Where's my flying car?
November 12, 2010 1:32 PM Subscribe
Tracking the progress of technological innovations that appear in the news - is there a site somewhere that does this?
Pretty much every day some technological breakthrough or other appears in the news. A new super-cheap process for manufacturing gallium nitride LEDs was one I stumbled on recently - the news was full of it for a single day early in January 2009. Apparently we were all set to be lighting our homes with LEDs by 2011. Then... nothing. Or maybe they'll be in the shops in a couple of months. The problem is that I have no idea.
I realise that most of these things hit the media via press releases by universities with their eyes on investment. But is there anyone actually making an effort, ideally with a website, to track the progress of these innovations in any kind of systematic way?
Pretty much every day some technological breakthrough or other appears in the news. A new super-cheap process for manufacturing gallium nitride LEDs was one I stumbled on recently - the news was full of it for a single day early in January 2009. Apparently we were all set to be lighting our homes with LEDs by 2011. Then... nothing. Or maybe they'll be in the shops in a couple of months. The problem is that I have no idea.
I realise that most of these things hit the media via press releases by universities with their eyes on investment. But is there anyone actually making an effort, ideally with a website, to track the progress of these innovations in any kind of systematic way?
Association of University Technology Manager's news feed (not as uptodate)
posted by The Lady is a designer at 1:40 PM on November 12, 2010
posted by The Lady is a designer at 1:40 PM on November 12, 2010
I have yet to find one. I have a few pet technologies I continue to track, such as ETCMDCO-216, which I mostly do by hitting the relevant company website, emailing various scientists, and so forth, on an infrequent basis.
posted by adipocere at 2:02 PM on November 12, 2010
posted by adipocere at 2:02 PM on November 12, 2010
I think part of the problem is that there is so much marketing hype around any new technology, which makes it harder to figure out what's really great and what's just noise.
For example, here's an editorial on the new gallium nitride LED process that seems to put a damper on the story.
Unfortunately, by the time we can separate the wheat from the chaff, we're already being bombard with the Next Big Thing. For those of us who want to learn more about a specific technology, a Google search might be as effective as anything else.
posted by neurodoc at 3:02 PM on November 12, 2010
For example, here's an editorial on the new gallium nitride LED process that seems to put a damper on the story.
Unfortunately, by the time we can separate the wheat from the chaff, we're already being bombard with the Next Big Thing. For those of us who want to learn more about a specific technology, a Google search might be as effective as anything else.
posted by neurodoc at 3:02 PM on November 12, 2010
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MIT's Technology Review feed
posted by The Lady is a designer at 1:37 PM on November 12, 2010