Give It One Shot
After creating the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk left billions on the table when he didn’t patent his vaccine. He famously explained: “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” From The Atlantic: On the 100th anniversary of Jonas Salk’s birth, his son Peter talks about the backlash against vaccines and other human factors that make it difficult to eradicate deadly viruses.
+ Slate: The polio vaccine isn’t patented. Today’s Google Doodle about Jonas Salk is.
+ Of course, Google is in the health business as well. Right now, they’re working on “a system for early detection of disease that involves ingesting specially ‘painted’ nanoparticles that target various molecular harbingers of disorder.” (Once the nanoparticles pass through your digestive tract, they are released as vaporous contextual ads.)