Innovation

The common thought among young people is that our rocketing population growth is going to overpopulate the earth. But given the number of people in poverty, it looks like population growth is actually good for poverty – more people means more brains, which means more ideas, inventions, and innovations.
This week on Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan talk about how and why the world is improving despite widespread negativity towards the idea of a growing world population, and why that negativity persists regardless of the prosperity we see every day.

People speak about great innovations. Internal combustion. Moving pictures. Sound recordings. The microchip. Fracking. These are all amazing. But let us not forget about the small innovations that require as much creativity, inspiration, and also serve humanity in our daily lives.

You guys, it’s finally happening. Twin Peaks, the cult TV murder mystery from the ‘90s, is coming back to finish what was started 25 years ago. The original show had a cultural impact far exceeding its meager two seasons worth of content and changed the feel of television forever; hopefully its revival will do as much for House of Cards as its preceding episodes.

Markets are great at solving the problems of allocating resources for useful things like bread, cars, and iPhones. But can the forces of supply and demand address the dynamic problem of invasive species?

Economist Mariana Mazzucato recently tweeted a complaint about the inefficiency of the Home Office. We've all come to expect government inefficiency, but the funny part is that she thinks government is responsible for innovation. Yes, that's right, the same government that took four months to notice a typo on her visa application, she argues, is the one which made the iPhone possible. Let's take a look at government's contribution to innovation.

Friday was set to become the UK’s first working day without coal power generation since the Industrial Revolution. Recent months have seen some notable green energy advances around the world. From Morocco to Belgium, we plot progress
The post As Britain reaches coal-free milestone: 5 green energy breakthroughs appeared first on Positive News.

"In fact, not only has flying commercially become more economically accessible to individuals of all socioeconomic backgrounds, it’s also now much safer than it used to be in the mid-century."

From laser labels to ‘plastic’ derived from sugar cane, three environmentally-friendly alternatives to plastic packaging
The post Three good things: packaging appeared first on Positive News.

Author Mark Stevenson has travelled the world, from Brazilian favelas to a shed in the English home counties, meeting remarkable innovators
The post The outsiders rebooting our world appeared first on Positive News.

The first project of its kind in Asia, towers covered in thousands of plants and trees are under construction in China. The architect wants to build more across Chinese cities to help offset pollution
The post The ‘vertical forest’ to combat pollution in China appeared first on Positive News.