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Can We Build Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs?

January/February 2012

Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That’s bad news not just for the country’s economy but for the future of innovation.

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Letter from the editor

Building the Future

Features

  • Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That’s bad news not just for the country’s economy but for the future of innovation.
  • Categorized in 17037

    The Chinese Solar Machine

    Chinese manufacturers have ­dominated the international ­market for conventional solar ­panels by ­building bigger ­factories faster. Now they will need to ­innovate to maintain their lead.
  • With 3-D printing, manufacturers can make existing products more efficiently—and create ones that weren’t possible before.
  • Once, we stored our photos and other mementos in shoeboxes in the attic; now we keep them online. That puts our stuff at the mercy of companies that could decide to throw it away—unless Jason Scott and the Archive Team can get there first.
  • Categorized in 17035

    The Mystery Behind Anesthesia

    Mapping how our neural circuits change under the influence of anesthesia could shed light on one of neuroscience’s most perplexing riddles: consciousness.

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