Here is my advice to students considering pursuing science:

—Learn how to learn (science is progressing so rapidly that whatever field you are focused on today will inevitably be different 10 years from now)

—Learn how to develop focused attention (i.e. avoid modern day distractions like Twitter)

—Master multiple science disciplines—If you can bridge disciplines you will become invaluable.

—Develop a fundamental understanding of scientific principles versus learning the latest scientific tool.

—Learn how to articulate science to all different types of stakeholders—this will be essential to getting the funding you need to pursue your discoveries.

—Science is an apprenticeship business, so find mentors early—even though science is based on rational thought it is conducted in an irrational environment.

—Learn how to embrace serendipity—most of the important discoveries don’t come from linear thought

—Grasp an early intuitive feel and understanding for extremely large or small numbers (10^ -20 and 10^ 20) and probabilistic phenomenon—Science exploration occurs at these extremes so it is just as important to understand these numbers as it is to understand what a 10 Trillion dollar debt is.

—Learn the history of science—All great new things come from combinations of old things.

—Future scientist needs to also be engineers—The best scientist will need to be able to engineer their own tools.

—Attend the 2022 USA Science & Engineering Festival!

(Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital also contributed to this post)

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[Editor's Note: This post was co-authored with Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital]

1. The Rise of Celebrity Science

Nations, cultures, economies all get what they celebrate. Celebrate celebrities and we’ll have another generation of over-consumptive, over-indebted, overweight, underemployed citizenry. But celebrate scientists: thinkers, doers, achievers, explorers, inventors, creators and we stand a shot at restoring the very human capital that led to the rise of what made our nation great. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. So I founded the largest-ever celebration of science, the USA Science & Engineering Festival, to inspire and galvanize a force of young scientists keen to invent, explore, discover and create. 1 million participants is a good start, just 299 million to go.

2. The Rise of the IPO

Nearly a decade has passed without a blockbuster set of IPOs. Hints abound that the resurgence of an IPO market is upon us. The rise of secondary markets swapping shares of Facebook and other social-networking darlings prove there is pent-up demand and that capital is ready, willing, and able to once again fund high-flying companies that didn’t exist a few years ago and are the essential companies of tomorrow. Groupon, despite having 500 competitors and being founded only two years ago may be the fastest company in history to get to a billion dollars in revenue.

3. The Rise of the Tablet

The iPad was just the start. Samsung’s Galaxy and a slate of other touch tablets will continue seizing netbook and laptop share. When we get over the buzzword and just start calling the “cloud” the “Internet” again, people will also see that the prophecies of George Gilder and Sun’s Scott McNeely—that the network is the computer—were correct all along.

4. The Rise of Nuclear & EVs

My partners at Lux Capital always tell entrepreneurs to shave with Occam’s Razor: find the simplest solution. In energy it’s nuclear power, and the electrification of everything, including cars. Watch for just-out-of-stealth startups like Kurion that are solving … Next Page »

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[Editor's Note: Lux Capital's Josh Wolfe and Shahin Farschi also contributed to this post.]

In terms of the difficulty of the turnaround needed, it’s telling that Detroit derives from the French word for strait—a narrow passageway—symbolic of the chances Detroit really has for re-invention. It will take radical action, hugely energetic leaders, and messianic spokespeople to bang the drum for renewal and galvanize a depressed populace to squeeze through against the pressures of obsolescence.

Our ideas for the Motor City:

—Use the excess auto manufacturing capacity to build batteries, electric motors, renewable power and wind power chassis systems, which of course has been a theme of Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration.

—Lure software engineers from Washington and California to build better mobile apps and services—the Ford-marketed SYNC is a start—but leaves much to be desired.

—Create a for-profit expert consulting hub modeled on the Gerson Lehrman Group that can be used to employ a core of displaced, highly skilled design, CAD, automation engineers to serve clients in other regions.

—Bulldoze Hamtramck, except for the big warehouses; turn them into “exploratoriums.“

—Make local government officials spend at least a year traveling around the world—so they don’t think the universe has been modeled after Michigan.

