# Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/loonshots-how-to-nurture-the-crazy-ideas-that-win-wars-cure-diseases-and-transform-industries/
- Published: 2019-04-01T17:55:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? Why do traffic jams appear out 
of nowhere on highways? What can we learn about innovation from a glass of water?**

In _Loonshots_, physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new
way of thinking about the mysteries of group behaviour and the challenges of nurturing
radical breakthroughs.

Drawing on the science of phase transitions, Bahcall shows why teams, companies,
or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to
rejecting them rigidly, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle 
ice.

Oceans of print have been written about culture. _Loonshots_ identifies the small
shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature 
controls the change from water to ice. Using examples that range from the spread
of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and
geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand
the fate of companies and empires. _Loonshots_ distills these insights into lessons
for creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries everywhere.

Over the past decade, researchers have been applying the tools and techniques of
phase transitions to understand how birds flock, fish swim, brains work, people 
vote, criminals behave, ideas spread, diseases erupt, and ecosystems collapse. If
twentieth-century science was shaped by the search for fundamental laws, like quantum
mechanics and gravity, the twenty-first will be shaped by this new kind of science.

_Loonshots_ is the first to apply this science to help all of us unlock our potential
to create and nurture the crazy ideas that change the world.

## Reviews

“A witty, invigorating exploration of human behaviour and discovery.”
**_Nature_**

“An ambitious and entertaining effort to lay out some fundamental laws of success
and uncover the truth about successful group behavior… Bahcall makes the whole idea
sing by bringing in references from across business, history, cinema and science.”
**
_Financial Times_**

“This book has everything: new ideas, bold insights, entertaining history and convincing
analysis. Not to be missed by anyone who wants to understand how ideas change the
world.”
**Daniel Kahneman**, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of _Thinking, 
Fast and Slow_

“A wonderful book that explores the beauty, quirkiness and complexity of ideas, 
_Loonshots _will both educate and entertain you. If you care about ideas — especially
new and out-of-the-box ones — you need to read this book.”
**Siddhartha Mukherjee**,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of _The Emperor of All Maladies_

“Loonshots is a brilliant and wonderfully entertaining book, an unstoppable read,
full of surprises and rich with insight into how people create and nurture things
that change the world. It’s also an important book. Bahcall, a physicist and biotech
entrepreneur, is unfolding the secrets behind successes everywhere.”
**_Richard 
Preston_**_, New York Times bestselling author of The Hot Zone and The Wild Trees_