Lowell Wood – the quiet genius

By Dan Crimmins on January 11, 2016 in Behavioral Factors in Investing

Last month we had a post on the U.S. being the #1 country for innovation. You can read the post here: Keeping the Edge: US Innovation. As a follow-up, this post will discuss the most prolific inventor that you likely have never heard of. His name is Lowell Wood.

The more famous inventor Thomas Edison in the 1930’s.

Last July, Lowell Wood received his 1,085 patent from the U.S. Patent Office which surpassed the much more famous inventor Thomas Edison who held the record at 1,084. Lowell is still going strong at the age of 74 and currently has 3,000 more patent applications pending.

His innovations cover the gamut from developing products such as anti concussion helmets, drug-delivery systems, super efficient nuclear reactors—anything, really, that might address some pressing need. He believes that humans are on the verge of tremendous improvements in many areas.

He is currently consumed with a project to develop a one-time, universal vaccine. Wood stated, with this universal vaccine, “you’d be able to grab a newborn—literally right out of the uterus—pinch its thigh and push the stuff in, and all their pediatric vaccinations are done.”

His quote of people’s belief that we are “on the decline” is spot on:

It’s irrational. It’s frankly illiterate to not be optimistic. We’re going to see a blossoming across essentially every front, unprecedented in human technological history. This is not something that’s hoped for. This is baked in the cake.

This belief is one that all investors need to maintain. In the long-term, we will be better off and these achievements will benefit the sales and profitability of the great companies of the world. This increasing profitability will award the investors in these companies.

A great article about Lowell Wood was written by Ashlee Vance who is the technology writer for Bloomberg Businessweek. The article can be found here:

“How an “F” student became America’s most prolific inventor“

Ashlee gives a quick video discussing the article as well which can be found here:

Lowell Wood Video:

A more optimistic view of our future will be hard to find.

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