How Innovation Works by Ridley, Matt -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Dedication Contents Introduction: The Infinite Improbability Drive 1. Energy

Of heat, work and light What Watt wrought Thomas Edison and the invention business The ubiquitous turbine Nuclear power and the phenomenon of disinnovation Shale gas surprise The reign of fire

2. Public health

Lady Mary’s dangerous obsession Pasteur’s chickens The chlorine gamble that paid off How Pearl and Grace never put a foot wrong Fleming’s luck The pursuit of polio Mud huts and malaria Tobacco and harm reduction

3. Transport

The locomotive and its line Turning the screw Internal combustion’s comeback The tragedy and triumph of diesel The Wright stuff International rivalry and the jet engine Innovation in safety and cost

4. Food

The tasty tuber How fertilizer fed the world Dwarfing genes from Japan Insect nemesis Gene editing gets crisper Land sparing versus land sharing

5. Low-technology innovation

When numbers were new The water trap Crinkly tin conquers the Empire The container that changed trade Was wheeled baggage late? Novelty at the table The rise of the sharing economy

6. Communication and computing

The first death of distance The miracle of wireless Who invented the computer? The ever-shrinking transistor The surprise of search engines and social media Machines that learn

7. Prehistoric innovation

The first farmers The invention of the dog The (Stone Age) great leap forward The feast made possible by fire The ultimate innovation: life itself

8. Innovation’s essentials

Innovation is gradual Innovation is different from invention Innovation is often serendipitous Innovation is recombinant Innovation involves trial and error Innovation is a team sport Innovation is inexorable Innovation’s hype cycle Innovation prefers fragmented governance Innovation increasingly means using fewer resources rather than more

9. The economics of innovation

The puzzle of increasing returns Innovation is a bottom-up phenomenon Innovation is the mother of science as often as it is the daughter Innovation cannot be forced upon unwilling consumers Innovation increases interdependence Innovation does not create unemployment Big companies are bad at innovation Setting innovation free

10. Fakes, frauds, fads and failures

Fake bomb detectors Phantom games consoles The Theranos debacle Failure through diminishing returns to innovation: mobile phones A future failure: Hyperloop Failure as a necessary ingredient of success: Amazon and Google

11. Resistance to innovation

12. An innovation famine

How innovation works A bright future Not all innovation is speeding up The innovation famine China’s innovation engine Regaining momentum

Acknowledgements Sources and further reading Index About the Author Also by Matt Ridley Copyright About the Publisher