articles and cases

Question 1

Mariana Mazzucato

Answer 1

The economist Mariana Mazzucato has made a list of 12 key technologies that make smartphones work: 1) tiny microprocessors, 2) memory chips, 3) solid state hard drives, 4) liquid crystal displays and 5) lithium-based batteries. 5) Siri

The foundational figure in the development of the iPhone wasn’t Steve Jobs. It was Uncle Sam. Every single one of these 12 key technologies was supported in significant ways by governments - often the American government.

Question 2

graphene

Answer 2

a couple of Russian émigrés at Manchester engage

Nobel prizes six years later (poor old Einstein had to wait 16 years). The material’s exceptional properties: tougher than diamond, stretchier than rubber, and better able to conduct electricity than anything else. Its myriad of possible uses: bendy touchscreens for mobiles, super-light batteries

Consultants calculate that China has taken out more than 2,200 patents on the material; the US more than 1,700; South Korea is closing in on 1,200. And the country that discovered it? Just over 50.

Question 3

haldane principle

Answer 3

In British research policy, the Haldane principle is the idea that decisions about what to spend research funds on should be made by researchers rather than politicians. It is named after Richard Burdon Haldane, who in 1904 and from 1909 to 1918 chaired committees and commissions which recommended this policy.