Bright Ideas from Canberra’s Boffins, Bureaucrats and Businessmen

There’s so much more to Australia’s capital than politicians and roundabouts, and this book reveals the full  extent of the inventions and innovations to come out of Canberra.

To author Peter Dawson, Canberra is an ideas city, and his book lists many of the brightest and best to have come from smart bureaucrats, connected academics and innovative start-ups. From CSIRO’s success in developing wi-fi, to printable solar cells and a vaccine for the Hendra virus, to the commercial entrepreneurs who developed GPS devices for sportspeople, to work on quantum cryptography, machines that prevent drivers from falling asleep, the development of optical fibre, wearable computers, body armour, ways of tracking space junk, breakthroughs in cancer, diabetes and HIV research and ground-breaking IT start-ups.

Creative Capital tells the stories of the multitude of ideas, inventions and discoveries that have come from the Canberra region and achieved global success, based on interviews with the people concerned, and recounting their struggles and successes.

For a region of just 2,300 square kilometres, it’s astonishing to learn just how far the ACT punches above its weight. Read it and be inspired.