Media Coverage
20 September 2019
How I Test Bold Ideas
Back in 2005, Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft colleague, showed me a long scientific paper on an innovative nuclear reactor and introduced me to the lead author, an inventive physicist named Lowell Wood who would go on to beat Thomas Edison’s record for the most U.S. patents in history. Lowell claimed that this reactor could satisfy “much of humanity’s requirements for electricity in the 21st century.” I was skeptical, but also intrigued.
19 September 2019
Review: Netflix documentary on Bill Gates reveals chaos, determination and love ‘Inside Bill’s Brain’
“Nuclear reactors are not the thing you get into if you want to win popularity contests. Eliminating polio is a lot more popular.” — Nathan Myhrvold, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures Lab.
08 August 2019
Five big ideas from Nathan Myhrvold, the original ‘mad scientist’ from Microsoft
In a talk to Hacker News Seattle and Cofounders Connect, Myhrvold shared five big ideas on using AI to diagnose disease, quantum metamaterials, the challenges of robotic pizza, open-source furniture, and the future of television.
11 July 2019
Why the Stodgy Old World of Bread Is Ripe for Innovation
Myhrvold’s latest tome, Modernist Bread, digs not into the modernist world of fog and foams, but the uber-traditional world of bread. Though it may not seem like the logical next step, Myhrvold is passionate about the idea of taking something so rooted in the old and finding a way to innovate. We sat down with him to talk about embarking on his love of cooking, how words like artisanal get stripped of all meaning and what it costs to take on such a massive project.
28 June 2019
Wine-Spilling Robots Provide a New Way to Look at Food
Nathan Myhrvold takes pictures of food, just like the rest of us. But with robots, microscopes, and a machine shop.
16 April 2019
Nathan Myhrvold on the Transformative Powers of Metamaterials
Metamaterials have patterns that can be programmed to interact with light in ways that normal materials can't. Nathan Myhrvold explains the uses for metamaterials in areas such as 5G and autonomous vehicles, and discusses the different tech startups that Intellectual Ventures is investing in.
16 January 2019
Washington state’s tech billionaires pour cash into global health
Gifts from pioneering philanthropists have equipped the US state for a frontline battle against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Myhrvold says that the state has a range of specialist enterprises that make it particularly attractive to those involved in this sort of work. “The Seattle area is the Silicon Valley of saving the world,” he says.
19 December 2018
“Modernist Breadcrumbs” podcast dives into the history, science, and art of bread making
All 16 episodes, which aired from Oct. 4 2017 to Dec. 19, 2018, are now available free online.
22 August 2018
Two (Totally Opposite) Ways to Save the Planet
The environmentalists say we’re doomed if we don’t drastically reduce consumption. The technologists say that human ingenuity can solve just about any problem. A debate that’s been around for decades has become a shouting match. Is anyone right?
14 May 2017
Inside the Invention Factory of Polymath Nathan Myhrvold
This confidant of Bill Gates wants to reinvent how inventions are born. He created a huge patent library and a “start-up factory” that has produced prototypes of nuclear reactors, antennas and radars, but also 900 new bread recipes...