Patent of the Month – Self-Replicating Materials

Darrell Mann

Here’s one we first started tracking back in 2012. Most ‘self-‘ solutions are interesting. This one seemed to offer up more than most. The ultimate factory! Now, as of December 8, the patent has been granted. US9,206,471 was … Read More

Best of The Month – The Place Of Prejudice

Darrell Mann

Here’s one we missed last year. Strange that we did, given the highly paradescent title. Prejudice is always a bad thing, right? How could it possibly have ‘a place’ anywhere?

Even the scantest of internet searches will immediately … Read More

Patent of the Month – Negative Refractive Index Meta-Materials

Darrell Mann

Patent of the month this month takes into another foray into the realm of so-called ‘negative materials’. Or, as seems to be becoming more popular, ‘left-handed materials’. Which has a certain ring to it, if you happen to … Read More

Best of The Month – Radical Help

Darrell Mann

I had the very good fortune this month to hear this month’s Best Of The Month author speak at a Summit held by the Welsh Government for 250 of its leaders. One of the themes of the day … Read More

Best of The Month – The Hidden Order Of Art

Darrell Mann

Such has been our desperation to find something – anything! – to recommend this month, we’ve found ourselves digging a long way back into business literature history. We ended up going back over fifty years to 1967. But … Read More

Patent of the Month – Bioelectrochemical Bioremediation

Darrell Mann

Some months are better than others. Some weeks are better than others. The first week of September saw a swarm of below-average patents. The second week, on the other hand gave us several candidates for this Patent of … Read More

Patent of the Month – Joining Dissimilar Materials

Darrell Mann

Our patent of the month this month takes us to a quartet of inventors at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Washington State. US10,369,748 was awarded to the team on August 6. The invention takes us on a rare … Read More

Best of The Month – Never Split The Difference

Darrell Mann

For a long while, my ‘go-to’ book when it came to negotiation theory was the same go-to book as the rest of the world, ‘Getting To Yes’ by Fisher and Ury. At the same time, I also know … Read More

Best of The Month – Hooked

Darrell Mann

Something of a controversial choice this month. ‘Hooked’ is pretty much the playbook for Silicon Valley start-ups intent on addicting customers to their products. The reason why seventy-nine percent of smartphone owners check their devices within fifteen minutes … Read More

Patent of the Month – Plasmonic Structures

Darrell Mann

We head to the University of Manchester for our patent of the month this month. US10,345,490 was granted on July 9 to a trio of inventors, two of whom are Nobel-Prize winners. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novos won … Read More

Best of The Month – Crisis & Renewal

Darrell Mann

As it becomes more and more difficult to find new business books to recommend to ezine readers, we’re forced to make more and more forays into the past to look for lost classics. That search, too, becomes less … Read More

Patent of the Month – Fusion Power (Almost)

Darrell Mann

For the most part, the words ‘nuclear’ and ISIS don’t really belong in the same sentence these days. Fortunately, the ISIS in question here is ISIS Innovation Ltd, an offshoot of Oxford University. I’m assuming the company was … Read More

Patent of the Month – Strengthening Member

Darrell Mann

We head to the Motor City for our patent of the month this month, to a trio of inventors at Ford. Their strengthening-member patent, US10,279, 842, was granted on 7 May. Here’s what the trio has to say … Read More

Best of The Month – Zucked

Darrell Mann

“Move Fast, Break Things”. The Facebook corporate motto. An, as it turns out, iconic example of reaping what you sow. A strategy that Roger McNamee amply demonstrates, not only allowed the most rapid rise of any corporate entity … Read More

Patent of the Month – Nerve Stimulation Method

Darrell Mann

Our patent of the month this month takes us to the New Jersey-based enterprise, Electrocore LLC. US10,252,074 was granted to a trio of inventors at the company on 10 April. The company has been around and offering non-invasive … Read More

Best of The Month – The Science Of Storytelling

Darrell Mann

Budding authors have literally hundreds of books to choose from if they’re looking for ‘help’ to make their writing better. Nearly all of them seem to be weak imitations of Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero With A Thousand Faces’, or … Read More

Patent of the Month – Microbial Fuel Cell

Darrell Mann

Microbial fuel-cells (MFC) have been around for over a century now, but they’ve never quite made the grade in terms of practical, commercially viable applications. Which is perhaps odd given the fact that they offer the potential to … Read More

Best of The Month – Lost Connections

Darrell Mann

This month’s book choice fits into the psychology end of the innovation story. It’s also about the Big Pharma industry and how their urge to sell drugs rather than cure patients ends up creating far bigger problems than … Read More

Patent of the Month – Fabric Supercapacitor

Darrell Mann

Our patent of the month this month takes us to Austin, and a trio of inventors at the University of Texas. US10,199,180 was granted on February 5. Here’s what the background description has to say about the problem … Read More

Best of The Month – The Private Life

Darrell Mann

In Henry James’s 1893 short story “The Private Life”, the narrator makes alarming discoveries about two members of his holiday party while holed up in a village in the Swiss Alps. After an evening spent listening to the … Read More