A recent study from Stanford reveals that among tech companies, innovation drops by 40% after going public. The report showed that at public tech firms, research becomes less ambitious and top inventors are more likely to leave.
Thankfully, someone forgot to send Google that memo.
At Google, it’s still about high-risk, high-reward. It’s about the moonshots.
From the cellular level to the galactic, Google is still changing paradigms and making magic.
It hasn’t lost the innovation bug yet, and it doesn’t seem like it will happen anytime soon.
Let’s start with the small stuff — and I only mean in terms of size.
Cells Within You: Project Calico
To be completely honest, I had to pick my jaw up from the floor after reading about this one.
Through its $730 million funding of Calico, Google is taking on the R&D to ultimately prevent death.
Researchers at Calico hail from a range of disciplines and backgrounds but are now working together to manipulate the biology that controls lifespan.
“Our common experience suggests that there may be hereditary factors underlying longevity, but finding the genes responsible using standard techniques has proven elusive,” David Botstein, Calico’s Chief Scientific Officer, said in a statement.
How exactly? I’m not even sure they know that yet.
The project remains fairly secret, and not even Larry Page expects dramatic advancements for at least 15 to 20 years.
Still, Project Calico is one of the most ambitious undertakings at Google to date.
Clothes Upon You: Project Jacquard
Rather than push wearable technology that’s already been done, like a watch or wristband, members of the Project Jacquard team have been working to figure out a way to weave conductive yarn into the textiles we already wear every day.
At Google’s I/O 2015, Jacquard’s project leader, Ivan Poupyrev, told the crowd, “Don’t think about it as a technology you have to use. Think of it as an awesome denim jacket you buy because you want this denim jacket. On top of that, this jacket can have these amazing capabilities.”
The material can be woven into any fabric and will turn your clothing into an interactive surface.
This technology isn’t going to disrupt your life; it’s meant to weave seamlessly into your existing routine (literally and metaphorically).
Imagine pajamas that can turn off your lights.
Maybe a coat that will close the garage door.
Forget to set the alarm? Just swipe your jean pocket.
Jacquard has already partnered with Levi Strauss to create interactive jeans, although neither has declared a release date as of yet.
When they do, this is going to be way cooler than your uncle’s light-up ugly Christmas sweater.
Machines Beside You: Google’s Robot Army
I love my Roomba, I think Watson is charming, and I genuinely mourned the loss of the adorable HitchBot.
But the robots I’m talking about now — the robots Google is currently developing via its 2013 acquisition of Boston Dynamics — belong in an entirely different league than the cylindrical gadget that cleans my floors.
Boston Dynamics has been producing cutting-edge robotic technology since its inception in 1992. The company is notorious for its pack of animal-esque machines, the newest member of which is a 170-pound quadruped named Spot.
Below, you can see one of the BD engineers trying to kick Spot over:
Despite the rather violent force exerted by the engineer, Spot maintains his balance. I should probably just submit to the robot overlords now, because this machine is already more balanced and coordinated than I.
Ian, a human-shaped robot from Boston Dynamics, has managed to perfectly recreate the quintessential scene from The Karate Kid. Ian’s crane pose is on point. There’s another strike against me.
In all seriousness, Google and its partner firms are making incredible strides in the world of robotics.
Ray Kurzweil, Google’s engineering director, expects 2029 to be the year when robots achieve human levels of intelligence — doing everything we can do, but better.
If we only have 14 years left, we better make the most of them.
Google is working on that, too…
Earth Beneath You: Google Earth Outreach
Google Earth might seem like old news at this point.
But it’s no longer just about mapping the planet — it’s about saving it.
HALO Trust, a landmine removal organization, has partnered with Google Earth Outreach to remove explosive remnants from war-torn countries — particularly Cambodia and Angola.
Environmentalist groups have discovered new plant and animals, protected endangered species, and prevented illegal deforestation and other environmental damage.
Google Earth Outreach works with Save The Elephants to track animals in danger of being poached. By visualizing the movement patterns of the elephants, the nonprofit is able to determine which areas need increased monitoring and protection.
