MaRS

Two ways of thinking: Darwin and Da Vinci

Charles Darwin, despite his momentous effect on the world of biology, was not a trained biologist. His knowledge of geology was what allowed him to think deeply about how things change over time. His intellectual curiosity brought him out of his field of study and onto the deck of a ship that travelled the world in search of the new. Upon his return, it was his collaboration with zoologist John Gould that allowed him to propose his revolutionary theory of natural selection.

“One thing we know about creativity,” says Marc Tucker, Head of the Washington-based National Center on Education and the Economy, “is that it typically occurs when people who have mastered two or more quite different fields use the framework in one to think afresh in the other.” Group-think is the enemy of innovation.

Incentives matter: Find the right carrot to encourage innovation

How can we create more major breakthroughs:  with more scientists and research projects or better incentives?

Fears that we could lose our competitive edge have pushed innovation to the forefront of economic strategies nowadays.  The holy grail of innovation is how to encourage game-changing innovation in addition to innovation that achieves incremental improvements.  Questions about how we can ensure future innovation usually call for increasing the number of innovators (i.e. promote science in schools!  Increase visa quotas!) or projects (i.e. more funding!).

But what if finding the right incentives for scientists, not just increasing the number of scientists or funded projects, was the answer to increasing innovation? Could you study research incentives themselves to see which ones produced the most breakthrough innovations?

I is for Innovation

When I attended the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX), I heard a wonderful keynote by Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and a passionate advocate for innovation.

So what exactly is innovation? We usually think of innovation as an “Aha!” moment (as Oprah would say) that an individual has. We think of Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone. We think of Thomas Edison and his many patented inventions (well over 1,000). But is this the reality of innovation? Buxton says no.

Looking for the next innvation generation

Innovation can happen at any age—that’s why the Ontario Science Centre (OSC), supported by The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, created the Weston Youth Innovation Award, an annual award program that recognizes an individual or group of teenagers who have come up with a great new idea to tackle a problem facing our planet.

What will it take to win the 2010 Weston Youth Innovation Award? Creativity, ingenuity and a commitment to creating a better Earth through science and/or technology.

Toronto: Vital to Canada's economic prospects

Trust the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to refresh the discussion about the competitiveness of Canadian cities. In a wide-ranging territorial review, the Paris-based think tank said that boosting innovation in the Toronto region is vital for improving Canada’s economic prospects.