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The first step in inventing something shouldn't be waiting for government approval. What would ever get done? "Regulators like to see new types of law and regulation imposed upon the internet and emerging technologies," warns Adam Thierer, author of "Permissionless Innovation." "From drones to driverless cars to the 'internet of things' ... they want to put the genie back in the bottle of all this wonderful innovation that's out there." "Think about 20 years ago. If Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, if Steve Jobs of Apple or anybody from Google had to come to the government, say, the Federal Communications Commission...

Innovation: We often hear that America’s best days are behind it, that the innovation that has bolstered our standard of living has come to an end. But — take a deep breath — it doesn’t have to be so. This idea has a long lineage. “Everything useful that can be invented already has been invented,” the U.S. Patent Commissioner, Charles Duell, is reported to have said... ...1899... ...news and commentary today are filled with the notion that the past 10 years have been some of the worst in history... ...the past 10 years have in fact been a time of...

President Barack Obama it putting in a few good words for the “spirit of innovation” that he says turns ideas into jobs and growth. He commented Monday before setting out on a tour of the Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial technology trade show, taking place in Hannover, Germany. The U.S. is sponsoring this year’s show and Obama says it’s another chance to urge people to buy “Made in America.” …

With lithium prices skyrocketing beyond wildest expectations, talk heating up about acquisitions and mergers in this space and a fast-brewing war among electric car rivals, it’s no wonder everyone’s bullish on this golden commodity that promises to become the ‘’new gasoline”. Moreover, land grabs, rising price predictions, and expectations of a major demand spike are leaping out of the shadows of a pending energy revolution and a new technology-driven resource era. For once, we have agreement across the board on a commodity: Demand for lithium will continue to rise throughout the year--and beyond--spurred by the rise of battery mega/gigafactories and...

The FDA denies approval to cures for diseases because of decades-old research standards that don’t make sense for today’s science. America has always been a pioneering place. It has spurred innovation and offered hope and opportunity to millions of people from around the world. Many of our greatest innovators have been doctors and researchers who have risked everything to save lives. Yet now scientists and patients are too frequently being denied the opportunity to advance medical cures. We continue to lose far too many of our loved ones to the “invisible graveyard,” as economist Alex Tabarrok has described: lives that...

When you think of tech innovation, places like Silicon Valley and Boston spring to mind. But flying under the world's radar is Switzerland, where inventions like a solar plane that just completed the longest solo-flight ever without fuel are born. And while Europe was busy debating bitcoin's future, Switzerland already opened up the region's first bitcoin ATM earlier this year. The country has managed to maintain its No. 1 ranking on the Global Innovation Index for four years in a row. Switzerland's résumé is definitely impressive: The country boasts the second-highest number of patents per person — second to Japan....

When I was 14, I built a clock. Rather than take apart a Radio Shack Micronta 63–765A and repackage it into a pencil box, I ordered a digital clock component from Newark Electronics. This component had the basic clock function with the display. I needed to build the power supply, solder in the switches, alarm, etc. Then put it in a case, not a pencil case, but a box suitable to put next to my bed. I was not trying to invent a portable clock.....

Apple could be working on its own augmented-reality technology, which would be a first for the company, according to Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster. Apple usually focuses on mainstream consumer products such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Munster has picked up on a few clues within the industry that indicate Apple could be working on some type of augmented reality device. For example, the company acquired a German augmented reality startup called Metaio earlier this year, which was reported back in May. Munster notes that Metaio owns 171 worldwide patents related to augmented reality technology, which would put Apple in 11th...

When it comes to farming, there is no better time than now to get into the field. Thanks to technological advances ushered in by the green movement, farming has evolved from a traditional means to sustain a personal living to a science with the potential to feed millions. The Inquisitr previously reported on how technology-assisted farming has become a blessing to others. Former NFL football player, Jason Brown, watched DIY videos on Youtube to learn how to grow 46,000 pounds of sweet potatoes and 10,000 pounds of cucumbers, which he donated to pantries and kitchens. In Irvine, California, an entire...

Tesla’s announcement last week about creating a new line of batteries for use by businesses, consumers, and the electrical grid at large is a game-changer for the industry. Currently, when individuals or companies need back-up power, they usually rely on generators. Effective battery storage for large amounts of energy would be a game changer in that it would enable a separation of generation and use of energy produced through clean fuels like solar and wind power. The big problem with solar and wind right now is that the energy is only useful when it is actually produced and, because a...

The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, April 23, held a subcommittee hearing on the impact of the medical device tax on jobs, innovation and patients. Since January 2013, manufacturers and importers of medical devices have faced a 2.3 percent excise tax to offset costs of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). During the hearing, Health Care Subcommittee Chairman Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) shared an example from his state as to the effects of the tax: "I’ve had the opportunity to visit a lot of medical device companies, and I plead with them to show me their books. Sometimes they do, and...

May be a long post to explain circumstances, but I will try to be brief in my explanation that all professors are not slobbering at zer0's every word. I graduated over 25 years ago from a major university with a degree in electrical engineering. I have worked my way up in many areas including terrestrial communications and satellite communications. Last year I got handed (at the last minute) an obligation to support a university project funded by my company.

The hubs of advanced manufacturing will be the economic drivers of the future because innovation increasingly depends on production expertise. ... Second, the idea popularized in the 1990s and 2000s that innovation can happen in one place (say, Silicon Valley) while manufacturing happens in another (such as China) is not broadly sustainable. If all the manufacturing is happening in China, these networks are growing there, meaning eventually all the innovation—or at least a lot of it—will be happening there too. ... Without manufacturing, “we lose capabilities in the workforce,” says Harvard’s Shih. “It limits what you are able to do...

In fairness to the public sector column, government is always coming up with innovative ways to confiscate our money.

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We all can agree that overregulation of an industry tends to chill innovative business strategies and ultimately harm the consumers the regulations were intended to protect. However, in pursuit of free market solutions, policymakers must craft public policy approaches that not only allow free markets to flourish but also protect consumers. State and local governments across the country are trying to find that balance as they explore regulations involving commercial ridesharing and ride-on-demand services, offered by transportation network companies (TNC) such as UberX, Lyft, and Sidecar. As previously noted here, these new services have put a new “hi-tech spin” on...

THE FUTURE OF GLASS - "AMAZING"! If you wonder why HP, Dell and other leading computer manufacturers believe the end of the computer as we know it is near, here’s why. It's not the iPad that has them concerned about the future. It is developments like the ones Corning is working on that are game-changers:

US scientists deplore ‘innovation deficit’ By Nuala Moran Scientists in the US remain the best funded in the world, but they say falling federal investment and cuts due to sequestration, coupled with the enormous resources other countries are lavishing on research, are creating an “innovation deficit”.The consequence, say the presidents of more than 200 US universities, will be fewer US scientific and technological breakthroughs, fewer US patents and fewer US start-ups, products and jobs. Investment in research is not inconsistent with deficit reduction, indeed it is vital to it, they said in an open letter to President Barack Obama...

The United States is the global leader in medical innovation. You can measure that by Nobel Prizes or biotech R&D or where breakthrough treatments are developed or commercialized. And as University of Michigan economist Miles Kimball points out, one reason healthcare spending is lower in other advanced economies is their ability to “ cheaply copy drugs and medical techniques developed in the US at great expense.” But healthcare innovation isn’t just about miracle drugs and cutting-edge technology. Innovation can happen in how healthcare services are delivered and paid for. And it is in this area that the Affordable Care Act...

The Rijksmuseum in Holland had an idea: Let's bring the art to the people and then, hopefully, they will come to see more - at the museum.