A Measure of Science

Markets and the scientific method

Shaun Hendy • Jul 06, 2011

• Economics,
• innovation

I went undercover last week at the New Zealand Association of Economists conference to see what they had to say about innovation.  Not so incognito was the Undercover Economist, Tim Harford, Financial Times columnist and author of several highly entertaining popular economics books, who delivered the opening keynote address at the conference.  In this post I will … Read More

Professor Hendy retires

Shaun Hendy • Jun 27, 2011

• collaboration,
• CoREs,
• evolution,
• hendy

The Allan Wilson Centre ca 2002. Penny and Hendy are second and third from the left in the back row. No, it’s not me … it’s my Dad, Mike Hendy, who retires this week from his Chair in Mathematical Biology at Massey University in Palmerston North. Not surprisingly, people often ask me whether I am related to Mike Hendy.  Hendy … Read More

Lifting New Zealand’s productivity through R&D

Shaun Hendy • May 24, 2011

• innovation,
• productivity

It gave me a warm glow to see innovation put at the heart of Labour’s new policy offerings this week.  As I said to the Herald last week, I held no optimism for R&D in the 2011 Budget: “Both our government R&D spending and our business R&D spending is pretty tragic, both in terms of our percentage of GDP … Read More

Sir Paul Callaghan on sustainable economic growth

Shaun Hendy • Apr 20, 2011

• innovation,
• paul callaghan,
• productivity

Another great talk from Paul Callaghan, available on YouTube: Paul argues that New Zealanders have earned their prosperity by exploiting their environment.  Not only does this bust the myth that we are clean and green, Paul points out that we are poorer for it:  in fact, this strategy has seen our GDP … Read More

The New Zealand Innovation Ecosystem Map

Shaun Hendy • Apr 14, 2011

• collaboration,
• innovation,
• networks,
• nz

Ten days ago we released a map of New Zealand’s largest inventor network using Google Earth to geo-locate the inventors in New Zealand. The map revealed some interesting connections between companies and public sector research organisations that at first sight may have seemed unrelated. It also showed that Kiwi inventors are collaborating across the country, with Auckland well connected … Read More

New Zealand’s largest inventor network: A glimpse of our innovation ecosystem

Shaun Hendy • Apr 04, 2011

• innovation,
• networks,
• patents

We have been experimenting with ways to represent the inventor networks that we can extract from patent databases.  In this post, I will focus on New Zealand’s largest inventor network, as extracted from 30 years of European Patent Office (EPO) data.  The network gives us a glimpse of New Zealand’s innovation ecosystem. At the left is a … Read More

How to shut down a nuclear reactor

Shaun Hendy • Mar 16, 2011

• Fukushima,
• japan earthquake,
• Nuclear power

As Japan deals with the after-effects of its strongest earthquake on record and an even more devastating tsunami, the world’s attention is focussed on the Fukushima nuclear power plant.  The plant houses a number of nuclear reactors, which, despite being shut down during the earthquake, need to be carefully managed to ensure that the nuclear fuel is kept cool.  This … Read More

The world’s biggest inventor network

Shaun Hendy • Nov 08, 2010

• eresearch,
• innovation,
• networks,
• patents,
• running hot

I have been on the road recently giving my talk on evidence for agglomeration and networks in the international patent record.  Over consecutive weeks I gave talks at the the New Zealand Association of Scientists meeting in Wellington, NZ eResearch Symposium at the University of Auckland and then at Running … Read More

Critical mass or is mass critical?

Shaun Hendy • Oct 20, 2010

• critical mass,
• innovation,
• networks,
• patents,
• productivity

In research and development, it’s often taken for granted that teams require a certain critical mass to be successful.  Indeed, in a recent paper [1] two European researchers claim to have seen the effects of critical mass in the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and its French equivalent (HT: Mark Wilson).  However, … Read More

Quantum computing

Shaun Hendy • Oct 06, 2010

• quantum mechanics,
• Radio NZ

On Thursday evening, I will be talking about quantum computing on Bryan Crump’s radio show (Nights, Radio New Zealand National, 8.42pm, 7 October).  Bryan and I have had several conversations on the workings of contemporary computing technologies, from quantum mechanics to transistors, and then on to how transistors are assembled into integrated circuits.  … Read More