This power source is 15,000 ft below the ground | Bill Gates

A company called Fervo Energy is hoping to supercharge geothermal power with an innovative new approach to turning the earth’s heat into power.

Ford and the Birth of the Model T

Ford’s status as a large-volume car producer began with the predecessor to the Model T: the Model N, a four-cylinder, two-seater car initially priced at $500. At the time, the average car in the US cost more than $2,000, and it seemed nearly unimaginable that a car with the…

‘Bubbles’ turn air into drinkable water

An atmospheric water harvester based on an origami-inspired hydrogel works anywhere—even Death Valley.

Can Wood Replace Steel? Chemically Modified Superwood Makes a Bold Case

InventWood just cracked the code on something that sounds like science fiction. They've figured out how to make wood stronger than steel by restructuring it at the molecular level. This isn't your typical engineered lumber story. We're talking about a material that delivers 50%…

The Rise of Shippable Microfactories

Can microfactories solve prefab's economic problem by inverting the factory model?

Age of Invention: All Fired Up

The mystifying, centuries-long failure of the coal briquette

Making the Centrifuge

The modern centrifuge was first designed for milkfat separation in the dairy industry. Today, it is ubiquitous in research laboratories. To whom do we owe its astonishing versatility?

Brian Potter on what he has learned writing Construction Phyics - Marginal REVOLUTION

Individual construction tasks have, on average, not gotten cheaper since at least the 1950s. Bricks haven’t gotten cheaper since the mid-19th century, despite massive improvements in brickmaking technology. Construction has a reputation for being slow to innovate, but…

Steam networks - Works in Progress

New York's skyscrapers soar above a century-old steam network that still warms the city. While the rest of the world moved to hot water, Manhattanites still buy steam by the megapound.

Why it's so hard to build a jet engine

Civilization's toughest technical challenges are those that require extraordinary (and constantly improving) performance to be delivered at a low cost.

The Influence of Bell Labs

We’ve talked previously about Bell Labs’ long, storied history as an innovation engine and a generator of new technology.

The Long Strange History of Teflon the Indestructible Product Nothing See

Chemists accidentally discovered the material in 1938, and since then it has been used for everything from helping to create the first atomic bomb to keeping your eggs from sticking to your frying pan

Book Review: Refrigeration and the Many Virtues of the Cold Chain

Nicola Twilley’s "Frostbite" explores how refrigeration has shaped everything over time from our guts to economies.

Lessons from history’s greatest R&D labs – Answer.AI

A historical analysis of what the earliest electrical and great applied R&D labs can teach Answer.AI, and potential pitfalls

What Happened to the US Machine Tool Industry?

Machine tools – machines that cut or form metal – are the heart of industrial civilization.

This holographic camera turns any window into an invisible camera

Zeiss' "Holocam" is a transparent camera powered by holography that turns glass windows into cameras

When ideas have sex

At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Atomera Plans to Breathe New Life into Older Chip Manufacturing

Atom-thin layers of oxygen in a chip’s silicon can make devices speedier and more reliable

The World Is Full of Sleeping Beauties

Success in nature and culture depends just as much on timing as it does on brilliance.

Magnetohydrodynamic Drive – Silent Water Propulsion

DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is now working on developing a magnet-driven silent water propulsion system - the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) drive. The primary reason is to develop silent military naval craft. Imagine a nuclear submarine with an MHD…

The Story of Titanium - by Brian Potter

The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust.

Surgical patch seals wounds and warns of leaks

A new surgical patch can seal wounds in the abdomen and send warning of potential leaks.

Steve Jobs, Rick Rubin and "taste"

The Apple co-founder and the super-producer share similar ideas regarding taste and creativity.

Watching Paint Dry - by Ed Conway - Material World

The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings and what they tell us about the modern world

The Four-Horse Race to Decarbonize Steel: Strategies, Innovations

Discover the 'four-horse race' among leading manufacturers to decarbonized steel their operations. Explore the strategies and technologies.

