Innovation Power Unencumbered

What happened between 1930 and now at this Chicago touring corner? In a revolutionary adaptation, the icon Merchandise Mart became a huge example of best environmentally sound practices and obtained the coveted LEED building certification. Environmental innovation also threaded Chicago ScienceFest at the now famed 1871 incubator facilities on the 12th Floor on Saturday, May 22. 

Ingenuity, energy and positivism permeated. Is the government too slow to support solar energy? No problem, convert your own apartment to power from the sun through significantly cheaper and easier-to-use solar panels and a little inventiveness. Are oil spills damaging water bodies? Extend the use of the Oleo sponge by Argonne Lab. Used in previous oil spills, it is a sponge that absorbs oil from water that can be rescued for re-usage. Could the same technology expand its absorbing properties to other oily contaminants and debris? It is potential untapped.

Is virtual reality good for other things than playing cool games? Yes, to tell vivid stories and to bring us to places we have never been or cannot get there.  Conservation International presented VR micro-documentaries on forest and ocean preservation efforts by indigenous groups with rights to 20% of tropical lands and waters with the highest biodiversity available on earth. Majestic and emotionally narrated by locals, the real VR experience was compelling even for the most reticent environmental agnostic. 

Mechanical innovation is working along the environment and nature. Beyond electric cars, what about the grid? A vision of a localized energy grid using batteries and solar panels is likely to reduce massive amounts of energy that are lost in transport or that never convert into the different devices that distribute energy. Are savings to be had after initial investment? A full test of this vision has not been created yet. At a smaller scale, the U. S. Department of Energy cites various studies of millions saved in alternative energy projects in addition to the benefits of a cleaner environment. 

Humans as the most valuable and underdeveloped resource was evident in several presentations about sleep’s role in refreshing and recalling knowledge and in extraordinary new research about the brain composition of trillions more connections than the Milky Way. At the physical level, human micro-biome early studies are opening a universe of potential for personal medicine and health. A few years after the initial human genome was mapped, micro-biomes of individual bacterial systems that contain more non-human cells that human cells are professor and scientist Jack Gilbert’s subject of study at the Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology at Argonne National Laboratory. The ecology of this microbial cells interaction with humans is creating new possibility and changing paradigms about bacterial exposure. Balancing or strengthening good bacteria versus bad bacteria is beginning to shed light on new natural combined with medical curing methods.

Curiosity and zest for better solutions in daily living joined audiences and expert presenters alike. Nature’s equable inheritance to every human is an underlying truth in scientific exploration. The concern for understanding and engaging in positive action towards preserving the natural environment and humans role on it was palpable. Environmental and nature sciences discovery and innovation is bursting with interest and economic potential. 

A mix of naïveté, new knowledge and energy was apparent. Even new granola snacks, tasty new drinks and a gigantic dark chocolate bar screamed innovative in solid new ways.  Some of the developments discussed were in its infancy, others were feasible technically today but running against investment barriers and established process. What would happen if a larger proportion of the personal, corporate and national investment was directed and focused on to high-probability, high-payout new science and technology? Could some of these innovations stemming, supported and inspired from natural environments leap economic development into a sustainable future?

Each generation faces challenges that shape their values. Today, young and old are united in the need to learn, preserve and coexist with nature. People care not just for philanthropy purposes, but as a way of living, of growing as individuals, cities and nations. How much better we can do than previous generation is the quest.

Leading businesses are taking the initiative to sponsor environmentally sound investments and practices. More need to follow. Broad policy change will require uniting people, business and government towards unleashing the power of individuals and technologies. 

Talking about evolving science and technology is not an authorization to cavalier attitudes towards what it really takes to bring an idea or lab finding to successful commercialization. It is just the first step. Disciplined approaches to quality standards and system adoption follow.  

Professor Bobby Kasthuri, University of Chicago, referenced at the Chicago Science Fest presentation his favorite two scientists-philosophers Popper and Kuhn. Popper advocated that science ultimate work is to prove wrong false theories (Black Swans) about every fifty years with new evidence. Kuhn believed in science’s mission to discover surprises, to switch paradigms. Is it time to switch our paradigm about the environment?

Many are pursuing further understanding from the scientific perspective. Others are taking into their hands what seems innate to humans, to coexist healthily with our surroundings as beautifully portrayed in the new PBS Series The New Environmentalist. In Chicago, Science Fest and the many 1871 tenants, show discovery of technology, science and practices that have impact. Throughout the state, the Environment Illinois Center encourages citizens, universities and government to join in a 100% Renewable Energy path and provides research to support this cause. 

Could an old building become a new modern model of environment smartness? Yes, it did. Could this phenomena happen in small and big ways in business? Yes, it can. Chicago ScienceFest gave a glimpse of possibility. Should we make possibility real?

Yes, we should.