A couple of years ago, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a comment by Danny Williams to the effect that Max Ruelokke as head of the offshore regulatory board would be a really bad thing. How bad? Andy Wells would be better kinda bad. The hysteria surrounding that nationalist cause of t...

In November we went out to work on a new community-based conservation project in a remote area of Northwestern Namibia called the Caprivi Delta. The approach was that a group of 12 volunteers including Nicki and I would travel to a new base camp there and help the local scientists with their work on...

It was a chance conversation on March 23 1985 ("in the afternoon, as I recall") that first started Josh Silver on his quest to make the world's poor see. A professor of physics at Oxford University, Silver was idly discussing optical lenses with a colleague, wondering whether they might be adjusted ...

I provide below a schedule for the upcoming InnovationWell and eCheminfo Community of Practice meetings at Bryn Mawr. I also include a location map here which may be useful upon arrival: Download bryn_mawr_campus_map_douglas_connect_meeting.pdf [Please follow continuation here to view schedule.] Inn...

DEKA Research founder and Segway creator Dean Kamen comes to D6 to demonstrate his “Luke Arm” prosthesis. Named after the artificial limb worn by Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars,” the state-of-the-art bionic arm looks and feels to its user like his or her native arm. Walt and Ka...

Business & money: Manufacturing hardly seemed to matter in the boom years. But now UK exporters are benefiting from the weak pound and niche marketing...

Patent law is supposed to promote investment and trade, and contribute to economic growth, by providing a property right in the patented item. A new book by James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer, Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk , takes issue with assuming tha...

How many gardeners out there feel that large retailers such as Tesco, Sainsubury's, B&Q and maybe even the largest garden centres themselves, do not put enough, if anything, back into the research and development at grass roots level? These companies, and many more like them, are reaping rich reward...