Women’s Basketball Continues Slump

SB Loses Shootout to Manhattan On Nov. 24 Stony Brook’s Women’s Basketball team faced the Manhattan Jasper’s. In a high scoring affair, Stony Brook lost by a final score of 74-68. The Jasper’s held the lead most of the game, including a game high 12 point lead at half (44-32).

The blast furnace - 800 years of technology improvement

The modern world uses shocking amounts of steel.

The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler: Hager…

The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler [Hager, Thomas] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific…

Should You Invest in Disruptive Materials?

Opportunities and Challenges for Carbon Nanotube Transistors

A new technical review paper titled “Carbon nanotube transistors: Making electronics from molecules” was published by researchers at Duke University, Northwestern University, and Stanford University. “Between the opportunities in high-performance digital logic with the potential…

When should we be surprised that an invention took “so long”?

The question is only interesting if it took an abnormally long time. Here’s my model for this

Life in the Slow Lane

Olivia Potts | Longreads | November 2022 | 16 minutes (4,649 words) It’s six in the morning, and Robert Booth has already been on the road for three hours. Sitting alongside him in the cab of his lorry (the British term for a truck) is Louis, Robert’s small dog, a Jack…

Why Was Western Printing Superior to Asian Printing?

Movable type was not invented by Gutenberg but in China and later advanced in Korea, so why didn't Asia have a printing revolution?

Every Complex Idea Has a Million Stupid Cousins

Chances are, you've met far more stupid cousins than you realize

The Key to Successful Innovation? Progress Over Product

Tap into people's unspoken needs to create breakthrough innovations.

Making Uncommon Knowledge Common - kwokchain

The Rich Barton Playbook for winning markets through Data Content Loops Preface: This is part of a longer private memo analyzing Zillow and its recent shift towards Opendoor’s model. May publish rest of memo at some later point. But wanted to share first part, on Rich Barton and…

Etsy's A/B Testing Culture Spurs Mobile Innovation | Apptimize

We spoke with Etsy’s iOS Software Engineer, Lacy Rhoades, about their culture of continuous experimentation. Learn about their a/b testing culture

Where Do Eureka Moments Come From?

Sometimes the search for creative insight requires us to focus, and sometimes it requires us to look away.

13 tips for generating new ideas | Canva

Feeling uninspired? Learn how to stay creative and keep on generating new ideas with these 13 simple yet effective tips.

Steve Blank Fear of Failure and Lack of Speed In a Large Corporation

I just spent a day working with Bob, the Chief Innovation Officer of a very smart large company I’ll call Acme Widgets. Bob summarized Acme’s impediments to innovation. “At our company we have a cu…

The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures

Innovative cultures are generally depicted as pretty fun. They’re characterized by a tolerance for failure and a willingness to experiment. They’re seen as being psychologically safe, highly collaborative, and nonhierarchical. And research suggests that these behaviors translate…

Liquidity hacking: Solving the chicken-egg dilemma with marketplace startups

Guest How to get a two-sided marketplace startup like Airbnb, Exec, or eBay up and running -- the painless way.

Repair is as important as innovation

Maintenance lacks the glamour of innovation—and is harder to measure

The Magnet That Made the Modern World

Masato Sagawa and John Croat explain how they invented the neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet

How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive

Thicker ink meant it didn't smudge as easily as its predecessor, the fountain pen—but it also made writing by hand more physically demanding.

Choose Boring Technology

Why people hated shopping carts when they first came out | CNN Business

We live in a world shaped by shopping carts. The ubiquitous, unloved contraptions are a key feature of US economy. (Yes, really.)

3D-printed acoustic holograms against Alzheimer's or Parkinson's

The holograms designed by the team of researchers from UPV and CSIC allow the opening of the blood brain barrier selectively, efficiently and in a highly focused manner, facilitating the administration of therapeutic drugs to treat pathologies that affect the central nervous…

How polyester bounced back - Works in Progress

Polyester went from being the world’s most hated fabrics to one of its favorites. It's so successful that many people don’t even realize they’re wearing polyester today.

The complete guide to the battery revolution

Whoever comes up with the next big battery technology could become the ExxonMobil or Shell of the 21st century.