October 31, 2014

Great inventions require long-term investments

Published in The Atlanta Business Chronicle

By Michael Cassidy

How did the invention of glass come to transform humankind? Why did one man’s addition of a poisonous chemical to a city water supply change the course of sanitation? And how did a naval blockade contribute to an air-conditioned South that continues to grow?

These are a few of the questions being addressed in a fascinating series on public television that began airing this month. “How We Got to Now” shows how elements we take for granted, such as sound and light, evolved into products we could not do without today.

A central point in this six-part series is that great invention requires time. “We have a tendency to think of innovation as light-bulb moments,” remarked host Steven Johnson in an interview promoting the series, “but that almost never happens.”

By way of example, Johnson references Galileo. While sitting in an Italian cathedral as a teenager, Galileo fixated on a suspended lamp swinging overhead. This simple demonstration of motion and physics stayed with him: Decades later, Galileo applied the principles of that swaying lamp to invent the pendulum clock.

Today, waiting decades for a solution to strike seems like a luxury. Many major challenges confront our world, none of which is solvable in the immediate future. At the same time, the speed of technological change has distorted our expectation for results. The last 10 years alone brought a revolution in electronics and computing. Apple rolls out new and improved technology every few months. How can we not be a little impatient with the discovery of solutions to other problems?

An unsettling juxtaposition has arrived. In a period of history when we most need to be investing in long-term answers, we are the least inclined to wait for results.

But a close look at university-based research in our nation – and the companies emerging from campus labs – reminds us of the benefits that come from committing to the long view. Georgia universities, for example, have already given us the world’s most-prescribed treatment for HIV, powerful new defenses against cybercrime, a leading treatment for dry eye and a roster of other major inventions. And the portfolio of other promising enterprises that have recently arrived or are on the way is equally impressive.

These are companies that address real needs. Take sensor technology being developed at Georgia Tech. Newly launched startups are marketing sensor products that forecast heart failure, detect real-time impurities in the environment and pinpoint water usage and leaks anywhere in home plumbing.

It’s no surprise that such startups are a key component of Georgia’s economic development strategy. By investing in a pipeline of discovery and invention – and in programs that seed and shape enterprises that will yield high-value jobs – our state is doing what needs to be done to ensure economic growth in the years to come.

This research and entrepreneurship also signify that Georgia’s doing its part to answer the questions that keep us awake at night. And that’s important. The imagination and investment of others in years past explains how we got to now. How we get to the future is up to us.