＊ 原文为义大利文，有英语部分书稿
 
这本书讲的是已经发生的事，而这些事情已经改变了我们的生活，对有些人来说，可能还改变了生命。虽然你可能没有特别明显的感觉，但是这些生活中的创新，却实在许多方面都为人们的生活开启了新的篇章。
 
从摩卡壶讲到冲锋枪，从滑鼠讲到西方的义大利面。或许我们没有每天喝咖啡吃义大利面，当然，也不可能使用冲锋枪，但大部分的现代人，几乎天天都会用到滑鼠。这个世界已经改变了，一个简单的点子，带来非凡的影响力，不管是文化、技术、运动、电影、饮食…等等，都出现了变化。这些东西都始于毫不起眼的好奇心，而它们最终，带来了大改变。
 
 
关于作者
Massimiano Bucci是University of Trento的科学、科技以及社会教授，他同时在亚洲、欧洲以及北美担任过多次的拜访教授。他写过超过10本书，同时有不少文章刊登在国家报刊上，包括Nature、Science 以及Public Understanding of Science。他经常在意大利最重要的报纸之一La Repubblica提供文章。他过去的作品《牛顿的公鸡》Il Pollo di Newton (Newton’s Chicken)已翻译成多国语言在各地出版：芬兰、巴西、葡萄牙、韩国、西班牙、拉丁美洲。
 
目录
Introduction
 
1868, the keyboard  you are using right now. Every innovation follows from tradition.
 
1963, the Audiocassette. Good innovation ages but never dies.
 
1847, Semmelweis and disinfection in surgery. When innovation can save lives.
 
1933, the moka coffee maker. Great innovation can learn also from washerwomen.
 
1974, a barcode on a chewing gum bar. You don’t need to be an inventor to innovate.
 
1934-1938, italian  ‘contropiede’ twice world champion. Necessity is the mother of innovation.
 
1947,  the kalashnikov: a soldier invents the real mass-destruction weapon. The power of user-driven innovation.
 
1979, the walkman. When technology is not enough (and music goes promenading).
 
1969, the Exploratorium. The “touchable science” of the uncle of the atomic bomb. Innovating to forget the past?
 
1890, the modern bycicle. You wanted innovation, now you pedal!
 
1958, the plastic credit card. Never judge an innovation from its appearance.
 
1968, the fosbury flop.  Sometimes to innovate one has to go backwards.
 
1909,  the ammonia synthesis.  When innovation has two faces, like Batman’s enemy.
 
XI century-XVII century, the fork. The strong connection between innovation and culture (especially at the table).
 
1971, columbo revolutionizes crime tv series. Innovating by challenging conventions. 
 
1988, the mp3 format. Did technology (and Suzanne Vega) killed the music industry?
 
1730, a watchmaker solves the longitude problem. Innovation comes from where you least expect it. 
 
1990, how to support healthcare in africa? with wheels and mechanics , of course . The power of low-tech innovation.
 
1947-1962, and Everybody Said “paradigm”. How changed our way of looking at change.
 
1903-1933,  monopoly. Innovation in a pluralist society .
 
1968, the mouse: the mice that brought computers into our homes. No innovation is an island.
 
1901, the nobel prize.  The greatest invention from the man who had 355 patents 
 
1968,  the synthesizer brings the sound of the future (and bach) on top of the charts. If you cannot convince your audience, change audience!
 
1873,  the barbed wire. Innovating by imitating nature.
 
1962,  Rachel Carson’s silent spring. Birth of the modern ‘environmental awareness’.
 
1869, the periodic table of elements. Innovating to save space in books.
 
1958, Tennis for two: a physicist invents the first videogame to attract visitors to his lab. Innovation paths are inscrutable also to the very innovators. 
 
1988, queue management systems. Technologies to discipline users.
 
1964, a fistful of dollars “invents” Spaghetti western. Everything you think about  innovation is wrong.
 
1910, the visionary who invented the web a century before. When innovation comes too early
 
1952,  the cells of a forgotten patient change the history of medicine. modest witnesses and unwilling protagonists of innovation.
 
1933, the london tube map. New schemes for underground travelers.
 
1971-1974, total football. Innovators and losers?
 
1810, Food becomes portable and global.Sealed cans, open innovation.
 
1966, the slow journey of safer cars. Technology was there, society not yet.
 
1929, the countdown. One of the key symbols of space exploration is introduce by….a movie director
 
1964, two technicians of a phone company discover the Big Bang ‘echo’. The importance of serendipity.
 
1899, the mousetrap, eternal dream of innovators. The longstanding strength of simple innovation
 
1970, PSA test. When innovation overwhelms and confuses innovators themselves.
 
1961, superheroes with superproblems. No  innovation is so perfect that it cannot be improved.
 
1802, the invention of clouds. The amateur that changed our way of looking at the sky.
 
1965, the man who lived in the future. Imagining yesterday the innovations of tomorrow.
 
1973:  two  twenty-something,  fifteen bars and some bells revolutionise the record industry. The importance of being virgins.
 
2014, the thousand dollar genome. Birth of ‘home made science’?
 
Postcript: Innovation is us.  Technology, society, responsibility.
For a few ideas more (further readings)