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The original article for this post was actually carried by the BBC News a while back, but I thouht it was worth some

discussion here.

The news announcement in question talks about some work done by Steve Rimmer’s research group at the University of Sheffield. Their research is basically about how to generate lumiscence when a specific biological binding happens. What this would enable is that when one of the customized tags they create comes into contact with the specific pathogen it is specific to, the tag will generate

luminescence. Their work focuses primarily on the tag design coupling the work in flourescent

polymers with the work on biological specific binding agents. I really like that their application is in portable detection of pathogens or bio-threats. To

the right is an image of anthrax (Top:not using this technique) and the second image is one from the Rimmer group website looking at bio-luminescnence detection (specifically: Bottom: Micrograph showing fluorescent particles inside dermal fibroblast cells (blue = particles, red = F-actin)). One specific application the article mentions is the ability to spread a gel of their material into a open wound and quickly determine the presence of bacteria or instance.

I think this is an excellent example of convergence in technology to solve problems. In this case they are combining advances in portable optics and microelectronics, the large biochemistry advancement in target specific binding, and their experise which is the design of highly specialized polymeric units designed for light emission and luminescence. This is a perfect example of “Convergence Problem Solving”, leveraging advances in adjacent fields with your core piece of expertise of technology to really do something beyond the scope of any of the individual pieces of technology you are combining.

Look at this post for how I use this as the basic example for a creativity and ideation examples.

Here are a couple interesting articles thrown together here for your clicking pleasure.

1.  Guy Kawasaki has a great post talking about some studies on which is more effective:  a raise or a bonus?
2. Innoblog  has a great post on Cisco pulling an  “if you can’t beat em buy em” move purchasing WebEx for $3.2 billion.     Seems to me a great example of a large company  co-opting a disruptive technology for themselves.
3. Innoblog has another post on  an example of entering your market with a more expensive product/service positioned against non-use as opposed to fighting the dominant and lowest cost supplier in an already developed market. For those of you familiar with “The Innovator’s Solution” or “Seeing what’s next” will recognize this as an example strategy from these texts.
4. Seth Godin Points to Amazon adapting the citation model so popular in the science citation index.  Which books link to your favorite book and which books does your favorate reference?
5. Endless Innovation points to this article on Wired blog about the history of the computer mouse.  Interesting to remind yourself how that ubiquitous interface we all use started and developed to what it is.

I was exploring  who had viewed my site on MyBlogLog.com last night and ran across this entry while “visitor surfing”. The “in-your-face” nature of the images was what first caught my eye, but then I  realized that there was someone more important or at least interesting about these images.  Someone has innovated on the shopping bag. Here are a couple of the images:

Whether you want to call this an innovation or just a good example of marketing (advertising on shopping bags is not new)  is up to you.  Either way it is a great example of someone taking a shopping bag to another level in potential impact.  If you can do this with the shopping bag, something that each one of us has probably touched thousands of times in our lives, then you can probably do this in your own field.

Another interesting part of the images is that they are possible because of the well known functional interface that we all have agreed on for shopping bags.  In the first 2 images the advertiser makes use of the fact that he can count on people using the handle thus enabling his design to work.  Although the 3rd image may be strictly accidental, the same could be said for a shopping bag with long strap intended to be slung over the shoulder.  These images also shows that the most common items are sometimes difficult to improve on because we have all standardized on their use.  We all look and use shopping bags all the time just accepting the use interface, life expectancy, disposability, limitations, and level of usefulness.

• What is a common product, service, or method that use everyday that could be improved?
• What functional interface in your product, service, or method can be used to bring new/improved value?
• Where can clever or shock advertising be used effectively to sell your product?

(original images from max.blog.az)