Below are interesting trends discussed in July.

The 3 Most Exciting Words in Science Right Now: ‘The Pitch Dropped’
In 1944, a colleague of Ernest Walton, the first person in history to successfully smash an atom, began an experiment of a decidedly larger and lengthier variety. In a physics lab at Trinity College, Dublin, the experimenter took several lumps of tar pitch — a hard, carbonic material thought to become viscous under certain conditions — heated them, and placed them in a funnel. And then placed that funnel into a jar. And then placed that jar into a cupboard. And then — after another move of the jar, to a campus lecture hall — left the thing alone. Not for minutes or days, but for years. And then decades.

How and Why to Be a Leader (Not a Wannabe)
We need a new generation of leaders. And we need it now.
We’re in the midst of a Great Dereliction — a historic failure of leadership, precisely when we need it most. Hence it’s difficult, looking around, to even remember what leadership is. We’re surrounded by people who are expert at winning — elections, deals, titles, bonuses, bailouts, profit. And often, we’re told: they’re the ones we should look up to — because it’s the spoils and loot that really matter.

Multiple Creativity Studies Suggest: Creating Our Reality Requires Detaching From It
I pore over studies on creativity, and recently I noticed a consistency across these many creativity studies that took me years to notice, let alone articulate. A consistency that most authors of these studies allude to in some way, and in different ways. I’d like to share a unified way of thinking about creativity, supported directly by these many studies, that helped me to better understand this important skill, but, more importantly, could help us all be more creative in business, marketing, and in life.

Great Leaders Don’t Predict the Future – They Invent It
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”-  Alan Kay, 1971

I spent the day yesterday with one of my favorite client groups.  They’re the senior team of part of a major media company, and they are smart, funny, curious, talented and kind people. The quote above was on the introductory page of a deck they had put together outlining their vision of change for the coming year. In addition to the fact that they’re such delightful human beings, I love working with this group because they’re actually operating according to this quote.

Printable ‘bionic’ ear melds electronics and biology
Using 3-D printing tools, scientists at Princeton University have created a functional ear that can “hear” radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability. The researchers’ primary purpose was to explore an efficient and versatile method of merging electronics with tissue. The scientists used 3-D printing of cells and nanoparticles — with an off-the-shelf printer purchased off the Internet — followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term a bionic ear.

HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI)
In 1970, the first cephalosomatic linkage was achieved in the monkey. However, the technology did not exist for reconnecting the spinal cord, and this line of research was no longer pursued. In this paper, an outline for the first total cephalic exchange in man is provided and spinal reconnection is described. The use of fusogens, special membrane-fusion substances, is discussed in view of the first human cord linkage. Several human diseases without cure might benefit from the procedure.