In Sumatra, the WWF created a narrated tour using a Google Earth platform. The program catalogued maps of the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest, home to several endangered species of tiger, rhino, elephants, and orangutan.
The maps were used to convey the impact that aggressive logging projects would have on animal habitats and effectively prevented dramatic environmental damage.
Efforts from Google Earth Outreach and the WWF partnership mean that these two adorable best friends can snuggle in peace whenever they want:
Wind Behind You: Project Makani
When team members from the Google X Project Makani visited Pigeon Point in California, the windiest location in North America, they were hoping for failure.
It’s the mantra at Google: Fail fast, learn fast.
So the team took a kite to a place where wind speeds and directions often reach opposing extremes in mere seconds. They wanted the kite to crash, tangle with the tether, or fail to launch.
But it didn’t.
The 84-foot “kite” (which actually looks more like a small airplane) reached the intended altitude of 1,400 feet, performed its circular flight path, and sent a continuous 600 kilowatts of energy through the conductive wire tether down to the ground station.
The Project Makani team might have been disappointed, but I’m not.
This successful flight means we have finally developed a low-cost wind turbine that generates 50% more energy but uses 90% less material.
Project Makani kites are more aerodynamic than conventional wind turbines. The kites can reach higher altitudes where the wind is more consistent. They will not be limited by terrain or lack of wind activity.
The kites have proven capable of withstanding gale-force winds and hurricane conditions. If wind speed slows, built-in propellers will stabilize the flight and keep the kite aloft. If wind is entirely absent, the kite will dock at its ground station until ideal conditions restore.
Even though wind power efforts have increased, it still only provides for a fraction of the world’s global energy supply, limited mostly by cost and geography.
These have been the greatest hurdles to the expansion of wind power, and now they are obsolete.
Sky Above You: Project Loon
Earlier this week, one country declared that in just a few months, it will become the first nation on this planet to provide 100% network connectivity to every person and device within its borders.
The Internet groundbreaker? Sri Lanka.
How it’s doing it? Balloons.
Members of Google’s Project Loon have created solar-powered polyethylene plastic balloons capable of floating at stratospheric, high-pressure altitudes. The thickness of the balloons is barely more than the plastic that wraps your loaf of bread.
It took some time, as the team initially battled forces of nature — especially high-altitude winds, air pressure, and a range of stratospheric temperatures.
I love the story of Project Loon.
It was nearly shut down in 2012 until the team decided to really get creative. It began employing expert seamstresses, ex-army rangers, amateur balloonists, and aerospace engineers. Project Loon was going to take a village.
Now, just one balloon will provide 3G Internet speeds to an area as large as 5,000 square kilometers.
Project Loon will bring Internet access to millions of people who do not have it. It’s already helped students in Brazil and farmers in New Zealand experience an Internet connection for the first time.
In today’s world, access to information is one of the largest factors that determines socioeconomic status, and the Internet is the hub of information.
The implications of spreading that to the rest of the globe are endless.
Universe Beyond You: SpaceX
Back in 2011, Elon Musk openly declared he would only need a maximum of 20 years to send humans to Mars. Soon after, he wants to establish a colony of 80,000 people on the red planet.
Google has already committed $1 billion and significant manpower in support of Musk, who is currently in a revenue-generation phase to financially support the city on Mars.
Google’s investment doesn’t necessarily mean it is building the Mars colony, but it definitely proves it supports fellow big thinkers — fellow magic makers.
British Sci-Fi author Arthur C. Clarke said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Silicon Valley, Google, and its other leaders have produced more advancements in the past few decades than the entire human race has done in all existence. I think of that valley as the place for dreamers — where science fiction novels are maps and how-to guides, and nothing is impossible.
Fortunately, while Apple is busy figuring out new ways to trick people out of realizing they’ve been re-buying the same phone for the past 10 years, Google is still making that magic Clarke was talking about.
Yours in wealth,
Jessica Sheppard