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
Originally released February 7, 2011
