You did it. That widget you’ve been working on for two years in your basement is finally ready for the market. And, now, now, you’ve got to build a team to do that. Who do you hire? For what do you look?
Continue reading The Best and the Brightest
Do you remember the George Carlin routines about cars and driving? One of my favorites…
Continue reading Intersections
Pharmaceutical research has changed. There’s the soaring price of drug development, the dearth of blockbuster drugs, and the precipitous drop in patents. That does not include the megamergers that have occurred over the past decade. Only 11 of the 42 large firms that were members of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer’s Association (PhRMA) 13 years ago survive today. The pharmaceutical firms have lost favor on Wall Street- with their market capitalization decimated. That’s true even though the sales of the top 10 drugs have doubled in the past decade and the number of biologics in the top 10 has risen (and will dominate the top 10 soon enough). The number of blockbuster drugs launched has not really changed- but their value has dropped.
Continue reading What can one person do?
Continue reading Lie to Me? No, not the TV show- but reality!
Drs. Gleason and Bulovic (ChemE and EE departments of MIT), along with 7 other researchers (ChemE, EE, and Materials Science of MIT) have made a tremendous breakthrough in solar “panels”. Why is “panels” in quotes? These panels can be “printed” on copy paper, tracing paper, tissue, and newsprint. They can even be folded into different shapes. (These results were published in Advanced Materials.)
Continue reading Solar Panels on Paper- really! And, more!
Some 40 years ago, while at MIT, I was involved with two energy-related projects. One involved the development of a conversion from honest-to-goodness-solid waste [HGSW] to methane (natural gas), via microbial means, the one that occupied a major portion of my time. The other project, working with a different professor, involved screening compounds that would store and release energy reversibly. Why this project? One of the problems we have with energy is that we need it in fits and starts, but that is not an economical method to produce it. Also, if we want to collect solar energy, it is available during the day- what do we do at night?
Continue reading A new kind of energy storage