It's a first: a bike frame created entirely via 3-D printing. Empire's prototype, on display at the London Bike Show, is solid (or rather hollow) titanium, and weighs just 1,400 grams — around 3 pounds.

Naturally, things like the tires, seat and chain can't be 3-D printed, but printing the entire frame is a big step. It's not printed out whole, though: The parts are made clustered together in a block by melting titanium dust with a laser, then bonded together.

Renishaw

The parts are printed together in a block, separated, then assembled and permanently bonded.

  Empire teamed up with additive manufacturing company Renishaw, and it took them about six months to produce the bike. Other companies have produced 3-D printed parts, but this is the first frame that's entirely made by this method.

Is it actually practical, though? It's just as strong as the Empire frame it's based on and quite a bit lighter, but the process doesn't exactly lend itself to mass manufacture.

So chances are if you buy a 3-D printed frame any time soon, it'll be a custom job and quite expensive. But a few years down the line, this may be both common and affordable.

How Supercomputers Will Yield a Golden Age of Materials Science

By Gerbrand Ceder and Kristin Persson

In 1878 Thomas Edison set out to reinvent electric lighting. To develop small bulbs suitable for indoor use, he had to find a long-lasting, low-heat, low-power lighting element. Guided largely by intuition, he set about testing thousands of carbonaceous materials—boxwood, coconut shell, hairs cut from his laboratory assistant's beard. After 14 months, he patented a bulb using a filament made of carbonized cotton thread. The press heralded it as the “Great Inventor's Triumph in Electric Illumination.” Yet there were better filament materials. At the turn of the century, another American inventor perfected the tungsten filament, which we still use in incandescent lightbulbs today. Edison's cotton thread became history.

Materials science, the process of engineering matter into new and useful forms, has come a long way since the days of Edison. Quantum mechanics has given scientists a deep understanding of the behavior of matter and, consequently, a greater ability to guide investigation with theory rather than guesswork. Materials development remains a painstakingly long and costly process, however. Companies invest billions designing novel materials, but successes are few and far between. Researchers think of new ideas based on intuition and experience; synthesizing and testing those ideas involve a tremendous amount of trial and error. It can take months to evaluate a single new material, and most often the outcome is negative. As our Massachusetts Institute of Technology colleague Thomas Eagar has found, it takes an average of 15 to 20 years for even a successful material to move from lab testing to commercial application. When Sony announced the commercialization of the lithium-ion battery in 1991, for example, it seemed like a sudden, huge advance—but in fact, it took hundreds or thousands of battery researchers nearly two decades of stumbling, halting progress to get to that point.

More at Scientific American >>

Alfredo Moser : Le dio luz a quienes no la tenían y sigue pobre pero orgulloso

fantastico pero la cago con eso que la luz es de dios y no patento el invento y ahorita mismitico como dicen los chaparritos habra algun gringuito metiendole manos al asunto. que lo patente que gane muchisimo dinero y que constituya una fundacion dedicada a buscar soluciones sencillas y baratas a los grandes problemas de 3/4 de la humanidad. 

-------------------------------

Gibby Zobel/ BBC

La invención de Alfredo Moser está iluminando al mundo. En 2002, a este mecánico brasileño "se le prendió el bombillo" y se le ocurrió una manera de iluminar su casa durante el día sin electricidad, usando únicamente botellas de plástico llenas de agua y un poquito de cloro.

Alfredo Moser, mecánico brasileño 

En los últimos dos años, su idea llegó a diferentes partes del mundo. Y se tiene previsto que su sistema se implemente en un millón de hogares a principios de 2014.

¿Cómo funciona? Por refracción de luz solar, explica Moser, al tiempo que llena una botella plástica de dos litros. "Hay que añadir dos tapas de cloro para evitar que el agua se ponga verde (con algas). Mientras más limpia esté la botella, mejor", añade, en conversación con la BBC.

Envolviendo su cara en un trapo, abre un hueco en una de las tejas del techo con un taladro y, de abajo hacia arriba, mete la botella en el orificio recién hecho. "Fijas la botella con resina de poliéster. No hay goteras, ni siquiera cuando llueve, no cae ni una gota".

"Un ingeniero vino y midió la intensidad de la luz. Depende de cuan fuertes sean los rayos de sol, pero equivale mas o menos a 40 o 60 vatios", comenta.

Y se hizo la luz

La idea de Moser se utiliza en unos 15 países.

La inspiración para la "lámpara Moser" le llegó en 2002, durante uno de los frecuentes apagones que ocurren en el país.

"Los únicos lugares que tenían electricidad eran las fábricas, no las casas de la gente", dice refiriéndose a la ciudad en la que vive, Uberaba, en el sur de Brasil.

Moser y sus amigos empezaron a preguntarse qué podrían hacer en caso de que se presentara una emergencia como, por ejemplo, que un avión pequeño sufriera un accidente y perdiera altitud, imaginando que no tuvieran fósforos.

Su jefe en aquel momento sugirió utilizar una botella de plástico vacía, llenarla de agua y utilizarla como un lente para que los rayos de sol cayeran sobre grama seca. El fuego resultante podría servir para dar aviso a los equipos de rescate.

