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.
5,776 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://news.sky.com/story/man-given-musks-neuralink-brain-chip-in-uk-trial-says-it-feels-magical-and-gives-new-hope-13500126
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://interestingengineering.com/science/squeeze-light-to-see-matter-at-atomic-scale
Light breaks its own limit by 100,000× to image matter at the scale of atoms
A quantum effect turns tiny electron motion into measurable light, opening a new way to study materials atom by atom.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tutkimus: Aivojen oma ”pesuohjelma” voi aiheuttaa dementiaa
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/tutkimus-aivojen-oma-pesuohjelma-voi-aiheuttaa-dementiaa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2514189-record-breaking-quantum-simulator-could-unlock-new-materials/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Self-Driving Cars In ‘Difficult Driving Situations’ Are Guided By Random Filipinos Overseas, Company Confirms
https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2026/02/05/self-driving-cars-in-difficult-driving-situations-guided-by-random-filipinos-overseas/
The chief safety officer for a leading self-driving car company admitted during a Senate hearing Wednesday that it hires remote human operators overseas to guide cars in “difficult driving situations.”
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing Wednesday on the future of self-driving cars during which Waymo and Tesla executives testified. Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey pressed Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña on if his company’s remote human operators worked from outside the U.S. and Peña responded that some were based in the Philippines.
In his exchange with Markey, Peña acknowledged that his company’s operators do not remotely drive the vehicle but rather serve to provide additional input and guide Waymo vehicles in what the senator called “difficult driving situations.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
South Korean researchers have created a spray that seals wounds instantly, buying vital time in trauma care. https://bit.ly/4rBbGcH
Tomi Engdahl says:
Science
‘Impossible’ material: Researchers create glass-plastic hybrid that defies physics theory
Although currently fossil-based, the WUR team is already developing a more sustainable, biobased version of the compleximer.
https://interestingengineering.com/science/impossible-material-glass-plastic-hybrid
Tomi Engdahl says:
Physicists solve a quantum mystery that stumped scientists for decades
A long-standing quantum mystery is resolved as physicists reveal how seemingly frozen particles can still spark the emergence of quasiparticles.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260208011010.htm
Tomi Engdahl says:
Something is breaking inside the education system — and it’s happening faster than universities can react. In lecture halls from Boston to Berlin, professors face a new kind of student: one who turns in perfectly polished assignments yet cannot defend a single idea in them.
Generative AI has not just entered the classroom—it has started replacing the very process of learning.
https://lasoft.org/blog/renting-out-the-mind-ai-is-accelerating-the-decline-of-academic-skills/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The current college students went to school where their scores on standardized tests dominated everything, (including their teachers’ salary).
The ultimate outcome was placed on quantitative numbers, charts, and graphs, not on learning.
Is it any surprise that many students use AI for writing assignments? It looks like they learned the system well. Sad. Very, very sad.
And not beneficial to them nor society at large.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yes, many UK Universities have disabled AI detection software as not consistently reliable in detecting AI produced work. Universities are re-thinking assessments to test student subject knowledge and powers of critical thinking in imaginative ways. But it’s getting harder.
A couple of years ago it was pretty obvious when students work was AI generated. Turnitin software is still going strong on detecting plagiarism though.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The problem is deeper than just the students, teachers and professors are using AI as well – the dumbing down is across the board.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Borrowed Mind
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-digital-self/202509/the-borrowed-mind/amp
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.helsinki.fi/fi/uutiset/matematiikka-ja-luonnontieteet/akatemiaprofessori-hanna-vehkamaki-vie-ilmastomalleja-uuteen-aikakauteen?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social_cpc&utm_campaign=kestavyys&utm_content=HannaVehkamaki&fbclid=IwdGRjcAP5A-ZleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQAAC_Fe8L_uHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHtg8OVjXDNz_39BwCq42mIZNkDyECpX5Mcuds2V_EhHXFXJUAn0HHFZmcF_K_aem_L-vv5PG8xCTmuzRms3XDqw&utm_id=6959213675796&utm_term=52525225015600
Tomi Engdahl says:
John Carmack muses using a long fiber line as an L2 cache for streaming AI data — programmer imagines fiber as alternative to DRAM
News
By Bruno Ferreira published 2 days ago
Yes, it’s delay-line memory, but with lasers!
