They are similar to the more familiar electron, with one crucial difference: neutrinos do not carry electric charge. Because neutrinos are electrically neutral, they are not affected by the electromagnetic forces which act on electrons. Neutrinos are affected only by a “weak” sub-atomic force of much shorter range than electromagnetism, and are therefore able to pass through great distances in matter without being affected by it. If neutrinos have mass, they also interact gravitationally with other massive particles, but gravity is by far the weakest of the four known forces.

Particle physicists originally believed that neutrinos were massless. But in the 1990s, a team of Japanese scientists discovered that they actually have a smidgen of mass. This tiny bit of mass may explain why the universe is made up of matter, not antimatter. Early in the process of the Big Bang, there were equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but as the universe expanded and cooled, matter and antimatter were mostly annihilated. And a slight asymmetry favored matter over antimatter. Neutrinos may have something to do with that process.

Studying neutrinos is difficult. They’re tough to detect since they interact so weakly with other particles. But the newly-completed IceCube Neutrino Observatory will study neutrinos inside a cubic kilometer block of ice in Antarctica. Here’s how: when the neutrinos interact with atoms inside the deep arctic ice detectors, they sometimes give off puffs of energy.

OPENMIND RELATED ARTICLES

Globalization and Science: One Physicist’s View, Ramamurti Shankar

The world after the revolution: physics in the second half of the twentieth century, José Manuel Sánchez Ron

Today, science is broader and deeper than it was at the beginning of the 20th century, but it is also more siloed, more pragmatic, less daring. One wonders, what are the big theories of the 21st century, the new answers to old questions that could define knowledge — and stimulate technology — 100 years hence?

It may be useful to think about science’s recent development — from breakthroughs by individuals like Einstein, Curie, or Bohr to well-planned research programs involving teams of scientists — as analogous to companies, which start out small and innovative. Something valuable and audacious is lost when they grow into billion-dollar megacorporations. As Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen explained in his book, The Innovator´s Dilemma, large companies tend to ignore disruptive innovations and focus on what they perceive as the demands of their current customers. They forget that real business value comes from creating new market opportunities. Henry Ford, who produced the first affordable automobile, is claimed to have said, “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better [or, in some versions, faster] horse.” The quote may be apocryphal, but it helps to make this point: Rather than improving already existing products and services, disruptive innovators create demand for products and services that customers don’t yet know they need. Such novel markets were dubbed “blue oceans” by INSEAD business school professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in their book Blue Ocean Strategy.

Coming up with disruptive ideas is a job great scientists do, too. Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and Einstein’s theories of relativity are examples of blue oceans opened up by disruptive scientists. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult for scientists to practice disruptive science. The academic career puts pressure on immediate results, continuous publication, and countless academic and administrative duties, especially early on. Meanwhile, there is little incentive for scientists to be ambitious. Increased specialization of scientific research, pressure to pursue mainstream topics, and the difficulty of obtaining grant money for the most audacious projects encourage scientists to focus on the incremental.

We need cumulative science. Gaps need to be filled. Questions others asked need to be answered, t’s need to be crossed and i’s dotted. But incremental thinking is unlikely to get us far in addressing the biggest challenges that we face today. From clean energy to malaria, from climate change to safe water for all, we need our best scientists to think up disruptive ways to expand our toolbox and provide radically new solutions.

So, how do you become a disruptive scientist?

Of course, personal predisposition plays an important role. Some people are by nature more critical, creative, and bold than others. But there are things we can do to improve our ability to make fundamental advances. Here are some practical tips:

• As a student, take courses outside your major subject. Whatever your “second passion” is, spend some time learning about it. If you don’t have one, find one. Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College after one semester but stayed around long enough to attend a course in calligraphy. Jobs once said, “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts” — features that made Apple unique and attracted legions of customers.

• If you’ve just graduated, hop around the world for a year. Traveling to faraway countries with little planning and lots of curiosity is possibly the single most powerful learning experience. Later in life, repeat the experience as frequently as you can, even if it’s only for shorter periods. On your next vacation, visit a country with a different tradition, culture, and language. Talking to people who don’t share our deepest beliefs and priorities is mind opening. There is also a benefit in putting yourself in situations where finding a solution requires determination, flexibility, empathy, and patience: getting a hotel room without knowing the language, or moving around a country without train or bus schedules.

• Make a point of cultivating variety and fighting inertia. Work schedules, family commitments, and other responsibilities make many days a mere repetition of the day before. The most interesting thoughts and learning experiences usually take place outside your comfort zone. Try activities you think you will enjoy but never had an opportunity to try. Use your free time more efficiently so that there’s time left over to bring some novelty and creativity into your programmed life.

