Innovation Watch - Fast Forward

The New Geography of Jobs (Leonard Lopate)

iw — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:34:02 +0000

MP3 U.C. Berkely economist Enrico Moretti examines the factors reshaping America’s labor market—from globalization and income inequality to immigration and technology—and how these shifts are affecting our communities. His book The New Geography of Jobs draws on a wealth of stimulating new studies to outline policies that may address the social challenges that are arising. (35m 42s) … [Leonard Lopate]

Paul Zak – The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity (Leonard Lopate)

iw — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:47:27 +0000

MP3 Paul Zak tells us about oxytocin, a chemical messenger that accounts for why some people are generous, trustworthy, and faithful and others aren’t. His book The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity looks at decades of research on what oxytocin is and how it works. (31m 43s) … [Leonard Lopate]

John Long: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology (Quirks and Quarks)

iw — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:59:03 +0000

MP3 One of the important differences between animals and robots is that animals are the product of evolution – a couple of billion years of mutation, variation and selection. Robots, on the other hand, are designed – a product of engineering drawings, computer programs and sophisticated manufacturing. Dr. John Long, a professor of Biology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, has been working to change that. Dr. Long’s work is in evolving robots. He’s not trying to create a new breed of robots that will take over the world. He’s attempting to model the early evolution of vertebrates by duplicating that process in simple robots. His new book is Darwin’s Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology. (15m 26s) … [Quirks and Quarks]

Gamers & Genomics: Crowdsourcing DNA Research (The World)

iw — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:54:01 +0000

MP3 People around the world spend an estimated 3 billion hours playing computer games every week. That might seem like a colossal waste of time, but scientists are starting to harness some of that effort to solve vexing problems in biology. Take, for example, a game developed by a pair of scientists in Canada. Ari Daniel Shapiro of our partner program NOVA reports. (5m 24s) … [The World]

Gold Miners Dig Deep — To The Ocean Floor (All Things Considered)

iw — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:13:03 +0000

MP3 An Australian company will start mining for copper, gold, silver and zinc on the seafloor off the shore of Papua New Guinea. People have thought about mining the seafloor’s mineral wealth for many decades. But now, a combination of high metal prices and sophisticated technology is making that possible. Nautilus Minerals of Australia has a license from Papua New Guinea to mine a site the size of 21 football fields for its rich deposits. The minerals are found there in very high concentrations, because a natural hot spring on the seafloor has been laying them down for thousands of years. Samantha Smith, the vice president for corporate responsibility at the company, says it’s an operation that involves remotely piloted vehicles prowling around a mile under the surface. (4m 50s) [All Things Considered]

Akash Kapur: A Portrait of Life in Modern India (Leonard Lopate)

iw — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:03:47 +0000

MP3 Akash Kapur, the child of an Indian father and an American mother, spent his formative years in India and his young adulthood in the United States. He talks about moving to India permanently in 2003 to watch the country’s growth and modernization first-hand. In his new book, India Becoming: A Portrait of Life in Modern India, he describes the complex and often contradictory country that he found. (32m 3s) … [Leonard Lopate]

‘How Creativity Works’: It’s All In Your Imagination (All Things Considered)

iw — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:58:39 +0000

MP3 What makes people creative? What gives some of us the ability to create work that captivates the eyes, minds and hearts of others? Jonah Lehrer, a writer specializing in neuroscience, addresses that question in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. Lehrer defines creativity broadly, considering everything from the invention of masking tape to breakthroughs in mathematics; from memorable ad campaigns to Shakespearean tragedies. He finds that the conditions that favor creativity — our brains, our times, our buildings, our cities — are equally broad. (8m 19s) [All Things Considered]

Smart Phones, Hybrid Cars, and the Global Competition for “Rare Earth Elements” (Kojo Nnamdi)

iw — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:50:02 +0000

Windows Media “Rare earth elements” are essential raw materials for today’s smart phones, wind turbines, and hybrid car batteries. Today, more than 90% of “rare earths” like lanthanum and neodymium come from China. The United States recently asked the World Trade Organization to investigate whether China is abusing that market dominance. Kojo Nnamdi explores the science and politics of “rare earth” materials. (52m 54s) [Kojo Nnamdi]

Is Digital Privacy Possible? (BBC)

iw — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:40:45 +0000

MP3 Digital shadows: when you search the internet or pay with a credit card, do you ever wonder who might be snooping over your shoulder, mining the data about you that leaks out? Increasingly, computers and algorithms don’t need human intervention while monitoring and piecing together the secrets of our lives from the scraps of information which we unwittingly leave behind in cyberspace. So does this mean that privacy has become obsolete? Joining Bridget Kendall are IBM Chief Scientist Jeff Jonas, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, UK government’s adviser on digital data, and ground-breaking electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. (41m) … [BBC]

Vijay Vaitheeswaran: The New Rules of Innovation (Leonard Lopate)

iw — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:14:10 +0000

MP3 Vijay Vaitheeswaran, correspondent for the Economist, discusses why the benefits of globalization haven’t been shared fairly among all people, and comes up with some ideas for how they can be. His book Need, Speed, and Greed: How the New Rules of Innovation Can Transform Businesses, Propel Nations to Greatness, and Tame the World’s Most Wicked Problems investigates how the extraordinary benefits of the innovation revolution be shared more equitably among all of society. (33m 44s) … [Leonard Lopate]

Adrian Bejan: The Nature of Design (Tech Nation)

iw — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:42:37 +0000

MP3… Dr. Moira Gunn learns more about the perspective of flows from Duke professor Adrian Bejan, author of Design in Nature. (34m) [Tech Nation]

Insiders or Outsiders: Who Can Drive Change? (BBC)

iw — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:41:37 +0000

MP3 Who drives change more effectively in our world: the insider working from within the establishment, or the maverick outsider? Voices from government, science and business discuss how to effect change within their fields. Does government tend to cling to the status quo, to preserve its power; should it welcome fresh ideas from science and business to meet the challenges of our age? With independent diplomat Carne Ross, cosmologist Lord Martin Rees and business supremo Simon Walker – plus a lively audience of opinion formers and business leaders. … [BBC]