Innovation is about finding a better way of doing something. Like many of the new development buzzwords (which many of them are over-used on many business documents), the concept of innovation originates from the world of business. It refers to the generation of new products through the process of creative entrepreneurship, putting it into production, and diffusing it more widely through increased sales. Innovation can be viewed as t he application of better solutions that meet new requirements, in-articulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.
Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation article points out that there is a form of ignorance which seems to be universal: the inability to understand the concept and role of innovation. The way this is exhibited is in the misuse of the term and the inability to discern the difference between novelty, creation, invention and innovation. The result is a failure to understand the causes of success and failure in business and hence the conditions that lead to economic growth. The definition of innovation is easy to find but it seems to be hard to understand. Here is a simple taxonomy of related activities that put innovation in context:
- Novelty: Something new
- Creation: Something new and valuable
- Invention: Something new, having potential value through utility
- Innovation: Something new and uniquely useful
The taxonomy is illustrated with the following diagram.
The differences are also evident in the mechanisms that exist to protect the works: Novelties are usually not protectable, Creations are protected by copyright or trademark, Inventions can be protected for a limited time through patents (or kept secret) and Innovations can be protected through market competition but are not defensible through legal means.
Innovation is a lot of talked about nowdays as essential to businesses to do. Is innovation essential for development work? article tells that innovation has become central to the way development organisations go about their work. In November 2011, Bill Gates told the G20 that innovation was the key to development. Donors increasingly stress innovation as a key condition for funding, and many civil society organisations emphasise that innovation is central to the work they do.
Some innovation ideas are pretty simple, and some are much more complicated and even sound crazy when heard first. The is place for crazy sounding ideas: venture capitalists are gravely concerned that the tech startups they’re investing in just aren’t crazy enough:
Not all development problems require new solutions, sometimes you just need to use old things in a slightly new way. Development innovations may involve devising technology (such as a nanotech water treatment kit), creating a new approach (such as microfinance), finding a better way of delivering public services (such as one-stop egovernment service centres), identifying ways of working with communities (such as participation), or generating a management technique (such as organisation learning).
Theorists of innovation identify innovation itself as a brief moment of creativity, to be followed by the main routine work of producing and selling the innovation. When it comes to development, things are more complicated. Innovation needs to be viewed as tool, not master. Innovation is a process, not a one time event. Genuine innovation is valuable but rare.
There are many views on the innovation and innvation process. I try to collect together there some views I have found on-line. Hopefully they help you more than confuze. Managing complexity and reducing risk article has this drawing which I think pretty well describes innovation as done in product development:
8 essential practices of successful innovation from The Innovator’s Way shows essential practices in innovation process. Those practices are all integrated into a non-sequential, coherent whole and style in the person of the innovator.
In the IT work there is lots of work where a little thinking can be a source of innovation. Automating IT processes can be a huge time saver or it can fail depending on situation. XKCD comic strip Automation as illustrates this:
System integration is a critical element in project design article has an interesting project cost influence graphic. The recommendation is to involve a system integrator early in project design to help ensure high-quality projects that satisfy project requirements. Of course this article tries to market system integration services, but has also valid points to consider.
Core Contributor Loop (CTTDC) from Art Journal blog posting Blog Is The New Black tries to link inventing an idea to theory of entrepreneurship. It is essential to tune the engine by making improvements in product, marketing, code, design and operations.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Jättitutkimus: Liha- ja maitotuotteet eivät lisääkään kuolemanriskiä – tulos päinvastainen
https://www.stara.fi/2025/08/24/jattitutkimus-liha-ja-maitotuotteet-eivat-lisaa-kuolemanriskia-tulos-painvastainen/
Ihmisiä on vuosien ajan peloteltu, että liha ja maito vievät niistä nauttivat hautaan ennen aikojaan. Nyt kaikkien aikojen laajin tutkimus näyttää päinvastaista. Eläinproteiini ei lisää kuolemanriskiä, vaan tulosten mukaan se voi jopa suojata syövältä. Ideologiset kampanjat eivät muuta sitä tosiasiaa, että tutkimus toisensa jälkeen tukee eläinperäisen proteiinin paikkaa terveellisessä ruokavaliossa.