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/john-carmack-muses-using-a-long-fiber-line-as-as-an-l2-cache-for-streaming-ai-data-programmer-imagines-fiber-as-alternative-to-dram
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.city.fi/viihde/ennen-mentiin-eteenpain-nyt-taaksepain-tutkijan-karu-arvio-z-sukupolvesta/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Opening up the terahertz gap for sensors and beyond
Underutilized terahertz waves have the potential to help realize novel sensing applications such as non-invasive imaging and spectroscopic fingerprint.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-025-00329-x
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jopa 50 asteen pudotus sekunneissa – Kiinasta kova keksintö
Lämpötila voi pudota valtavasti muutamassa sekunnissa.
https://muropaketti.com/tietotekniikka/tietotekniikkauutiset/kiinalainen-keksinto-voi-kohta-jaahdyttaa-tietotekniikkaa-huomattavasti-tehokkaammin-ja-vihreammin/#google_vignette
iinan tiedeakatemian tutkijat ovat löytäneet uuden tavan viilentää elektroniikkaa hyödyntämällä ammoniumtiosyanaattisuolaa ja vettä. Menetelmä perustuu niin kutsuttuun ”liuosbarokaloriseen ilmiöön”, ja se lupaa mullistaa konesalien energiatehokkuuden.
Kun kylläiseen liuokseen kuten ammoniumtiosyanaatin ja veden sekoitukseen kohdistetaan painetta, suola saostuu ulos liuoksesta, mikä vapauttaa lämpöä. Kun paine vapautetaan, suola liukenee takaisin veteen erittäin nopeasti ja sitoo ympäristöstä itseensä suuren määrän lämpöä, mikä saa aikaan voimakkaan viilenemisen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/snake-oil-was-once-a-real-cure-and-it-probably-actually-worked-82476
https://freerx.com/Blog/Details?s=Snake-Oil
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/company-claims-to-have-created-bio-drones-after-fitting-pigeon-with-brain-zapping-chip-and-a-camera-82536?fbclid=Iwb21leAP8UPtjbGNrA_xQ72V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHpIavpijV6YhkTAdFZVFDS7DYeMPImeNClCbhO6JW2j9G0ivX3HgrzSu8yAO_aem_CusvDBAT0bY_6Y223SkJMw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Artificial intelligence could bring people back to the church – or replace it entirely, writes Maja Anushka
The Pope and Catholic priests keep giving terrifying warnings about AI. What exactly are they scared of?
Artificial intelligence could bring people back to the church – or replace it entirely, writes Maja Anushka
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-catholic-magisterium-church-tech-b2919992.html?fbclid=IwdGRjcAP8VUBjbGNrA_xVLWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHkLdg8bM_QN5GNt7TRSUJS5Swvn6yvDghbQlHz2gSMzzgzgZzjGz1TzFdgQe_aem_6NlsF0R7IJBs3UgLL3vYHg
The Leo before him, Leo XIII, became head of the Catholic church in 1878, when the Gilded Age was well underway. Now, 147 years later, the new Pope looked upon a world grappling with a new industrial revolution. “Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV. The Church offers her social teaching… in response to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour,” he said.
“It was so unexpected to hear him speaking about AI. It delighted a number of Catholics I know,” Father Stephen Wang, the Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome, reflects. “They thought, thank God, we’ve got a pope who gets it.” Work on AI within the Catholic community was already well underway before Leo XIV’s papacy. In 2023, Longbeard founded Magisterium AI: a Catholic chatbot which can read relevant Bible passages to you.
Leo XIV’s first mention of AI was fairly neutral. But by 24 January, when he published his message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, his tone had starkly intensified. The technology threatens to alter the fundamental pillars of human civilisation, Leo XIV warned. It could “invade and occupy” our sphere of intimacy. We stand to lose our ability to understand meaning, “turning into passive consumers of unthought thoughts and anonymous products without ownership or love.”
It’s undeniably striking to hear the leader of one of the oldest religions in the world speaking so directly about the dangers of unguarded AI usage. We already know that AI is changing our minds and hearts, but could it change our faith? And why does it seem that, out of all the organised religions, Catholics are particularly bothered about it?
Perhaps Catholics are particularly preoccupied with AI because it’s precisely this type of friction which chatbots are built to remove. There’s the obvious danger that AI doesn’t work well. That it could be taken over by a bad actor, or used to spread more written and visual mis-truth and mis-information. We’ve already seen the fatal impact of AI failing to understand the nuances of human communication. But there’s a secondary, altogether more concerning possibility: that AI works really, really well.
The promise of every large language model is the same, whether it be ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. A lack of effort to get what you want, and a lack of friction in receiving it. “But if AI is substituting for my friend, my librarian, my teacher, my counsellor, my companion, my prayer partner,” Fr Stephen continues, “I become isolated. I’ve lost the things which nurture what it is to be human, a friend, a brother, or a sister.” Things are not meant to be this easy.
