Idea Translation Lab Series

The Idea Translation Lab explores ways to create environments that promote idea generation and exchange outside the constraints of commercial markets. These cultural environments have ranged from art and design centers, like Le Laboratoire in Paris, to unusual restaurants. New ways of thinking and behaving are critical to addressing the large challenges of tomorrow—we need places where we can explore where news ways of thinking and behaving lead us.

Below are the in-print works in this collection. Sort by title, author, format, publication date, or price »

Cover: Niche

Niche

Edwards, David
Cantor, Jay

The authors introduce a new fiction genre—the novel catalogue—to coincide with the opening of the art and design innovation center in Paris, Le Laboratoire. The book fictionalizes the creative process of an exhibition season which opens with the artistic outcome of an experiment between Fabrice Hyber, a French artist, and Robert Langer of MIT.

Cover: Whiff

Whiff

Edwards, David

Whiff is the new novel by David Edwards (“Séguier”). It derives from an actual experiment performed in Paris at the art and science innovation center Le Laboratoire. In this latest experiment, the double-Michelin-starred chef Thierry Marx collaborated with the colloidal scientist Jérôme Bibette to introduce a new way of encapsulating flavors. Wishing to present these delectable capsules in an unusual way, Edwards and a group of students developed a new way of eating by aerosol, called whiffing. Whiff is also accompanied by the first “whiffing” recipes.

Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To), by Jack Schneider and Ethan L. Hutt, from Harvard University Press

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From Our Blog

Jacket: Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500, by Peter Wilson, from Harvard University Press

A Lesson in German Military History with Peter Wilson

In his landmark book Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500, acclaimed historian Peter H. Wilson offers a masterful reappraisal of German militarism and warfighting over the last five centuries, leading to the rise of Prussia and the world wars. Below, Wilson answers our questions about this complex history,