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The designs of some of our greatest inventions are inspired by nature – from imitating birds to build flying machines, leaves to design solar panels, or brains to construct the neural networks behind AI. This concept of taking a leaf from nature's design book is called "biomimicry".  But we've only just scratched the surface of this vast encyclopedia of design inspiration. The natural world is the most advanced Research & Development lab in existence. It has spent billions of

From eyes that see over a million different colours to ears that detect a staggering range of frequencies, the human senses are incredible. But none can hold a candle to the most powerful part of our sensory system: the brain. The human brain does the most impressive feat of data analysis imaginable – decoding electrical impulses from all over the body and combining them to create the rich, multi-modal experience we call reality. But what if a connection fails, and a sense is

Welcome to the second part of my article on microchips. Part one covered the invention of the transistor and a brief history of the microchip. Now, let’s bring things into the present with a look at how and where microchips are made today, their place in modern geopolitics and what might happen when we finally reach the limit of Moore’s Law. The most complex engineering process ever invented As microchips have got ever-smaller, the machines required to manufacture them have g

Advances in technology over the past century have been staggering. It took just 66 years to progress from launching the first airplane to landing on the moon. Life-changing new smart gadgets, revolutions in communication and miraculous medicines now come so thick and fast that we almost take them for granted. What has driven this incredible rate of innovation? It all comes down to a tiny piece of technology: the transistor.  Our ability to keep making these transistors smalle

As technologies go, printing can feel fairly mundane and uninspiring. Sure, some impressive things are being done with 3D printing but that can feel pretty remote when you’re trying to fix yet another paper jam. What if I told you that printing might be on the verge of a huge breakthrough which would herald a revolution in medical science and save tens of thousands of lives a year? What if instead of just churning out paper and plastic, our printers could print… us? That’s th

Here’s a cheery question: what medical condition claims more lives than any other? The answer might surprise you. It’s not cancer, heart disease or strokes. It’s old age. That may sound a bit ridiculous – old age isn’t a disease, it’s just a fact of life. Right? But what if old age isn’t as inevitable as we think? Recent advances in medical science might help us to push back old age and even bring the idea of "eternal youth" out of the realm of fantasy and into the real world

Remember the time they changed the recipe of your favourite chocolate bar for no good reason? After sticking with its familiar squares of purple-wrapped chocolate for more than 100 years, the folks at Cadbury felt the full force of public fury back in 2012 when they rounded off the corners of Dairy Milk – with many decrying “cultural vandalism” over what was perceived to be the chocolate’s new, sweeter taste. The kicker? The recipe hadn’t changed! Watching from the sidelines,

The climate. You probably know a thing or two about where it's heading (somewhere bad), but you're not entirely sure how to improve it. After all, you're just one person. Do actions like recycling and using smart energy meters make that much difference? Is there a right and a wrong way to improve the environment? These questions and more are the focus of How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, written by the one and only Bill Gat

Compared to Hollywood’s portrayal, life in the 21st century can sometimes feel a bit of a let-down. Where are the cities full of driverless cars? The hand-held lasers? The robotic killing machines who’ll stop at nothing to topple their human overlords? Ok, maybe not that last one... But what if some of these things are much closer to being realised than we thought? Enter LiDAR – short for Light Detection And Ranging. LiDAR scanners bounce laser beams off objects to calculate

In the late 19th century, America was gripped by an engineering battle that would forever change the world. In the "war of the currents," inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse (with some help from Nikola Tesla) raced to find the best way to bring electricity to cities and industries. Edison favoured a system called direct current (DC) while Westinghouse championed alternating current (AC). After a brutal fight, the latter won out, the world adopted AC, and the rest

As company mantras go, Amazon’s "always day one" is a thinker. Does it infer progress is slow? That you’ll perpetually feel out of your depth? Perhaps a Groundhog Day of sorts, drowning in a sea of acronyms like ACS, ASIN and HOTW… On the contrary, those three words are considered to be inspirational. It’s the reason you’ll find "still day one" and the like on the LinkedIn posts of Amazonians celebrating their five, 10 and 15-year work anniversaries. It’s not a meaningless mo

If you were listing the innovators who had the biggest influence on the world in the past 50 years, the name Steve Jobs would likely come close to the top. You might be tapping out this list on the Notes app of your iPhone, or dictating it to Siri through your Apple Watch. Even if you don’t have a house full of products with a shiny fruit-based logo, Jobs’ impact transforming how we use computers and consume music, news and film in the 21st century is undeniable. 11 years on

For many of us, the concept of nuclear power can sound a bit scary. We hear the word "nuclear" and images of mushroom clouds, Chernobyl or other more recent disasters spring to mind. And it’s not a completely irrational response – when thing go wrong with nuclear, they go very wrong. But it got me wondering – might we take a more rounded view of the pros, cons and untapped potential of nuclear power if we had a better understanding of how it works? We set ourselves the chall

When you think of market research, you might picture wannabe-entrepreneurs from The Apprentice conducting their so-called “focus groups”; scrawling down notes about biscuit preferences from pre-school children and their parents.  Typically, contestants skirt over any negative feedback and continue full steam ahead with their nonsense concepts. It makes for great entertainment (“what were they thinking?!”) but does little for the reputation of customer research. Market resea

In January 2021, Top Gear website introduced a “cute” mobile charging robot. I must admit the accompanying images leave me in two minds. On the one hand, it is pretty cute – it looks to have a personality, like a bulked up, streamlined version of R2-D2 or Johnny 5 (if you’re old enough to remember that far back).  On the other hand, it’s kind of sinister. There’s something about its blinking digital “eyes” and waiting for you behind a wall in an underground car park that gi

When you think of virtual reality combat simulations, I expect you’ll picture video games. A fully immersive version of Call of Duty , perhaps? Solitary folk in their high-backed chairs barking orders from beneath their VR headsets? But we’re not talking fun and games here. We’re talking about the Royal Navy’s cutting-edge training programme. You had to be there... In January 2021, Wired published a behind-the-scenes article exploring the Navy’s futuristic training centre.

What do hedgehogs, foxes, birds and frogs have in common? Give up? Well, they’re all used to explain the importance of having range. David Epstein’s 2019 book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World makes for a fascinating read, introducing various analogies to explain why having a breadth of knowledge and experience is so vital. Predicting the future Let’s start with the hedgehogs and foxes. Referencing Philip Tetlock’s well-known nicknames, Epstein explains t

With temperatures continuing to rise around the world, it’s clear we’ll need to rely on something other than rain dances to fend off droughts.  That’s where 'cloud seeding' comes in – a type of weather modification that typically aims to increase the amount of rain or snow. According to a March 2021 article in The Guardian : Cloud seeding involves using aircraft or drones to add small particles of silver iodide, which have a structure similar to ice, to clouds. Water droplets

When I think of farming, I picture tractors, wellington boots, hay bales and an awful lot of hard work. A farm would be one of the last places I’d consider to be futuristic. But I’d be wrong. Agritech start-ups around the world are on a mission to reinvent farming. And yes, we’re talking robots. In December 2020, Intelligent Living published an article detailing how a two-acre vertical farm run by artificial intelligence and robots out-produced a 720-acre flat farm. That’s q

In January 2021, the BBC reported that stationery chain Paperchase was on the brink of administration. It was sad news for anyone with a penchant for avocado-themed greetings cards, but worse news for the company’s 1,500 employees. Thankfully, 1,000 or so jobs were saved when Aspen Phoenix Newco, backed by Permira Debt Managers, stepped in as buyers.  Still, 27 stores were permanently closed, leading many to question where did it all go wrong for Paperchase? They have an on