A British invention, the Real-Time Anti-Poaching Intelligence Device (RAPID), hopes to help halt the dreadful predation of rhinoceroses by poachers. To satisfy the deluded belief that there is some magical medicinal power to be found in rhino horn (made of keratin, like my fingernails) it is estimated that an African rhino is killed every six hours. At current rates they will be extinct by 2035. Madness! Rhino horn is literally worth its weight in gold – hence the high inci

The British Female Inventor and Innovator the Year (BFIIN) is now in its 13th year. Entry is now open and nominations are sought. Closing date for entries is 1st July. These prestigious awards will be presented at a glitzy ceremony in London on 14th October 2015. This is an open competition bringing together and putting the spotlight on incredible top inventive and innovative women from across Britain. The emphasis is on exceptionally creative items, inventions and innovat

Alan Dower Blumlein was one of the great inventors you may well have never heard of. His inventive genius was compared to that of both Edison and Faraday and in his tragically short career he amassed 128 patents. These included the first stereophonic recordings, microphones, television and radar. His expertise as an electronics engineer was un-paralleled and, to honour his many achievements, a commemorative 'Milestone Plaque' is to be unveiled in his honour. On April 1st,

If you, like me, are fascinated by the stories of inventors and their wonderful inventions then you're in for a treat on BBC2 (and BBC iPlayer) at present. 'How We Got to Now' is airing on BBC2, Saturday evenings, 7.35pm. Conceived and presented by innovation expert and best-selling author, Steven Johnson, this series of six programmes explores and explains how inventions have shaped and changed our world - sometimes in the most unexpected of ways. Johnson is an amiable and

Are you the next Dyson? Do you have the next invention to set the world on fire? The Gadget Show Live, now in its 7th year, is seeking entries for the British Inventors’ Project. The brief reads as follows: “We are looking for 20 of the very best inventions and innovations to be included in the specially created Gadget Show Live British Inventors’ at the 2015 show. So, if you design devices that are set to shape our future or have innovative technological solutions to som

But miracles take a little longer! So goes the oft-seen harassed office workers notice. Perhaps this is a good description of the Longitude Prize 2014. The challenge: to create a cheap, accurate, rapid and easy-to-use point of care test kit for bacterial infections. No small ask, but let me crystallise your thought processes, there’s a TEN MILLION POUND prize at stake! Why the Longitude Prize? Well, the name echoes the original £20,000 (in its day - 1714 – a fortune) ch

I don’t usually like to anthropomorphise but I couldn’t help but be moved by this image of a lone, washing machine sized robot, floating in space some 350 million miles away from earth. OK, I know it’s not Wall-E, trundling around cleaning up a dystopian earth, but Philae has literally been bouncing around a comet. Wow! With all the ups-and-downs of the last few days I can’t help but find myself rooting for the little guy. Will his batteries fail? Will he be able to dril

James Roberts, a design and technology graduate, has scooped the coveted 2014 James Dyson Award for his incubator 'MOM'. The winning design provides a collapsible incubator unit for use in troubled areas of our world. Incubators with similar capabilities cost some £30,000 - James's unit can be manufactured and shipped for £250! James Dyson (who was the ultimate judge) said: "James' invention shows the impact design engineering can have on people's lives. The western world t

With only a few weeks to go before the winners are announced, the James Dyson Foundation have released a list of the twenty finalists who will go forward to be judged by Sir James himself. The finalists are an eclectic mix of talented design students from around the world who have produced some really interesting and useful work. Their entries positively "fizz" with ingenuity and inventiveness. Finalists include: MOM, a portable incubator system for refugee camps; Bruise -

Three cheers and congratulations to the inventors of the Blue LED light. Isamu Akasaki (Japan), Hiroshi Amano (USA) and Shuji Nakamura (Japan) have won the coveted prize for physics. Developed in the 1990's, the invention of the Blue LED was absolutely crucial because it is the essential missing-link, between existing Red and Green LED's, to enable low cost and efficient White light. However, this award is not without controversy. Seeing red (if you'll excuse the pun) is P