Despite his simultaneous excitement and fear over AI, Fr Joseph finds comfort in the physicality of Catholicism. “Christianity in general, and especially Catholicism, are completely embodied religions, and have to stay that way.
Bishop Paul half-jokes: “I used to have a rather pessimistic rule of thumb. If it’s possible to do a stupid thing, sooner or later, someone’s going to do it.”
“There are lots of professions under threat, but mine isn’t. The Catholic sacraments cannot be performed by a computer. They only work face-to-face,” he says.
“Which may even lead to people becoming more sceptical of the internet, so that the search for what is genuine, real and authentic becomes stronger. We’ve been telling the young people at our church for years: ‘If you’ve posted some nonsense on the internet, that’s terrible. But if you confess a sin, God will forgive you and never remind you of it again.’ It would be gone forever.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
New calcium-ion battery from HKUST uses COF electrolytes to boost stability and challenge lithium-ion systems.
https://bit.ly/40a04lb
Tomi Engdahl says:
Weeble Wobble
Earth on Track to Become Uninhabitable, Scientists Say
“Policymakers and the public remain largely unaware of the risks posed by what would effectively be a point-of-no-return transition.”
https://futurism.com/science-energy/earth-uninhabitable-climate-change?fbclid=IwVERDUAP-hQpleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6-MN8oRhhYL47LkcE-dSS2Kg__Yw_CY9VsY3wRJQ_a3pulJEtacjiicHQ9hw_aem_TlKFPAJolnFJoXJ_bGiOaw
Surprise, surprise: all that climate stuff scientists have been warning us about is coming back to bite us. And by us, of course, we mean all of humanity.
As reported by the Guardian, scientists just published a warning that Earth is approaching a point of no return. A new study in the journal One Earth shows multiple climate systems — the Greenland ice sheet, the West Antarctic ice sheet, boreal permafrost, the Amazon rainforest — are all much closer to collapse than previously thought.
“Research shows that several Earth system components may be closer to destabilising than once believed,” the researchers urged. “While the exact risk is uncertain, it is clear that current climate commitments are insufficient.”
The analysis is based on climate “tipping points,” meaning collapses of environmental systems that lead other climate systems beyond their own tipping points, creating a snowball scenario where the planet spirals into a worst-case-scenario known as “hothouse Earth.” Under this scenario, the long-term temperature is projected to rise about 9 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial averages — which would be really bad.
What makes this all particularly insulting is the fact that the poor people of the world — those who will suffer the earliest and deepest losses as a result of climate change — are powerless to stop these tipping points from boiling over. And not for lack of will: the global climate movement is growing steadily
The math, in other words, is brutal. Capitalism’s logic demands unending accumulation of wealth, leading to a world in which corporations must grow or die, no matter the consequences. To transition out of this mess would mean weakening capital’s entire grip on power — something which has only ever been achieved when the great masses of toiling people come together to demand a better world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pollutocrat Day
The Richest 1 Percent Burned Their Entire Share of Carbon for the Year in Just 10 Days
“To stay within the 1.5 degrees limit, the richest 1 percent would have to slash their emissions by 97 percent by 2030.”
https://futurism.com/science-energy/one-percent-carbon-emissions?fbclid=IwVERDUAP-hgBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6-MN8oRhhYL47LkcE-dSS2Kg__Yw_CY9VsY3wRJQ_a3pulJEtacjiicHQ9hw_aem_TlKFPAJolnFJoXJ_bGiOaw
The global “carbon budget” is based off the amount of carbon dioxide that humankind can collectively spew while keeping us within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial temperatures. According to Oxfam, the CO2 emissions of the richest 1 percent in just one year will result in an estimated 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of the 21st century.
“To stay within the 1.5 degrees limit, the richest 1 percent would have to slash their emissions by 97 percent by 2030,” the study’s press release reads.
the richest 0.1 percent of individuals produce more CO2 pollution in a day than the poorest 50 percent do in a year.
These outrageous figures aren’t just a measure of individual consumption, but of economic power. Since 2024, the top 1 percent has owned more wealth than 95 percent of humanity — not just in cash, but through ownership of powerful assets like mega-corporations and real estate holdings.