• At work, most scientists talk mainly to other scientists, and most of the time those scientists are from the very same discipline. Join a sports club or attend community events. Spend time talking to people with backgrounds, interests, and jobs as different as possible from science. Find out what they care about, how they learn about their subjects, how they solve problems, and what their main challenges are.

• Another way to encounter new ideas and perspectives is to read widely. Most people visit the same Web sites, read the same sections of the same newspapers, and buy books from the same area in the same bookstore. Add new interests. Ask friends, family, colleagues, and other acquaintances to recommend favorite books, Web sites, or movies.

• Similarly, when you read scientific journals, spend time finding out about other people’s research, especially research beyond your discipline. Read the news section of journals and keep a close eye on controversial topics: synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, the use of nanomaterials in medicine. This is where new and exciting knowledge is likely to develop. Keeping track of how society reacts to certain scientific topics could help you anticipate what societal needs and concerns should be addressed.

• Attend interesting conferences on topics outside of your field. At the international conferences you go to, attend one or two sessions outside of your area. Approach people you don’t know during lunch and at coffee breaks. Ask them about the problems they are working on.

• When working in the lab, try to prove yourself wrong. If your idea is not working no matter how hard you try — and even when it is working — challenge your hypothesis. Assume your initial assumptions were wrong. Plan and execute your work accordingly. This will help you brainstorm new ideas, get new data, and increase your probability of success.

• Ask yourself, “What do I really want to contribute to? What big problems do I want to solve?” and then work hard to make them a reality. You are more likely to make an impact if you work on something that is important to you.

For young scientists in particular, disruptive research is not an easy path to publications, grants, or peer recognition. So, in the early-career stages, it is sensible to have one conventional project where you work hard to get the results you need for your thesis, postdoc, or grant while spending some of your time on an ambitious, high-risk project. Over time, you can increase the time you spend on high-risk projects and start to develop a longer-term vision.

But do not wait too long. If you wait until you’re well established to do disruptive science you will spend your more productive and creative years doing incremental research. And most likely you won’t change tracks once you are established.

The support of your supervisor is essential, as it can be difficult to distinguish a wacky idea from a brilliant one. Do not choose your adviser solely on the size of his group, grants, and track record. Choose a person who is open-minded, not averse to risk, and will give you leeway to explore side projects. Konstantin Novoselov discovered graphene while doing “a Friday night experiment;” such experiments were encouraged by Andre Geim to get his lab members to try crazy ideas. The two shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010. Whatever your crazy idea, get the support of your adviser to help you do solid and rigorous work.

If you are a project leader, you can do several things to help scientists working with you become more disruptive. Build a culture of respect and tolerance for others’ backgrounds, opinions, and individual qualities. Encourage critical thinking by challenging the most accepted ideas and asking others to challenge yours. Run constructive and well planned lab meetings with substantial time and attention spent on new ideas and projects. Recognize people’s successes and contributions. Allow and encourage your researchers to spend a small percentage of their time pursuing novel ideas. To maintain its competitive edge, Google allows its engineers to spend 20% of their time on pet projects. Some of the most successful products launched by Google in recent years are the fruit of those ideas.

Over the last decade, Google has been one of the most innovative companies in the world, but now they are large and established. Like many large companies, they promote disruptive innovation in an effort to avoid being overtaken by smaller, more creative companies. How successful they will be at resisting the lure of safety remains to be seen.

Many of society’s most urgent problems cannot be solved by improving technologies we have today. We need bolder solutions and radically new ideas. These won’t be found in crowded ponds but in unexplored blue oceans. We need a new generation of disruptive scientists, the kind of really creative people who can imagine such new places and transport themselves — and us — to those places.

By Javier García Martinez
Originally published in Science

OPENMIND RELATED ARTICLES

What place for science in our culture at the “end of the modern era?”, Gerald Holton

Science, innovation and society: shifting the possibility frontier, Francisco González

The world after the revolution: physics in the second half of the twentieth century, José Manuel Sánchez Ron

The first in this series of collaborations will be Javier García Martínez, 2007 winner of the prestigious TR35 Prize, awarded by the MIT magazine, Technology Review. Javier García Martínez is a specialist in nanotechnology, professor and Director of the Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory of the University of Alicante (Spain) and co-founder of the company called Rive Technology. 

El libro se nutre principalmente de los informes del IPCC, y más concretamente del cuarto informe de evaluación publicado en 2007, además de incluir resultados de investigación generados recientemente en el grupo de trabajo del que forma parte Sergio Alonso.