Editor’s note: To help launch Xconomy Detroit, we’ve queried our network of Xconomists and other innovation leaders around the country for their list of the most important things that entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan can do to reinvigorate their regional economy.

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Here are my top 10 innovations that are coming to the forefront in 2010. Of course, none of these would be possible without the economic engine that is embodied by the USA Science & Engineering Festival, which is creating the innovative minds of the future.

1) High-tech treatment of nuclear waste, a technology that solves the key bottleneck to new nuclear growth and old nuclear cleanup. Example: stealth company Kurion of New York, NY.

2) Coal to Liquid Technologies are the culmination of decades of innovative processes now ready for widespread commercialization. That makes abundant U.S. coal a clean fuel. Example: Accelergy of Houston, TX.

3) LEDs for clean water. Using ultraviolet light emitting diodes (LEDs), which operate at 265nm—the optimum wavelength for germicidal disinfection—represents a breakthrough in water purification. Example: CrystalIS of Green Island, NY.

4) Nanotechnology is transforming cancer treatment by using precise targeting of out-of-control cells, which limits the harsh side-effects of poisoning people with chemotherapy and burning them with radiation. Example: Cerulean Pharma of Cambridge, MA.

5) Rapid Vaccine discovery. Quickly evolving antigens need quickly evolving vaccines. Example: Genocea Biosciences of Cambridge, MA.

6) Wireless TV & Video at 60GHz cuts the cords and the messy morass of connecting wires to create higher quality in-room wireless video area networks. Example: SiBeam of Sunnyvale, CA, with offices in San Diego, Tokyo and Seoul.

7) Efficient data centers at light-speed. By integrating high-performance optics directly with silicon-based electronics, it is possible to bring “fiber to the chip” connectivity to market. Example: Luxtera of Carlsbad, CA.

8) Touch-screens so cheap they’re disposable. Nanostructured materials offer display devices and components with enhanced performance at a lower manufacturing cost. Example: Cambrios of Sunnyvale, CA.

9) Powerless Memory, using the magnetism of electron spin. Technology innovation makes it feasible to store information in magnetic material integrated with silicon circuitry to deliver the speed of SRAM with the non-volatility of Flash. Example: Everspin Technologies of Chandler, AZ.

10) Bio-algae produced fuels. Using the tools of modern biotechnology to identify and optimize strains of algae for the production of biological oils as a substitute for petroleum-based crude oil. Example: Sapphire Energy of San Diego.

[Editor's Note: As the decade comes to an end, we've asked Xconomists and other technology leaders around the country to identify the top innovations they've seen in their fields the past 10 years, or predict the top disruptive technologies that will impact the next decade.]

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Just a few days before we kicked off the month-long San Diego Science Festival in March, I wrote a post for the Xconomist Forum that concluded, “if we mean to achieve the essential goal of reviving American Science, the San Diego Science Festival is poised to provide an important start.”

It proved to be a daunting task: 30 days; 350 collaborating organizations; 500 free events; 200,000 participants. So, what did I learn from spearheading this event? (More on that later.) And why am I taking on an even larger initiative—the creation of the first National Science Festival in Washington D.C.?

One reason is because it matters. It matters because scientific breakthroughs are crucial to our innovation economy. It also matters because our leadership in science and technology innovation is central to the way we view ourselves as Americans. From Ben Franklin to Thomas Edison and Burt Rutan, we see ourselves as ingenious, entrepreneurial, independent, and inventive.

Our goal for the inaugural San Diego Science Festival was to celebrate science with a science party because—to quote inventor, entrepreneur and FIRST Robotics founder Dean Kamen—“Society gets what it celebrates.” What he means is that if scientists are perceived as boring and science careers as dull, Nobel Laureates can’t compete with rock stars or sports heroes in the minds of our nation’s youth. But if scientists are perceived as cool and sexy, then perhaps our next generation can see science careers as a way to improve the world. So our goal was to create the festival as a fun opportunity for our community and or city to come together to discover, explore, discuss, be amazed, and be inspired.

