Better Mousetrap

It’s the perennial dream: build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. We go to San Jose’s famed Tech Museum to learn what it takes to turn a good idea into a grand success.

Remember the Super Soaker squirt gun? Hear how its inventor is now changing the rules for solar energy.

Where do good ideas come from? A Eureka moment in the bathtub? We’ll find out that it doesn’t happen so quickly – or easily.

And finally, the life cycle of society-changing technologies, from the birth of radio to the future of the Internet.

Inventions, inventors and innovation: all part of the mix on “Better Mousetrap.”

Guests:

• Steven Johnson - Author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
• Lonnie Johnson - Inventor and former NASA engineer; CEO of Johnson Research and Development Company
• Tim Wu - Professor of Communication Law at Columbia University and author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books)
• Alana Connor - Vice President Content Development, The Tech Museum, San Jose

Descripción en español

Originally released February 7, 2011

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