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The First Spike

Applied Science, Entrepreneurship and the Future of Business – demand to live in a better world, not just dream about it.

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Ideas

The future of conferences

The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference wrapped up this week. It took place virtually. The media response was muted, with none of the absurdities to report from prior conferences, such as $1000 per night rooms, coffee tables for $300 per hour,

Sam January 17, 2021January 17, 2021 Healthcare innovation, Ideas Read more

A new reading strategy for a changing world

I believe the world order—geopolitically, technologically, economically—will change noticeably within the next ten years. Making ambitious business and investment decisions ahead of these changes requires good information. The challenge we all face is confirmation bias. We choose our sources of

Sam January 3, 2021January 3, 2021 Entrepreneurial mindset, Future of science practice and careers, Ideas Read more

J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference as a case study

The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference wrapped up last Thursday. Simply called “J.P. Morgan” to those in the life science industry, this is a highly-attended annual investor conference held in San Francisco every January. Each year, there has been increasing criticism

Sam January 19, 2020January 24, 2020 Case studies of startup companies, Healthcare innovation, Ideas Read more

The data infrastructure of a lab and its impact on science and on social innovation

Research labs are handling increasing volumes of data coming from new instruments that continue to get more sophisticated and powerful. This means that the data infrastructure of a lab will be increasingly critical to its operation. As labs develop their

Sam January 1, 2020February 9, 2020 Future of science practice and careers, Ideas, Science and technology policy Read more

“What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

There are times when one needs to choose a direction for the future, and the eventual outcome of that choice will be very important. In these instances, following the crowd may not be the best choice. This can apply to

Sam November 23, 2019November 23, 2019 Economic development, Ideas Read more

Make a difference with an idea that inspires the imagination

Thirty years ago, on the evening of Thursday November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall started to fall. Why do I mention this in a blog about science and entrepreneurship? For an entrepreneur tapping into any idea, the greatest of those

Sam November 11, 2019November 12, 2019 Ideas Read more

Bioprospecting (part 3) – future opportunities

A sustainable future will certainly include technologies based on microbes and small organisms. These will be found through bioprospecting. The previous post described the first two cycles of innovation derived from bioprospecting. It came from fungal and bacterial products applied

Sam October 7, 2019October 8, 2019 Case studies of startup companies, Ideas, Technology scouting Read more

Prospecting for algae, fungi and bacteria – part 1

Algae is a potentially sustainable source of production for materials ranging from food ingredients to fuel. Algae produce a large range of different oils and natural products. Their bioproduction is prolific. For example, crude oil is theorized to be derived

Sam July 14, 2019September 29, 2019 Case studies of startup companies, Ideas, Technology scouting Read more

Death in the rainforest

My heart is heavy after learning of the story behind the cruelty dealt to a mother orangutan and the death of her baby. The sad story is described here. I will quote from that article the painful details: Palm oil

Sam July 5, 2019September 22, 2019 Economic development, Ideas Read more

Open innovation challenges for Earth Day

For Earth Day, I will present some open innovation challenges. These challenges may be of interest to game designers, or to anyone interested in disrupting a traditional industry with a new model of user experience, or to anyone studying pheromones,

Sam April 22, 2019June 6, 2019 Ideas Read more
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About this site

This website is about applied science, entrepreneurship and the future of business. The intention is to connect with those who demand to live in a better world, and who are working to do that, so that we can do it together.

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My other blogs

Leading a life sciences business delegation to Asia: 2009 – 2010

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