The real issue, in other words, isn’t finger wagging about individual consumer choices. The global economy has been built around a vast over-consumption that’s rapidly leading the planet into ecological catastrophe, and the world’s wealthiest are profiting massively. In 2019 for example, an analysis by The Guardian found that just20 fossil fuel companies were responsible for 35 percent of all CO2 and methane pollution since 1965.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Run For It
Scientists Find Intense Psychological Differences in People Who Exercise
A massive contrast.
https://futurism.com/health-medicine/exercise-cardio-stress-research?fbclid=IwdGRjcAP-_9djbGNrA_7_wGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlJnwODNMnPIfHu6Cp9ZEAuPOHTTjeanVM7ecCeYX6FZoqzAS0NgLTXRoJ4c_aem_9Ldr6uuWmutJvSIS6OJtvg
Ever notice how some people seem weirdly unbothered by the horrible news swirling around us, while others freak out at the slightest inconvenience? As it turns out, our fitness habits might have a lot to do with those reactions.
Research published in the journal Acta Psychologica found evidence that those who are physically active tend to be far more resilient in stressful situations, while also displaying lower levels of anxiety overall.
It’s not just a small gap. The team of mostly Brazilian researchers found that people with below-average cardiorespiratory fitness habits face a mind-blowing 775 percent higher risk of hitting peak anxiety levels when confronted with disturbing images.
But those who regularly participated in cardiorespiratory fitness, they found, showed both better emotional control and faster recovery times from stressful events.
Going forward, researchers will need to replicate the study with a much larger sample size to test the results. Still, the first-of-its-kind study makes one thing clear: next time you’re stressed, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go for a jog, or something else that gets your heart rate up.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ADHD Meds Used By Millions Of Kids And Adults Don’t Work The Way We Thought They Did
The likes of Ritalin and Adderall act on unexpected regions of the brain, according to new findings.
https://www.iflscience.com/adhd-meds-used-by-millions-of-kids-and-adults-dont-work-the-way-we-thought-they-did-82047?fbclid=IwdGRjcAP_CONjbGNrA_8IoWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlhY-XP9WjfG5sJRm5jrmxDGjfFLnAS2Kr2lBYxL8WpP8m673C3UBtggswNw_aem_cs6bMU3k8TVDqlVg4hueoA
Stimulant drugs that are widely used in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a different mechanism of action than scientists thought. New data reveals these drugs primarily act on the brain’s reward and wakefulness areas, rather than the regions specifically focused on attention as had previously been assumed.
“I prescribe a lot of stimulants as a child neurologist, and I’ve always been taught that they facilitate attention systems to give people more voluntary control over what they pay attention to,” said assistant professor of neurology Benjamin Kay, MD, PhD, in a statement.
However, a new study from Kay and coauthors is casting doubt on this long-held presumption.
What the team saw in both the children and adults were changes in brain connectivity in the wakefulness and reward centers of the brain, activated by the medication – not, as might have been expected, the attention centers.
These adults had their brains scanned before and after taking a dose of methylphenidate, the active ingredient in Ritalin.
Kay explained that “the improvement we observe in attention is a secondary effect of a child being more alert and finding a task more rewarding, which naturally helps them pay more attention to it.”
“These results also provide a potential explanation for how stimulants treat hyperactivity, which previously seemed paradoxical,” added coauthor and professor of neurology Nico U. Dosenbach, MD, PhD. Although drugs like Ritalin are often misused by those who think of them as “study” or “smart” drugs, it’s a confusing reality that these medications cause people without ADHD to become overstimulated, erratic, and less able to focus – whereas they have pretty much the opposite effect when used in ADHD treatment.
“Whatever kids can’t focus on – those tasks that make them fidgety – are tasks that they find unrewarding. On a stimulant, they can sit still better because they’re not getting up to find something better to do,” said Dosenbach.
Further research revealed that the children with the most severe ADHD symptoms showed the greatest improvements in cognitive test scores after taking the medications. Prescription meds could also counteract the effects of not getting enough sleep in the kids with ADHD, but not in neurotypical kids (who were taking the drugs for unrelated reasons). This is important to note, because people with ADHD often experience sleep disorders as well.
“We saw that if a participant didn’t sleep enough, but they took a stimulant, the brain signature of insufficient sleep was erased, as were the associated behavioral and cognitive decrements,” said Dosenbach.
This is not actually great news, Kay explained, as the effects of sleep deprivation may be masked by medication, meaning that kids are still at risk of long-term health consequences from chronic sleeplessness.
“Not getting enough sleep is always bad for you, and it’s especially bad for kids,”
Some recent research suggests that up to 25 percent of US adults believe they may have ADHD. As awareness of neurodiversity increases and more people seek diagnosis and treatment, improving scientific understanding of how these treatments work can only be a good thing.