La idea se le quedó a Moser en la cabeza, y empezó a hacer pruebas, llenando botellas y haciendo círculos de luz refractada. Poco tiempo después, su invento estaba terminado.

"No hice ningún dibujo con su diseño", cuenta el brasileño. "Es una luz divina. Dios nos dio el Sol a todos, así que la luz es para todos. Quien quiera (usar su sistema de iluminación), ahorra dinero. No vas a electrocutarte con esto y no te cuesta ni un centavo".

Continuar leyendo en  BBC Mundo >>

Exploración sobre la calidad de las investigaciones y la producción científica en Camagüey, Cuba

medigraphic

Betancourt BJA, Fernández FN, Mirabal NM, Losano CJ

[Texto completo - PDF]

RESUMEN

Introducción: existen problemas en la calidad de las investigaciones de salud sobre la cuales se desea tener una perspectiva desde el punto de vista de algunos profesionales de la atención primaria.
Métodos: durante el mes de noviembre de 2011 se realizó una encuesta exploratoria en ocho áreas de salud del municipio de Camagüey. Se procedió a reducir la dimensionalidad de las respuestas mediante la técnica de componentes principales (PCA); se compararon los resultados obtenidos en cada área con la técnica no paramétrica de Kruskal-Wallis. Todos los análisis se realizaron con el programa SPSS 19.
Resultados: se caracterizó a los encuestados y sus respuestas. Las respuestas fueron agrupadas en seis constructos con más del 63 % de la varianza explicada. Los resultados reflejan que los profesionales de la salud de la atención primaria encuestados en el municipio de Camagüey son conformados por personas con bastante experiencia en la actividad. La técnica PCA permitió reducir la dimensionalidad. Los constructos encontrados en todos los casos demostraron afectaciones potenciales a la calidad de las investigaciones y la producción científica.
Conclusiones: las investigaciones necesitan un enfoque transdisciplinar, hay insuficiente conocimiento de estadística e idioma inglés. Se pudo constatar que es insuficiente la divulgación de los esquemas nacionales e internacionales de financiamientos y donaciones para la investigación.

Col. Allen West on Ronald Reagan and American Entrepreneurship

Pajamasmedia

The top 12 tech stories of 2012

(CNN) -- In the tech world, 2012 was the year of the reboot. Older, established tech companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Nintendo all tried to restart their brands with bold new products and fresh blood in the executive suites.

Facebook struggled with its new life as a publicly traded company, and Instagram, the photo-sharing network it acquired in April, was dragged along for the ride.

There were inspiring stories, such as the Internet coming together to protest anti-piracy legislation. And there was darker news, like the Israeli military live-tweeting its strikes against Gaza.

And as always, the world's dominant and most closely watched tech company was all over the news. Apple did a little bit of everything in 2012, from hit new products (the iPad Mini) to high-profile failures (Apple Maps) to some old-fashioned courtroom drama in its patent war with Samsung.

Here are our picks for the top 12 tech stories of 2012. What did we leave out? Let us know in the comment section below.

Microsoft's big push

This was the year Microsoft took a big, bold and surprisingly fun step with a new version of Windows, an updated mobile operating system and its very own iPad rival.

The company, best known for its efficient but stodgy desktop software, needed to do something fresh to get customers' attention in 2012 and started with its flagship product. Windows 8 is a complete overhaul of the Windows operating system. Microsoft nixed the Start button and mixed a playful touchscreen interface with a more traditional desktop experience that runs on tablets, traditional computers, and hybrid machines.

The company also made a leap into the hardware market, releasing its first tablet, the Microsoft Surface, which ran a truncated version of the new Windows 8 operating system. And finally, there was Windows Phone 8, a major revamp of its smartphone operating system, which Microsoft hopes can compete with Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

It's still too soon to judge any of the new releases as successes or failures, but give Microsoft credit for taking chances.

SOPA backlash

In January, a pair of anti-piracy bills united the Internet in outrage. The proposed legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, or PIPA, would have restricted access to sites associated with pirated content, including the search engines and ad networks that do business with them.

The Internet cried censorship, and on January 18 some of the most popular sites blacked out their pages in protest. Reddit, Craigslist, Boing Boing, The Oatmeal, the English-language version of Wikipedia and thousands of other sites went dark. Even Google put a black censorship box over its logo. There were also petitions and organized boycotts of companies who supported the bills.

The protests worked, as both SOPA and PIPA were shelved. It was an impressive demonstration of the power of an organized Internet community.

Live-tweeting war

Violence and war have long been documented on Twitter and other social networks -- typically by journalists and by regular people on the ground (notably the Pakistani witness to the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden).

But in November, the Israeli military took this concept to a new level. During its conflict with Palestinian forces in Gaza, the Israel Defense Force tweeted updates, including the news it had "eliminated" Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari. The military arm of Hamas responded on Twitter with its own provocations.