¿Hablamos del cambio climático? es una publicación dirigida al público general, que contiene conocimiento científico pero también historia, precisiones terminológicas, decisiones políticas y otras particularidades, en un intento del autor por conjugar las diferentes vertientes del fenómeno, sin perder la referencia del rigor científico.

El libro se puede adquirir a través de la Web de la Fundación BBVA junto con información completaría de acceso gratuito: Introducción del autor, Índice y Nota de autores. Adicionalmente se puede disponer del contenido íntegro de la publicación a través de GoogleBooks.

Sergio Alonso es uno de los autores de OpenMind con mayor influencia dentro de la comunidad. Su artículo “Cambio de clima en el planeta tierra” ha recibido más de 350 descargas y está accesible de forma gratuita en PDF y para ebook: formato Kindle y epub. Accediendo al perfil social de Sergio Alonso podéis contactar con él directamente y comentar sus publicaciones.

 ARTÍCULOS DE OPENMIND RELACIONADOS:

• Cambio climático provocado por el hombre, Wallace S. Broecker
• Mobilidad geográfica en un mundo condicionado por el clima, John B. Heywood
• Innovación y cambio climático, Eduard S. Rubin
• El Jardín del Edén Amenazado: ecología y biología de la conservación, Carlos M. Duarte de Quesada

Nos ha encantado..

Para nosotros ha sido un placer poder contar en esta primera colaboración con la figura del pintor cartaginero Angel Mateo Charris, autor de las ilustraciones del cuarto libro de OpenMind, Valores y Ética para el siglo XXI. 

A través de una veintena de obras Charris representa libremente la temática de cada autor y la pone a disposición de los miembros de la comunidad de forma abierta y compartida.

Desde la home page OpenMind podréis visitar y  ampliar las ilustraciones hasta llegar al artículo relacionado, o bien acceder directamente a la Galería para conocer mejor la obra de los artistas, que progresivamente iremos incorporando junto con nuevos contenidos.

OpenMind contiene los libros publicados hasta ahora por BBVA, así como los que se editen en el futuro, y pueden ser leídos, descargados, comentados y valorados por un público mucho más amplio del que puede tener acceso a los libros físicos . Pero, sobre todo, es un espacio para que los autores, junto con otros especialistas y cualquier lector interesado, puedan interactuar en un marco abierto y multidisciplinar, en el que temas generales se abordan desde distintas ópticas; un marco, en suma, propicio para el debate y la generación de nuevas ideas y nuevas vías para expandir el conocimiento. Esperamos que OpenMind se convierta en una herramienta valiosa que nos ayude, junto con nuestros proyectos editoriales, a hacer realidad nuestra visión: BBVA, trabajamos por un futuro mejor para las personas.

El título de este año se ha concebido como una contribución al conocimiento y al debate sobre una cuestión fundamental de nuestro tiempo: el papel de la ética en la sociedad global del siglo XXI. Creemos firmemente que la difusión y la adopción general de principios morales compartidos por todos es fundamental para aprovechar las enormes oportunidades que el avance científico y tecnológico nos ofrece, en favor del bienestar y la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos del mundo – de nuestra generación y de las que vendrán-.

El mundo en el que vivimos está cambiando de forma acelerada, por impulso del avance tecnológico y de la globalización. La velocidad, la profundidad y la escala de los cambios a los que se ven sujetos los ciudadanos de hoy ponen en cuestión continuamente muchas cosas que creíamos o sabíamos hasta ahora, -o que creíamos que sabíamos-.

Este proceso genera incertidumbres, desajustes y conflictos tanto a nivel social, enfrentando a sectores que toman actitudes y visiones diferentes respecto a los cambios, como a nivel personal. Y esta inquietud se ha visto exacerbada por la crisis económica y financiera que, entre otros problemas del sistema global, ha puesto de manifiesto las carencias éticas en la actuación de muchas entidades y ha situado de nuevo a los valores en el primer plano de las demandas de los ciudadanos, como brújula para sortear las incertidumbres y como factor de estabilidad para afrontar las crisis y los conflictos.

Nuestra intención con este libro es discutir cómo podemos entender y utilizar los principios éticos universales para afrontar los grandes desafíos que nos plantea el siglo XXI. Para ello, hemos contado con la colaboración de algunos de los mayores expertos mundiales en este tema: John R. Boatright, Joseph H. Carens, Thomas Clarke, Richard T. de George, R. Edward Freeman, Mervyn Frost, Geert Hofstede, Bernardo Kliksberg, Peter Koslowski, Hans Küng, Andy Miah, Carl Mitcham, Mollie Painter-Morland, Reinhard H. Schmidt, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Robert A. Schultz, Peter Singer, Charles Taylor y Mary Warnock.