We modeled the San Diego Science Festival after popular science festivals in Europe and Australia. These festivals last seven to fourteen days, and draw between 100,000 and 1 million people to celebrate science through inspiring lectures, hands-on activities and exhibits, contests, theatre, comedy, poetry, art, film, and music—all celebrating science.

To make a lasting impression among San Diego’s youth, our month-long festival rolled out in a progression:

—First, we brought scientists to … Next Page »

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As we hurtle headlong toward the second decade of the millennium, the lines between traditional scientific disciplines become blurrier each day. The high school standards for chemistry, biology, physics and math have been refined by modern scientific theory and super-charged by advances in technology, spawning myriad sub-disciplines and off-shoots that are highly interrelated and interdependent. Engineered algae used to fuel jet planes, microprocessors modeled after the human nervous system used to drive computers, anti-collision devices modeled after the locust’s visual system—these are but a few of the growing multitude of examples of the frequency and efficacy of cross-collaboration in contemporary science.

Unfortunately for America, an alarming trend has arisen in the past few decades: a dearth of home-grown scientists to advance the national and global scientific agenda. Would-be domestic organizations are increasingly being forced to turn their collective institutional eye toward Asia for qualified researchers and innovators. This begs the question: What went wrong, and how do we fix it?

In reflecting on my own academic and professional pursuits, as well as those of my broadly-defined “scientist” colleagues, a common theme that resonates is one of “passion, stoked by curiosity and delight.” My initial interest in science arose because the subject matter was both intriguing and—quite simply—fun, resulting in my participation in helping to spawn 40+ high tech and life sciences companies such as Illumina, Neurocrine, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals,Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Nanosys. The old adage about aspiring to have one’s work be play is nowhere more evident than in the sciences. It is only in this spirit that an American scientific revival will ignite and gain momentum, and it is up to us in the scientific community – both its academic and business members – to ensure that this occurs.

It is in this vein that the San Diego Science Festival was hatched. Planned as one of the largest multi-cultural, multi-generational, multi-disciplinary celebrations of science ever seen on the West Coast, the festival will descend on San Diego with more than 500 activities across the county, beginning this weekend and continuing through March. From the science of earthquakes to the physics of skateboarding to the mathematics of juggling, the San Diego Science Festival promises to make science accessible, interactive and fun, highlighting the impact of science and innovation on our daily lives. You can find our schedule of events here.

The grand finale will be the Science Festival’s all-day expo in Balboa Park on Saturday, April 4, 2009. This free event features hands-on science for everyone, from the smallest child to even the most established scientist. Expo-goers can learn the latest ways to conserve precious water resources one drop at a time, discover how the cars of tomorrow will resemble Cuisinarts, test their abilities operating a da Vinci surgical robot, or immerse themselves in a virtual reality environment. In addition, scientific comedians, magicians, authors and stage shows will captivate and excite any aspiring scientist from 9 to 99 years old.

The San Diego Science Festival is partnering with more than 350 organizations – leading businesses and organizations in the community that wish to offer their guidance, financial support and time to help teach the scientific leaders of tomorrow. Our collaborators range from LegoLand California to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and include many of San Diego’s eminent universities, museums, libraries, and research institutions, as well as the aerospace, life sciences, and advanced technology companies that bring scientific research to life as innovative products and technologies. In addition to the funding I have provided as festival co-host—and despite the down economy—we have been able to raise more than $600,000 from co-host Lockheed Martin and others to fund this month-long celebration of science. The complete list of our generous sponsors is here.

Inspirational fun and learning for the participants, collaboration by a wide variety of organizers, participants and sponsors, a showcase for San Diego’s finest scientists and scientific organizations – if we mean to achieve the essential goal of reviving American Science, the San Diego Science Festival is poised to provide an important start.

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…is coming soon.

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