Patenting the bomb: nuclear weapons, intellectual property, and technological control

During the course of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government secretly attempted to acquire a monopoly on the patent rights for inventions used in the production of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The use of patents as a system of control, while common for more mundane technologies, would seem at first glance to conflict with the regimes of secrecy that have traditionally been associated with nuclear weapons. In explaining the origins and operations of the Manhattan Project patent system, though, this essay argues that the utilization of patents was an ad hoc attempt at legal control of the atomic bomb by Manhattan Project administrators, focused on the monopolistic aspects of the patent system and preexisting patent secrecy legislation. From the present perspective, using patents as a method of control for such weapons seems inadequate, if not unnecessary; but at the time, when the bomb was a new and essentially unregulated technology, patents played an important role in the thinking of project administrators concerned with meaningful postwar control of the bomb.     

Innovation and firm growth in high-tech sectors: A quantile regression approach

We relate innovation to sales growth for incumbent firms in high-tech sectors. A firm, on average, experiences only modest growth and may grow for a number of reasons that may or may not be related to innovative activity. However, given that the returns to innovation are highly skewed and that growth rates distributions are heavy-tailed, it may be misleading to use regression techniques that focus on the ‘average effect for the average firm’. Using a quantile regression approach, we observe that innovation is of crucial importance for a handful of ‘superstar’ fast-growth firms.     

From classified to commonplace: the trajectory of the hydrogen bomb 'secret'

The secret of the hydrogen bomb went from being an icon of nuclear secrecy to something that could be widely reproduced on the Internet and in children's textbooks. The rise and fall of the H-bomb secret reveals both changing attitudes towards state secrecy in general and the contingent nature of secrecy, depending on an imagined threat as guidance.     

服务创新与网络:全球学习与本土学习的模式

从第三、第四欧共体创新调查(CIS-3、CIS-4)的实证结果,可得出以下结论:在创新过程中,服务企业一般比制造企业有更高的合作倾向,尤其是商业和金融中介服务行业.数据还揭示了这样一个重要趋势:商业服务企业比其他服务企业更倾向于合作.国际创新合作的趋势也表明不同的行业和不同国家中的情况也不一样.本文探索了不同区域的服务创新的相互影响,确定创新过程中全球及本土合作联系的部门性模式.全球互动在一些服务行业的创新过程中发挥着日益重要的作用,这些服务行业在知识的跨国传播中也发挥了作用.这个全球性的学习过程与这些服务活动市场的国际化有关.同时,实证结果表明地区/国家间的合作对多数服务活动实际上是非常重要的.     

Teaching students to estimate complex probabilities of board game events through simulation

Students are typically introduced to probability through calculating simple events like flipping a coin. While these calculations can be done by hand, more complex probabilistic events, both in class and in the real world, require the use of computers. In this paper, we introduce a new tool—an R shiny web app and associated CRAN package based on the board game “CamelUp”—to help students explore these probability calculations through simulation in a fun context. Through this app and in conjunction with the board game Camel Up, we present some sample activities for helping students better understand and make in-game probabilistic decisions.