The back-and-forth between the warring sides signaled a jarring evolution in how war is broadcast in real time.

iPhone 5 and Apple Maps stumble

Every Apple hardware release is a big news story, starting with rumors months in advance and peaking with a well-oiled Apple press event, followed by usually glowing reviews and huge sales numbers. But in 2012, Apple made a major misstep when it released the iPhone 5 and its new operating system, iOS 6.

The company dropped the Google-powered maps that had come pre-installed on every iPhone since 2007. In its place, Apple introduced its own mapping app. Apple Maps looked stunning, with 3-D graphics and neat features like Flyover and turn-by-turn directions. All it was missing was transit directions and accuracy -- the maps were riddled with mistaken locations and outdated information.

The resulting criticism inspired an apology from CEO Tim Cook and led to an executive shakeup at Apple. Customers turned to third-party map apps until Google finally released an iOS version of its popular maps in December.

Apple vs. Samsung

It was the biggest tech trial of the year. Two of the top phone and tablet manufacturers went to war when Apple accused Samsung of infringing on its iPad and iPhone patents for a variety of tablets and smartphones. The drama culminated in a federal jury trial over the summer that offered a rare peek into how notoriously secretive Apple operates.

The story became huge because of the large amount of money at stake and the implications that its verdict would have on Samsung's business and the Android platform.

The jury decided in Apple's favor, awarding the company just over $1 billion in damages. But the case is far from over. Lawyers for both sides will continue bickering over potential appeals for months and possibly years to come.

Facebook's botched IPO

It was the most anticipated IPO of the year, and one of the largest ever for a tech company. Social-media darling Facebook looked primed for a big public opening: The company was valued at $104 billion, snapped up popular photo-sharing app Instagram and was still growing.

But then an array of problems and misjudgments led to a botched IPO in May, and the company's stock plummeted. The initial offer price of $38 was too high, too many shares were issued, its opening day was marred by Nasdaq's technical glitches, and underwriter Morgan Stanley was fined for improperly influencing share sales.

The stock price dropped significantly, hitting a low of $17.55 on September 4. Facebook is still struggling to recover some of its early-2012 luster.

Keep reading on CNN >>

What If Jobs and Einstein Lived to be 150?

ForaTv

Steve Blank Shares the Secret Truth About Startups

ForaTv

Can crowdfunding promote entrepreneurship?

EconomistMagazine

What Really Happened During the Neolithic Revolution?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

In our last blog post, we examined the explanatory power of Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs and Steel. A viable position is that while the argument in his book cannot explain modern inequality amongst nations, it can explain where the Neolithic Revolution took place and thus, at least in part, account for inter-continental inequality before 1500.

But we also saw that the distribution of domesticable plants and animals doesn’t show a distinct pattern singling out southeastern Turkey and the banks of River Jordan as the places where the Neolithic Revolution should have taken place.

This should not be surprising. Economic success is all about innovation and technology. But technology itself depends on institutions — and on institutional innovations.

The Neolithic Revolution was not only a set of technological innovations associated with farming and herding. It was also an institutional revolution — people became sedentary and social and political life changed.

Diamond’s argument, which has essentially become the conventional wisdom on this topic, is that the the introduction of farming was a direct result of the greater benefits from farming in terms of greater domesticable crop and animal species, and this major technological change then caused institutional change.

Though popular, this argument is at odds with the archaeological evidence, which instead shows extensive social and institutional change prior to the transition to farming in the Middle East.

Consider the hill of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. Soon after 9600BCE people came and carved massive T-shaped pillars out of limestone, an example of which is shown in the next picture.

Many pillars were 8 feet high and weighed 7 tons and had been brought from as far as 100 meters away. They were sunk into circular structures cut into the hill, and many of the pillars were carved with wild animals, snakes, wild cattle, gazelles, wild boars. More >>

"Mood Disorders and Creativity"

By JohnsHopkins

Germany's PYMES success

By EconomistMagazine

Manufacturing and innovation

By EconomistMagazine

Cuba Vintage Cars: Creativity and Golden Hands but disabled people

By Meier_Walters

Vivek Wadhwa: Chinese Innovation is a 'Giant Scam'

Published on Apr 12, 2012 by ForaTv

Mashable - 92nd Street Y: Social Good Summit 2011

Uploaded by mashable on Sep 16, 2011

Mashable, 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation present the second annual Social Good Summit: http://mashable.com/sgs/. Held at the heart of UN week, the Summit is where old problems meet new media.

The Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges. It ignites conversations between a live audience in New York City and thousands around the world participating via Livestream.

The most innovative technologists, influential minds and passionate activists will come together this September with one shared goal: to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place.

George Buckley: #Innovation

Facing economic challenges in the West, the chief executive of 3M looks to emerging markets for new opportunities and more scientists.

The "Stringbike": La bici sin cadenas

Llega la bici sin cadenas

Un ingeniero húngaro ha conseguido sustituir el tradicional engranaje de los ciclos por un sistema de cables

Hungarians Invent Revolutionary "Stringbike"
Uploaded by NTDTV. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

Steve Jobs de baja médica

Steve Jobs se vuelve a tomar una baja médica · ELPAÍS.com

Desde este modesto sitio, deseamos la pronta y definitiva recuperacion de Steve.