Big banks are closing branches and focusing on sales of high-margin products. Meanwhile, innovative small banks are getting creative to compete

The association of white with virtue and black with sinfulness is deep

THE virtuous are often said to be as “pure as the driven snow” while villains are frequently described as having hearts of coal or blackened souls. And the metaphor is made flesh (or, at least cloth) in many plays and films where the baddy wears black and the goody white. But how deep does the metaphor actually run, psychologically speaking?

The way medical X-rays are generated is over 100 years old. Time to update it

WHEN Wilhelm Röntgen, a German physicist, was carrying out some experiments in 1895, he stumbled across a type of radiation which he labelled simply as X, because he did not know what it was. His X-rays did not remain unknown for long, however. Doctors seized on them to look inside living bodies and, later, engineers used them to examine the interiors of mechanical components. What has not changed much since Röntgen’s day, though, is how they are made.

In an effort to stem its global slide, Honda introduces veteran engineer and R&D head Takanobu Ito to lead the automobile company

Much attention of nanotechnology researchers has recently been paid to the fabrication of free-standing, ultra-thin films. These systems have been developed for use in a wide variety of fields such as nano-separation membranes or nanosensors for electrochemical and photochemical applications. In a first report on the fabrication of free-standing nanosheets for biomedical applications, scientists in Japan have developed a biodegradable thin film of only about 20 nanometers thickness that could replace surgical stitches.

Companies from Boeing to Sepracor are retaining innovation consultants to get a head start on economic recovery

Earlier this year, BusinessWeek asked readers how they would advise their boss to boost innovation internally. Only 3% of the 614 respondents said they would hire an outside innovation and design firm. In fact, hiring an outside firm was the least popular solution. (Other options included internal crowdsourcing, which got the most votes, or hiring a chief innovation officer.) 

Despite the recession—or because of it—MasterCard, Disney, and others are asking all employees to brainstorm

On July 24, MasterCard (MA) will host a Webcast of PowerPoint slides and short videos on various directions the company could take once the U.S. economy turns up again. The online presentations will feature findings from seven members of an internal, international scenario-planning "task force," which has been gathering ideas for months from MasterCard employees at all levels around the world.