All Features
Rachael Dalton-Taggart
Knee-deep in Alaska’s Liscomb Bonebed, the single richest bed for dinosaur bones in either polar region, Pat Druckenmiller, Ph.D., can safely declare that he loves his job. Museum curator of earth science and associate professor of geology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Druckenmiller has…
Brian Stanton
Doors that are obviously meant to be pushed not pulled, footprints painted on the floor telling you where to stand at the airport—these are examples of good design and usability. You don’t have to think too hard about what to do because someone else put a lot of thought into how to get across the…
Mark Esser
Depending on whom you ask, May (or August or April—it would be great if someone were to standardize this, but we’re going with May) is National Inventor’s Month. Lots of people have dreams of being a famous inventor. Even I’ve had “ideas” for inventions before.
For instance, during the 1990s,…
Jeffrey Phillips
I find that I’ve become increasingly irritated with the narrow interpretations and self-serving definitions of what is, or is not, innovation. One of the most common scapegoats for innovation is brainstorming. No other activity is more frequently miscast, and often blamed, for failed innovation.…
Jennifer Lauren Lee
When a team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) first tested a new kind of pressure sensor two years ago, initial results showed it was faster and had higher resolution than the centuries-old mercury-based method for…
NIST
Recently on the Taking Measure blog, we asked Tara Lovestead, a recipient of the 2016 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a few questions about her life and work. She was recognized for her extensive application of new methods to rapidly and inexpensively detect…
Lawrence Yu
If we used a time machine to transport a pharmaceutical scientist from the 1960s into a current pharmaceutical production plant, it might be surprising to learn that he would already be familiar with most of the processes and production techniques being used. That’s because not much has changed in…
Ryan E. Day
Ihave never been accused of being an early adopter of cutting-edge technology. On the other hand, I don’t dance the Luddite jig, either. True to my own type, I hung on to my old M-1A tank, aka a Motorola flip phone, for as long as I could, but was pleased as punch when circumstances led me to…
Kevin Meyer
During the past few years I’ve been working hard on cultivating positive habits. New habits can be powerful. But habits can also create barriers that limit our perspective, which can hinder kaizen, creativity, and even our knowledge of ourselves. We’ve all found ourselves in the proverbial “rut”…
William A. Levinson
All process activities can be broken down into one of five categories: waiting, handling and setup, inspection, transportation, and transformation. Of these, only transformation of the product adds value.
A figure in Frederick Winslow Taylor’s 1911 book, Shop Management makes it clear that, while…
A self-made leader doesn’t make much. I first wrote that statement in my book, Leadership Gold (Thomas Nelson, 2008). Eight years later, I still believe it. After all, I’m not a self-made man; it took a lot of people investing in me to get me where I am today.
You may wonder who helped me. Well,…
Rachel E. Sherman, Robert M. Califf
Across the clinical research enterprise, there is a growing awareness of serious shortfalls in the current model for generating the scientific evidence that supports medical product evaluation and clinical care decisions. As a result the FDA seeks to modernize methods and satisfy expectations…
Paul Voss
Not long ago, most Americans could safely ignore congressional deliberations about Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authority, leaving the details to industry experts and lobbyists. But this time, we may need to fasten our seatbelts and actually read the card in the seat pocket.
A bill under…
Naveen Khajanchi
Adam Grant, a professor of psychology at Wharton, admitted how wrong he was to pass up on the opportunity to invest in an online startup selling glasses. Because the company didn’t have a functioning website the day before its launch, and because other competitors were already operating in the…
Argonne National Laboratory
The search for a truly revolutionary engine design that can make dramatic gains in efficiency requires deep scientific understanding and tools. Lots and lots of tools.
In the past, tools were needed to make prototypes, requiring repeated testing and retrofitting along with a healthy dose of…
Quy Huy
Although it’s bad to ignore a crisis, more serious problems for leaders arise when they try to rouse the collective will to address or prevent organizational emergencies. Heads nod around conference tables as well-laid-out rationales and action plans for strategic change are presented. Months…
Duke University
Evidence on the safety and effectiveness of medical devices is difficult to coordinate and assess, despite the critical role medical devices play in diagnosing and treating patients.
A new report from the planning board for a national medical device evaluation system (NMDES) describes how the…
NIST
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed the first widely useful standard for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast, a method used to identify and monitor breast cancer.
The NIST instrument—a “phantom”—will help standardize MRIs of breast…
GBMP
Hub Pen Co., located in Braintree, Massachusetts, imports specialty writing instruments and imprints them with company logos and other customized inscriptions. In 2013, the company received a grant for training in lean and continuous improvement, which was delivered by the Greater Boston…
MIT News
In March 2011, Leonardo Bonanni was preparing to defend his Ph.D. thesis about Sourcemap, software that lets consumers map every connection of a product supply chain on a digital map, when tragedy struck in Japan. Although the deadly earthquake and tsunami occurred half a world away, the events…
Knowledge at Wharton
A trained mechanical engineer, Mark Chang found himself “totally uncertain and unprepared” the first time he was called on to hire someone else.
“I didn’t even know why I was hired in the first place—what did they like about me?” Chang recalls. “So, how do I go out and look for the next person?”…
NIST
I
n the age-old struggle between humans and microbes, bacteria seem to be regaining the offensive. Only about a dozen classes of chemicals protect us from the myriad pathogens that populate our environment. Numerous agencies have warned that evolved resistance could soon render common antibiotics…
Gallup
Increasingly dynamic workplaces have made organizational change an everyday reality. Demands for workforce agility require a step up from those commanding—particularly in ongoing measurement and making use of feedback during this breakneck pace of change.
There is a definite need for continuous…
In the race to design smaller handheld devices and smartphones, a key factor is decreasing the sizes of components. As the demand for thinner and lighter microelectronic devices increases, manufacturers often are limited by how oddly shaped the energy sources must become to make them conform to…
Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia’s Engineering Sciences Center helped mark National Engineers Week with a contest, asking Sandians to complete the following sentence: “You know you’re an engineer when… .” The contest drew dozens of endings for the sentence, and Sandians voted on which they liked best.
Barbara Lewis won…
