Innovation is often perceived as a solitary affair—a single engineer or scientist laboring late into the night in desperate search for the next new idea. But increasingly, in this world where innovation carries big gambles and even bigger rewards, invention has become a group effort, requiring an incubation machine that brings together a diverse group of individuals with often vast resources. There’s California’s Silicon Valley and its New York counterpart Silicon Alley. But, in exploring innovation, World Policy Journal set out to identify the next loci of scientific and technological creativity—the new incubators. We’ve settled on three locations—Finland, especially its Otaniemi forest, Singapore, and Israel’s Silicon Wadi. We asked writers in each of these nations to profile the pioneers, probe its DNA, and help us understand the origins of the peculiar flair that each spot brings to the creative process.
OTANIEMI, Finland—Arriving at this Finnish innovation center, you find yourself...
