Innovation Watch Newsletter - Issue 12.

20 - October 5, 2013

ISSN:
1712-9834

Highlights from the last two weeks...

David Forrest is a Canadian writer and strategy consultant. His Integral Strategy process has been widely used to increase collaboration in communities, build social capital, deepen commitment to action, and develop creative strategies to deal with complex challenges. David advises organizations on emerging trends. He uses the term Enterprise Ecology to describe how ecological principles can be applied to competition, innovation, and strategy in business.

research uncovers where imagination occurs in the brain... a map for the future of neuroscience... FDA approves an artificial pancreas you can wear... Pennsylvania startup develops a new technology to print graphene on a large scale... Monsanto bets nearly $1 billion on a big data startup to reduce weather risks and boost crop yields... Google seeks protection to copy books without permission... micro-apartments could be the future of housing in New York City... new problem solvers help to create a solution economy... China looks to Ukraine to grow food overseas... China creates a new economic liberalization zone... California fires up the world's biggest solar thermal plant... small-scale farmers around the world confirm climate change... Japan looks to beam solar energy from space... political and economic power will soon become focused in city-states...

More resources ...

a new book by Alan Gregerman: The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth About Insight, Innovation, and Success... a link to the MIT Center for Civic Media website... video of the WildCat four-legged robot in action, designed to run fast on all types of terrain... a blog post by Rodrigo Davies on competing visions of civic crowdfunding...

iwnewsletter-12.20.htm[10/5/2013 8:55:40 AM]

David is the founder and president of Global Vision Consulting Ltd., a strategy advisory firm. He is a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, the World Future Society, and the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.

David Forrest Innovation Watch

SCIENCE TRENDS
Top Stories: Research Uncovers How and Where Imagination Occurs in the Brain (Huffington Post) - "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination," Albert Einstein once said. "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." The elusive quality of mind has long been mused about by artists, philosophers and psychologists who have sought to uncover the driving force behind great works of art and groundbreaking inventions. Yet despite its role in some of the greatest discoveries ever made, our understanding of imagination -- where it comes from and what it looks like in the brain -- has been remarkably limited. That's now beginning to change, and a new study from researchers at Dartmouth University is providing some answers. A Map for the Future of Neuroscience (New Yorker) - The National Institutes of Health released a fifty-eight-page report on the future of neuroscience -- the first substantive step in developing President Obama's BRAIN Initiative, which seeks to "revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury." Assembled by an advisory panel of fifteen scientists led by Cori Bargmann, of Rockefeller University, and William Newsome, of Stanford, the report assesses the state of neuroscience and offers a vision for the field's future. The core challenge, as the report puts it, is simply that "brains -- even small ones -- are dauntingly complex." More science trends...

The Innovation Watch Newsletter is published every

two weeks. You are on our mailing list
because you subscribed at our website. Forward Forward this newsletter to a friend Unsubscribe Unsubscribe Newsletter
Archive

Previous issues

iwnewsletter-12.20.htm[10/5/2013 8:55:40 AM]

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Top Stories: FDA Approves Artificial Pancreas You Can Wear (Singularity Hub) - Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and many other countries around the world. And unlike the more common acquired form of diabetes, the Type 1 form of the illness has neither prevention nor cure. Sufferers simply don't produce insulin, the hormone excreted by the pancreas to process glucose in the body. Patients are stuck monitoring their blood sugar levels with pinpricks and injecting themselves with synthetic insulin. The Food and Drug Administration recently issued its firstever approval of an artificial pancreas that may make life easier and healthier for such patients. The device, made by Minneapolisbased Medtronics, relies on a computer algorithm to sync the results of a continuous reading of the wearer's glucose levels with a pump that provides appropriate amounts of insulin. How Do You Manufacture Huge Amounts of Graphene for a Fraction of the Cost? Printing Presses (GigaOM) - Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms with amazing physical properties, could carry the digital world into an age beyond silicon. But it might be helped along by a technique borrowed from something quite analog: the newspaper printing press. Earlier this month, the National Science Foundation awarded University of Pennsylvania graphene startup Graphene Frontiers $744,600 to develop technology that makes it faster and cheaper to produce graphene on a large scale. More technology trends...

Find us on Flipboard as Innovation Watch

BUSINESS TRENDS
Top Stories: Why is the World's Biggest Seed Company Betting Nearly $1 Billion on a Big Data Startup? (Quartz) - Biotech giant Monsanto said it will pay $930 million to buy The Climate Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup specializing in weather analytics and risk management. Big data, normally associated with consumer-facing sectors, seemingly couldn't be further away from Monsanto's often controversial core business of genetically modified seeds. So what gives? Climate Corp, backed by two former Google executives and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel's Founder's Fund, among others, provides insurance products and software services that aim to reduce weather risks and boost crop yields for farmers. It does so using technology that "combines hyper-local weather monitoring, agronomic data modeling, and

iwnewsletter-12.20.htm[10/5/2013 8:55:40 AM]

high-resolution weather simulations," according to its website. Google Seeks Protection to Copy Books Without Permission (Mashable) - Google Inc., owner of the world's largest search engine, tried to persuade a judge that digitally copying millions of books for online searches without authors' permission is protected by copyright law. The company argued in federal court in Manhattan that the fair-use provision of the Copyright Act shields it from liability for infringement. Authors and a trade group oppose the project, claiming Google has taken away their rights for its own gain without compensating them. U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin quizzed both sides about the public's interest in the project, at a hearing where Google asked him to end an eight-year-old lawsuit by the Authors Guild and individual writers. If Chin finds Google liable for infringement, it could cost the company more than $3 billion in damages and end a project on which it has spent as much as $40 million annually. He didn't say when he'll rule. More business trends...

