Creativity and innovation have been shown to be an important force in organizational performance and survival (Ford and Gioia, 1995; Dess and Picken, 2000; Shalley, Zhou, and Oldham, 2004; Mumford and Hunter, 2005; George, 2007). Changes in technology, globalization, and increased competition have all created an environment in which creativity and innovation are needed to handle situational demands, economic pressures, and frequent changes (Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin, 1993; Mumford et al., 2002; Shalley et al., 2004; West et al., 2004). A recent survey by IBM (2010) indicated that addressing rapid changes and uncertainty are viewed as commonplace for managers, and therefore one of the most important skills for managers is that of creative thinking. Consequently, it is not surprising that organizational researchers have shown increased interest in understanding what improves creativity in organizations.

For over a century, the field of forensic science has been applying contemporary technology to the investigation of crime. The imperative to identify offenders, particularly in relation to serious offences, has meant that governments are willing to invest in new technologies to achieve this objective. Fingerprinting, first developed in the late 19th century to identify individuals based on the unique patterns on the fingertips, led the way as one of the earliest means of identifying people, and is still used today in a digitised format.

The study of psychology is highly complex. In many areas of investigation, the more we learn, the more we realize just how much we don’t yet understand. Two especially ephemeral phenomena that have received a great deal of research attention are task motivation and creativity of performance (defined as a novel and useful solution to a problem or other open-ended task). Researchers and theorists have explored questions of motivation since the mid-1800s. And as far back as Plato (circa 400 bc), there have been discussions about the need for creativity and ways to foster its development. During the nineteenth century, one popular theory was that creativity was closely tied to madness. By the time of World War II, theorists had come to explore creativity from an aesthetic point of view. Shortly thereafter, the launching of Sputnik in the 1950s prompted a seismic change to the perspective of many researchers. Attention shifted to the physical sciences and engineering, and creativity came to be seen as a means for keeping up with international competition. This competitive theme is still alive and well today. Creativity researchers now devote much of their investigative efforts to business. Earlier work in this area concentrated primarily on the invention of new products, while more contemporary studies have tended to focus on creative management – techniques designed to boost innovation with an emphasis on how best to promote employees’ productivity and effectiveness. Along these same lines, a smaller group of investigators now concentrate on questions of how to promote creativity in the schools. In both the workplace and the classroom, theorists have come to understand that creative performance is very much tied to motivational orientation.

Technology offers a means of developing new therapies to treat human illness and has great potential to reduce suffering and increase living standards around the world. For this reason, there is a large investment in research and development for new pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and the healthcare sector is rich with new forms of technology and legal issues associated with them. Fields such as genomics, the study of the genome, are providing a more detailed understanding of human health, ranging from cardiovascular diseases to cancer, along with improved methods of prevention and treatment. Assisted reproductive technologies are giving couples who would otherwise not have been able to have children the opportunity to do so, and allowing serious conditions to be identified earlier during, or even prior to, a pregnancy. Stem cell technologies will lead to replacement organs and body parts in coming decades, and already form the basis of treatments for serious conditions such as leukaemia and myeloma. Artificial intelligence is already transforming areas of medicine such as radiology and pathology: screening images for disease and other abnormalities under the supervision of doctors, saving time and improving access to healthcare for patients in rural and remote areas.

This chapter explains the evolving relationships between the UK and key European institutions - the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights. It explains how the ECHR has redesigned its institutions to take account of the growth in case law and also to take account of concerns as to the right balance between providing a uniform protection of human rights across Europe and recognising cultural differences through developing a protocol on subsidiarity. It provides an account of the UK's membership of the EU, placing this in the context of the impact on the membership of the EU on the UK constitution. Moreover, it explains the path to Brexit, and provides an up-to-date account of legislation designed to implement Brexit and their constitutional consequences.