Year: 2022

3D PRINTED SKULL IMPLANT was recently approved by the FDA and inserted into a patient. Orthopedic applications of 3D printing are a natural, given the complex individual topography and dimensions of living bones. The geometry and metrics must be just right to fit correctly. Recently, while in Kagoshima Japan, I saw a 3D printed plastic image of a patient's tumor, that was being used to guide powerful proton beam therapy to precisely ablate the tumor, and not harm the surrounding tissues. Medicine requiring precise geometry is enabled by 3D printing. http://lnkd.in/PgKZ5Y View in LinkedIn

FUTURISTS are the mental gymnasts among us, creating a circus of the possible in all its exotic forms, extrapolating the imaginable, and dreaming the unlikely combinations. Jules Vernes (Twenty Thousand Leagues), HG Wells (War of the Worlds), and Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide), were notable futurists of the past, but the popular futurist beyond institutional trend predictors are a recent phenomenon. I grew up in a world dominated by historians looking backwards. But as we experience a faster rate of change, beyond the bucolic stasis of youth, the future entices like candy. http://lnkd.in/ggB-mM View in LinkedIn

MATERIAL SCIENCES try and emulate the body's clever solutions with brilliant work-arounds, but ones that did not take millions of years in the evolutionary cooking pot. Shape memory hydrogels are one such brilliant solution that can have numerous medical applications. http://lnkd.in/AKsAN9? View in LinkedIn

TOXINS IN FOOD: a good article. It is a curious circumstance that we have created foods that contain permissible known toxins. The astonishing lack of common sense about this subject goes all the way to how we regulate food (or fail to). A society that chooses to poison itself in the face of significant increases in a number of diseases such as cancer, is clearly making poor choices. Inform yourself and don't have these choices imposed on your family. http://lnkd.in/BYw-Sw View in LinkedIn

MODERN TRAVEL makes this small blue planet remarkably manageable. I flew to Philadelphia from Barcelona (via Chicago due to availability) for a 8 hour meeting, and directly back for a presentation in Seville the next day. Only fifty years ago that would have been an arduous, expensive, propellor-based multi-hop marathon. This means that entrepreneurs today truly have global reach if they can be creative, to find sources of capital, collaboration, and new markets, with the greatest ease ever available to societies. The trick is to think globally. View in LinkedIn

THINK GLOBALLY: the new entrepreneurial challenge on many fronts: for Bill Gates, this means helping a billion people; for others, opening new markets to existing products from other countries; for yet others, finding new sources of capital; for others, finding the perfect corporate partner; globalization of products is a buzzword in many board rooms today, especially as giants like India and China have a growing consumer class. This new frontier is accessible to smart entrepreneurs who do their homework, and make the right connections. View in LinkedIn

BOARD SEATS for SMEs require either deep sector experience or demonstrable entrepreneurial success. Ideally, a board will work with the CEO to problem solve, think strategically, and make introductions. But most boards, at some time or another have to deal with succession planning and execution. This is always a challenging exercise and almost always has a polarizing effect on the CEO-board relationship. Only level and cool heads come through this without blood on the carpet. " "" " http://lnkd.in/gJEFhP View in LinkedIn

TV 3 BARCELONA interviewed guests attending the recent Barcelona Global event, including me. To my surprise, the interviewer, a smart veteran, had a pessimistic journalistic slant to his questions. He was frankly surprised when I was expressing optimistic viewpoints to his rather negative questions. He put it down to the fact that I was living in Baix Emporda, where contrarian views were not uncommon. But he was wrong: there is much to be optimistic about in this land of great initiatives. Sometimes it just takes an outsider to point it out. View in LinkedIn

THE KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION may be as big as the Industrial Revolution, as it generates a new economy based on science and technology not steam and electricity. The economic power of ideas trumps brute force. For over 13 years, Catalunya has been investing heavily in the Knowledge Revolution, led by visionary Dr Mas-Colell. With a vast infrastructure of CERCA research centers, led by the best international talent, science parks and great hospitals, and universities, the Revolution is taking shape in countless technology SMEs: the emerging engine of the new economy of innovation. View in LinkedIn

BARCELONA is emerging as the Southern European science hub (according to Nature magazine). In the spring there was an ACCIÓ conference for entrepreneurs to listen to some politicians and an author. Not only was it stuffed beyond capacity, but the sheer buzz of energy was something out of a Stanford event. Young, smart, driven entrepreneurs from numerous fields were gathered in force. It was a memorable event, and one which convinced me not to retire as planned. Something important was emerging in this community, and I wanted to be part of it. Just to replay Boston in 1989 once more! View in LinkedIn