McMasterin yliopiston tutkijat ovat julkaisseet tutkimuksen, joka romuttaa viimeisetkin väitteet eläinproteiinin vaarallisuudesta. Lähes 16.000 amerikkalaista kattaneessa aineistossa ei löytynyt mitään yhteyttä liha- ja maitotuotteista saadun proteiinin ja ennenaikaisen kuoleman välillä. Sopii kysyä, että eikö kenellekään herää ajatuksia siitä, että vaikka ihmisten ruokavaliota on muokattu aikojen saatossa terveyden nimissä keinotekoisempaan suuntaan, niin miksi kansat ovat silti sairaampia kuin koskaan aiemmin?
Tutkijoiden mukaan tämä selkeyttää keskustelua, jossa eläinproteiini on vuosikausia leimattu riskitekijäksi. Esimerkiksi kouluissa ja ruokapolitiikassa on menty aihealueen ympärillä överiksi, kun lapsille on yritetty tyrkyttää lihaa ja maitoa korvaavia teollisia vaihtoehtoja, joiden terveyshyödyistä ei kuitenkaan ole vastaavaa näyttöä. Liha, kala ja maitotuotteet ovat olleet osa ihmisen ravintoa vuosituhansien ajan. Ilman niitä emme olisi kehittyneet tai selviytyneet. Ne sisältävät välttämättömiä ravintoaineita, joita on vaikea saada muualta yhtä helposti ja luonnollisesti.
Animal and plant protein usual intakes are not adversely associated with all-cause, cardiovascular disease–, or cancer-related mortality risk: an NHANES III analysis
https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/apnm-2023-0594
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras
It predates Pythagoras by over 1,000 years.
https://www.iflscience.com/pythagorean-theorem-found-on-clay-tablet-1000-years-older-than-pythagoras-72091
Study math for long enough and you will likely have cursed Pythagoras’s name, or said “praise be to Pythagoras” if you’re a bit of a fan of triangles
But while Pythagoras was an important historical figure in the development of mathematics, he did not figure out the equation most associated with him (a2 + b2 = c2). In fact, there is an ancient Babylonian tablet (by the catchy name of IM 67118) that uses the Pythagorean theorem to solve the length of a diagonal inside a rectangle. The tablet, likely used for teaching, dates from 1770 BCE – centuries before Pythagoras was born in around 570 BCE.
Another tablet from around 1800–1600 BCE has a square with labeled triangles inside. Translating the markings from base 60 – the counting system used by ancient Babylonians – showed that these ancient mathematicians were aware of the Pythagorean theorem (not called that, of course) as well as other advanced mathematical concepts.
“The conclusion is inescapable. The Babylonians knew the relation between the length of the diagonal of a square and its side: d=square root of 2,” mathematician Bruce Ratner writes in a paper on the topic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-quantum-qubits-simulate-scrambling.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.foodbible.com/health/diet/new-research-finds-popular-drink-linked-hair-loss-649815-20250826
In the US, 85% of men experience some form of hair loss, and the same is true of 35% of women. A quarter of men begin to lose their hair by 30 years old, with androgenetic alopecia being the most common cause.
As any man with an interest in protecting their hair will know, treatments aren’t consistent between different people and they’re both expensive and carry their own health risks.
While the mechanisms behind hair loss and aren’t perfectly understood, stress, poor health and a molecule called dihydrotestosterone (DHT) are all known triggers for follicles giving up the ghost.
According to a recent study from the Universidade do Porto, Portugal, there might be a particular culprit to consider cutting back on if you’re worried about losing your locks: fizzy drinks and sodas.
“Diet and nutrition play a crucial role in hair health, particularly vitamin D and iron supplementation, while limiting alcohol and soft drinks may be beneficial,” said the researchers from Portugal’s Universidade do Porto.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/soda-hair-loss-risk-study-b2814384.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lab-grown oils could make cosmetics, food deforestation-free, cut supply time
Could AI-grown oils finally replace palm oil and save rainforests?
