Two ends of the innovation chain

Often, innovations do not follow a linear pathway

Perovskite is mineral calcium titanate, discovered in the Ural Mountains in 1839, the same year that Jamsetji Tata was born. As many as 168 years later, perovskite is at the heart of an exciting solar technology. Describing examples through this column, I had earlier averred that the time lag between scientific invention and commercialisation is long. Readers pushed back because (a) innovators don’t straddle the value chain from science to consumption and (b) anyway, timelines are declining with new technologies. For example, a coin-sized chip branded BatEye, has been placed on the bat in the ongoing Champion’s Trophy games; it