The Australian Innovation Community

There are important lessons to be learned from the Great Depression but I have the impression that the left emerged with the view that the New Deal was required to save the US from rampant capitalism. There is an alternative account. For an MP3 version of the story.

Couples struggling to conceive should move their focus out of the bedroom and on to the beach, new fertility research suggests.

The same cells electric eels use to shock predators and prey could be engineered to power implanted biomedical devices, say US researchers.

New Zealand, Finland, Ireland and Australia are the most efficient producers of top universities, according to a University World News analysis of the latest THE-QS ranking of the world’s top 500 universities.

Research, development and innovation (RD&I;) is set to be boosted in Spain as the country’s ministry for science and innovation announced its national RD&I; plan for the 2008-2011 period. The plan will award over €47 billion to RD&I; projects over four years, double that of the preceding four-year period.

Australian medical researcher Ian Frazer has won a major international prize in Italy.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, today announced Australian Government funding of $1 million over the next three years to support international research engagement for the humanities and social sciences.

Outstanding researchers from Australia and around the world will be attracted to work in Australian universities under a new Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme, announced today by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr.

The basic technology used in cheap 3D postcards and novelty items has been adapted to create six-dimensional images that respond to changes in light and the viewer's direction.

Nicole Kuepper, a 23 year old solar cell scientist, has been voted Australia’s favourite scientist in the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes People’s Choice Award.

Australia will play a role in the biggest ever international effort to unlock the genetic secrets of cancer.

I just clicked on Amazon’s ‘add to my shopping cart’ and got told that four books had changed price.  Usually they have gone up.  Or that’s been my experience.  But things are a-changing as you can see from the excerpt below.  Is this deflation, increasing copying, competition from free content on the net.  Who knows.  But it - and the fact that some of the prices are such odd numbers - are perhaps signs of the times.

Here is today’s column for the Financial Review.
Patently there’s a problem
As Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so”.
Our biggest mistakes often come when we’re most untroubled by our logic – even when it’s wrong! For decades we’ve been applying this syllogism: Intellectual property (IP) stimulates innovation and creativity. Therefore stronger IP generates more.

Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device.

Andrew Downs will share the passion, insights and experiences he has gained from leading the SAGE Group, one of the most successful technology businesses to emerge from South Australia during the past decade.

In his presentation, Andrew will discuss his insights and experiences from managing the trajectory of a fast growth company including:

• Building a management team and keeping it aligned
• Playing to your strengths and delegating or recruiting to backfill any skill gaps
• How to thrive from, not just survive, a business “near death experience”.

Before John McCain and Barack Obama say another word about America's energy future, maybe they should go to Denmark.

Denmark has done what other countries only dream of doing: achieved energy independence. While Europe's overall energy imports rose 2.4% in 2006, Denmark's energy imports fell to -8%. In fact, the European Union as a whole scores 54% on the scale of energy dependency. Denmark scores -37%.

"Denmark is the model that the United States should be following," said Steve Pullins, executive director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Modern Grid Initiative.

... A day later, I flew back to Denmark. After appointments here in Copenhagen, I was riding in a car back to my hotel at the 6 p.m. rush hour. And boy, you knew it was rush hour because 50 percent of the traffic in every intersection was bicycles. That is roughly the percentage of Danes who use two-wheelers to go to and from work or school every day here. If I lived in a city that had dedicated bike lanes everywhere, including one to the airport, I’d go to work that way, too. It means less traffic, less pollution and less obesity.

A pair of British researchers has come up with a theory of how to design a material that would help you avoid detection by making light reflect back towards the viewer.

I’ve made various suggestions about the possible terrificness of open source approaches to government, for instance here.

By Philip SiefertFor companies to "go green," they need solutions that positively impact the environment without raising costs or sacrificing productivity.However, to make an impact, we all need to take personal action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The longer we wait the more difficult it is going to be.  The point is to get started doing something now.  So I say, accept that this rebellion is real and realise that the time for taking action on global warming is not tomorrow, not even today, but this very minute.