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/lab-grown-oils
Tomi Engdahl says:
Earth models can predict the planet’s future but not their own
One of the world’s foremost climate models now faces funding threats.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/08/earth-models-can-predict-the-planets-future-but-not-their-own/
In the 1960s, meteorologist Edward Lorenz was running weather simulations on an early computer system when he realized that a small rounding difference led to extremely divergent weather predictions. He later called this idea the butterfly effect to communicate that small changes in initial conditions, like a butterfly flapping its wings in Nepal, could produce wildly different outcomes, like rain in New York.
But better understanding those initial conditions and how the biological world couples with the atmospheric one can provide better predictions about the future of the planet—from where umbrellas may be most needed in a given season to where electricity needs might sap the grid.
Today, computers are much more powerful than when Lorenz was working, and scientists use a special kind of simulation that accounts for physics, chemistry, biology, and water cycles to try to grasp the past and predict the future. These simulations, called Earth system models, or ESMs, attempt to consider the planet as a system made up of components that nudge and shove each other. Scientists first developed physical climate models in the 1960s and 1970s, and became better at integrating atmospheric and ocean models in subsequent years. As both environmental knowledge and computing power increased, they began to sprinkle in the other variables, leading to current-day ESMs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elämmekö jo virtuaalitodellisuudessa? Tutkijan mukaan todennäköisyys on huikea 70 %
Aleksi Kolehmainen23.8.202521:30
Entä jos The Matrix ei olekaan vain tieteiselokuvaa? Tietojenkäsittelytieteen tutkija Rizwan Virkin mukaan tekoälyn huima kehitys tekee mahdolliseksi, että elämme jo nyt virtuaalimaailmassa. Hänen laskelmiensa mukaan todennäköisyys on peräti 70 prosenttia.
https://www.kauppalehti.fi/uutiset/a/00cb6dab-3fcf-4051-b0ec-b40d3f309120
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/01/why-some-songs-give-you-chills/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Research May Pay Off Even if Quantum Computing Fails, Study Finds
https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/08/26/quantum-research-may-pay-off-even-if-quantum-computing-fails-study-finds/
Insider Brief
A new study finds that investment in quantum computing benefits both quantum and classical systems, suggesting that research pays off even if fault-tolerant quantum machines never emerge.
Patent analysis of more than 51,000 firms reveals that classical computing companies were far more likely to invest in quantum, with the gap narrowing after IBM’s 2016 cloud launch signaled rising commercialization prospects.
The findings suggest that spillovers from quantum to classical computing can bring private and social benefits, challenging the notion that quantum R&D is an all-or-nothing bet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Internet Breakthrough: Scientists Build Scalable Network Node With Light and Ions
https://scitechdaily.com/quantum-internet-breakthrough-scientists-build-scalable-network-node-with-light-and-ions/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists crack a 60-year-old quantum mystery
Date:
August 25, 2025
Source:
University of Copenhagen – Faculty of Science
Summary:
Physicists have built a novel superconducting platform that mimics hidden vortex states once thought unobservable. Their “backdoor” method overcomes experimental limits, letting them control quantum behavior on demand. The discovery could pave the way for powerful quantum simulators.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250825015642.htm#google_vignette
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/black-holes-form-inside-planets
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ancient DNA solves 1,500-year-old mystery that caused ‘world’s first pandemic’
The Plague of Justinian was a devastating catastrophe that claimed millions of lives.
https://interestingengineering.com/science/world-first-pandemic-cause-revealed
Tomi Engdahl says:
China claims world’s first kerosene-powered hypersonic engine could propel jets nine times the speed of sound. https://bit.ly/4mGbdnB
Tomi Engdahl says:
Psychedelic mushrooms shown to regrow brain tissue lost in depression, study suggests. https://bit.ly/3Hzvqwc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Find out more: https://www.iflscience.com/measurable-brain-changes-following-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-identified-for-the-first-time-80592
Tomi Engdahl says:
Check out the latest list of the most powerful of the powerful computers ever made. https://bit.ly/4n8E3g3