SOCIAL TRENDS
Top Stories: These Photos of Tiny, Futuristic Japanese Apartments Show How Micro Micro-Apartments Can Be (Fast Company Co.EXIST) - Micro-apartments have been experiencing a renaissance of late. They represent a seemingly straightforward antidote to persistent affordable housing shortages in dense growing cities: If the rent-per-square-foot is too damn high, why not lower the number of square feet? In New York Citys headlinegrabbing example, apartments from 250 to 370 square feet are being built in the first multi-unit building in Manhattan to use modular construction. New Yorkers were recently allowed to sleep inside a prototype at a museum exhibition, whose director called it "a glimpse into the future of housing in our city." The Solution Economy: How New Players are Solving Old Problems (PBS) - Over the last decade or so, a dizzying variety of new players -- from business, government, philanthropy and social enterprise -- has developed innovative ways to tackle social problems. They've facilitated easier recycling, essay-grading, ridesharing and female entrepreneurship, and with those things, a burgeoning new economy. These new problem solvers, whom we call "wavemakers," operate in what we call a "solution economy," using new technologies, innovative business models and clever behavioral incentives to solve old challenges. More social trends...

iwnewsletter-12.20.htm[10/5/2013 8:55:40 AM]

GLOBAL TRENDS
Top Stories: Ukraine to Become China's Largest Overseas Farmer in 3m Hectare Deal (South China Morning Post) - China will plough billions of yuan into farmland in Ukraine that will eventually become its biggest overseas agricultural project. The move is a significant step in China's recent efforts to encourage domestic companies to farm overseas as China's food demand grows in pace with urbanisation. Under the 50-year plan, Ukraine will initially provide China with at least 100,000 hectares -- an area almost the size of Hong Kong -- of high-quality farmland in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, mainly for growing crops and raising pigs. The produce will be sold to two Chinese state-owned grain conglomerates at preferential prices. The project will eventually expand to three million hectares. Free Trade and Free Speech in Shanghai (New Yorker) - The inauguration of an eleven-square-mile free-trade zone in Shanghai, an experiment in economic liberalization on the outskirts of the thriving coastal city, will mean the loosening of regulations for eighteen service industries, including banking, shipping, law, and engineering. Foreign financial institutions will be permitted, for the first time, to team up with domestic partners to set up banks. Foreign video games will even be sold, as long as their makers register within the zone. But the detail that attracted the most attention in some circles was a report from the South China Morning Post that the country's ban on Web sites that it considers politically sensitive, such as Facebook, Twitter, and the Times, would be lifted inside the zone. More global trends...

ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS
Top Stories: World's Biggest Solar Thermal Power Plant Fired Up in California (Grist) - The 3,500-acre Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a startling sight in the Mojave Desert. Three sprawling units each contain a circular array of mirrors reflecting rays from the sun toward a 459-foot central tower. Water in the tower is heated by the rays to produce steam, which spins turbines and -- voila -- electricity is produced. It all seems a bit magical, but the world's largest solar thermal power plant began feeding energy into a power grid for the first time. Is the IPCC Right on Climate Change? Just Ask the World's

iwnewsletter-12.20.htm[10/5/2013 8:55:40 AM]

Farmers (Guardian) - European development groups have reported that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest scientific assessment of the phenomenon matches the observations and experiences of farming and other groups they partner in Africa, Asia and Latin America. "The latest climate science affirms what small-scale farmers around the world are telling us, that seasons are changing, weather is increasingly extreme and unpredictable making it tougher to feed their families," said Oxfam in a new briefing paper. More environmental trends...

FUTURE
TRENDS
Top Stories: Japan Aims to Beam Solar Energy Down from Orbit (Wired UK) - The Japanese space agency JAXA is developing a revolutionary concept to put "power stations" in orbit to capture sunlight and beam it to Earth. The country has been looking for new power sources following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March, 2011, that destroyed much of the north-east of the country and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Will We Be Living in City-States in the Near Future? (IO9)
As we shift away from fossil fuels, there will be a few cultural changes that you might not expect. For one thing, political and economic power will become focused in cities rather than regions or states. That's what energy expert Joe Browder says in an intriguing essay. Browder, who consults with both companies and NGOs about changing energy policies, recently had a guest post on ecologist Daniel Botkin's blog. In it, he describes how cities will begin to produce their own fuel -- partly thanks to new energy sources, and partly thanks to developments in information technology. More future trends...

From the
publisher...

The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth About Insight, Innovation, and Success
By Alan Gregerman Read more...

iwnewsletter-12.20.htm[10/5/2013 8:55:40 AM]

A Web Resource... MIT Center for Civic Media - Bridging two established programs at MIT -- one known for inventing alternate technical futures, the other for identifying the cultural and social potential of media change -- the Center for Civic Media is a joint effort between the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. Multimedia... Introducing WildCat (Boston Dynamics) -WildCat is a four-legged robot being developed to run fast on all types of terrain. So far WildCat has run at about 16 mph on flat terrain using bounding and galloping gaits. The video shows WildCat's best performance so far. WildCat is being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA's M3 program. The Blogosphere... What Obama's Vision of OFA Means for Crowdfunding (MIT Center for Civic Media) - Rodrigo Davies "As the field of civic crowdfunding emerges and grows, it is spawning many competing visions of what the field is and where its appeal comes from. Lately I've been thinking about questions such as: how much is crowdfunding about community and shared values? How much is it about physical places? How much is it about a desire to participate and feel agency, and how much is it about ownership? It's unlikely to be just one of the above, and surely differs across contexts. But there are instances that present one vision over the others. Last week President Obama made a clear appeal to the last category, ownership, by tweeting this image about Organizing for Action."

Email:
future@innovationwatch.com

iwnewsletter-12.20.htm[10/5/2013 8:55:40 AM]