Who was vaping’s innovator? The original inventor was a man named Hon Lik who devised the first modern electronic cigarette in order to stop himself smoking. Around the turn of the twenty-first century, he was working as a chemist at the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. He want... See more

LED lights have actually been waiting in the wings for a long time. The phenomenon behind them, that semiconductors sometimes glow when conducting electricity, was first observed in 1907 in Britain and first investigated in 1927 in Russia. In 1962 a General Electric scientist named Nick Holonyak stumbled on how to make bright red LEDs of gallium ar... See more

If innovation is a gradual, evolutionary process, why is it so often described in terms of revolutions, heroic breakthroughs and sudden enlightenment? Two answers: human nature and the intellectual property system. As I have shown repeatedly in this book, it is all too easy and all too tempting for whoever makes a breakthrough to magnify its import... See more

The truly extraordinary improvement in the safety record of air travel is an example of gradual but pervasive innovation with real impact. In 2017, for the first time, there was no death as a result of a commercial passenger jet crashing. There were fatal crashes involving cargo planes, private planes and propeller aircraft, but no commercial passe... See more

Innovation happens when people are free to think, experiment and speculate. It happens when people can trade with each other. It happens where people are relatively prosperous, not desperate. It is somewhat contagious. It needs investment. It generally happens in cities. And so on.

The truth is that autonomous vehicles are possible but in fairly limited circumstances, and that this may not change as fast as people think, in the real world. Huge amounts of driver assistance will surely come, or are here already, so that cars can detect and avoid obstacles, cruise on motorways and freeways, parallel-park and warn the driver of ... See more

History shows that innovation is a delicate and vulnerable flower, easily crushed underfoot, but quick to regrow if conditions allow.