Scientific Innovation
By Alaia
What is innovation?
The New Zealand government has described innovation as the creation, development and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage.
Is the creation of something, may be physical or abstract, to improve the actual situation of a problem. Maybe to improve the quality of life to a certain group of people or to adress a natural catastrophe.
Every day new problems come up, so more solutions have to be created. As the world is changing more and more these days, been innovative is an indispensable quality. We are expected to create and come up with efficient ideas so we can adress all the unsolved problems of our world.
Scientific innovation
After the 3rd indutrial revolution the world has developed more than ever. Some problems like the smallpox have dissapeared as we have developed a vaccine. However, a new bunch of new complications have generated. Climate change may be the most recognised one, this carries severe difficulties the human is not prepared for, such as the rise of the oceans or the loss of biodiversity. In this type of problems, science is the only solution or at least the only way to come up with solutions.
To adress all this problems we have to renovate ourselves and think beyond the conventional. As the world is evolving our ideas are also expected to evolve.
With the coronavirus some industruies had to completely renovate. Like the car industry which has not sold during quarantine and has being selling some face masks to mantain their business or the shopping malls and shops that have had to develop security measures and a new purchase method to respect the imposed standards.Although all these examples are innovtions, they are not scientific innovation. This type of innovations only adresses those complications that science can solve or at least try to solve.
EXAMPLES
Here we can see 6 examples of scientific innovations of last year (2019). I want you to focus on the way these inventions are presentes. There is a problem and then a solution. Without having a problem there is no room for a solution. Another interesting point is how all these things aren't conventional, they are creative ideas that explore an unknown problem.
NEW INK
An ink is discovered by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to combat the problem of fake printing of passports and counterfeiting of currency notes.
PAPER SENSOR
For testing the freshness of milk, the scientists of an Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati have developed a simple paper kit. It also tells about the pasteurisation that whether it is done well or not.
HYPERLOOP TECHNOLOGY (figure 1)
It's a new form of ground transport, a new method with which people or objects can be moved rapidly and safely with efficiency anywhere in the world. It will also have minimal impact on the environment.
DIARRHOEA VACCINE
Diarrhoea vaccine named 'ETVAX' developed by the researchers of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
OneerTM
An affordable Water Disinfection System 'OneerTM' has been developed by CSIR-IITR. It is a device that meets the requirements of potable water in rural and urban areas.
PAPER SENSOR
John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino discovered the development of lithium-ion batteries. For this discovery, they received the Nobel Prize of 2019 in Chemistry. Lithium-ion batteries are used all over the world to power the portable electrons that we use to communicate, work, study...