El libro se divide en cinco partes: la ética en un mundo global; la ética en la ciencia y la tecnología; ética, desarrollo, pobreza y medioambiente; la ética en los negocios; y, finalmente, la ética en las finanzas. Los autores han hecho un gran esfuerzo por ofrecer, sin merma del rigor, visiones claras de los grandes retos éticos en sus áreas respectivas e, incluso, propuestas tangibles, comprensibles, para afrontar algunas de las grandes cuestiones éticas de nuestro tiempo.

Espero y deseo que sus lectores disfruten y extraigan tanto provecho de él como nosotros en la tarea de editarlo.

Francisco González
Presidente BBVA

Entre las iniciativas más valoradas por los autores del informe se encuentra OpenMind que nació con el objetivo de difundir el conocimiento de una manera más amplia, abierta y participativa, creando una comunidad que busca compartir el conocimiento para un futuro mejor. Tomando como base los libros que cada año publica BBVA, que constituyen una serie de artículos sobre temas de máxima relevancia e interés general escritos por figuras de primera línea mundial, la página pone en relación al mundo académico con un público interesado no especialista.

El informe destaca otras iniciativas como el portal de responsabilidad corporativa de BBVA, bancaparatodos, que ha conseguido en poco tiempo convertirse en el mejor reflejo de la estrategia del Grupo de “trabajar por un futuro mejor para las personas”. Entre sus principales puntos fuertes destacan el canal en YouTube, el perfil en Twitter y las informaciones y regularidad de sus publicaciones.

También destaca Friends&Family, la primera plataforma de crowdfunding impulsada por un banco en España haciendo uso de las últimas tecnologías de cloud computing. Los clientes particulares pueden publicar su sueño, un objetivo que pretenden alcanzar, y el portal les proporciona todas las herramientas necesarias para definir, difundir, gestionar y recibir los ingresos económicos dentro de un entorno seguro y con la confianza de BBVA.

Social Media Sustainability Index

El índice, elaborado por SMI-Wizness, ofrece un análisis en profundidad de las mejores prácticas de comunicación de la sostenibilidad en medios sociales. Este año han sido seleccionadas 100 compañías líderes que han conseguido reflejar los valores fundamentales de los medios sociales en la comunicación de la sosteniblidad de su entidad.

Los principales criterios en la selección de estas empresas han sido la capacidad de facilitar información útil, el compromiso con la sociedad, la transparencia, la regularidad en la actualización de las plataformas de comunicación, la creatividad en el storytelling o la capacidad para compartir informes de RC, entre otros.

Este esfuerzo de detección, recopilación y adopción de la mejor innovación  alrededor del mundo, daría respuesta al reto de crecimiento económico futuro global y evitaría que la primera potencia mundial, USA, tuviera que depender para ello de la adopción de tecnología, conocimiento y capital humano extranjero.

Según DeVol, las naciones con habilidad para innovar y las mejoras condiciones para nutrir e incentivar el emprendimiento, serán capaces de sostener un ecosistema económico y social diversificado, que reforzará a largo plazo el crecimiento económico.

Durante la ceremonia de investidura de su segundo mandato el presidente de EE.UU, Barack Obama, hacía hincapié en este mismo concepto al afirmar que “el primer paso para lograr el éxito económico es promover el proceso de innovación Americano”.

Y aunque algunas de las respuestas al reto de la innovación puedan venir del propio US, según Ross DeVol no será posible salir victoriosos si no se incorporan las mejores ideas de innovación que se están produciendo con éxito en otros países.

ARTÍCULOS RELACIONADOS

La revisión del desarrollo económico: ¿cómo ha contribuido la innovación a la lucha contra la pobreza?,  Manuel Mira Godihno

El cambio tecnológico y la evolución del sistema nacional de innovación estadounidense en el periodo 1880-1990,  David Mowery

Dos dinámicas de conocimiento para la innovación,  Hiroyuki Itami

Neuroscience -the science of how the brain make decisions- is questioning whether much of our business cycle is driven by fluctuations in “animal spirits”: something in the mind not understood by economists.

We recommend that you read “The Neuroeconomics Revolution” by Robert J. Shiller, and also these two related articles of the community OpenMind: The Economy of the Firm by V. Salas and Frontiers Research in Economics by J. Esteban, as well as “Stories of Neuroscience: Dali and Freud’s mind” by J. Alonso.

“Freud’s portrait” by Dali