INAF, despite its young age, already has thirty patents and can claim industrial spin-offs in sectors from ophthalmology (for the cure of cataracts for example) to medicine (orthopaedics and dentistry in particular). From art to sport, from security to the environment. The ratio of investment to economic return reaches a factor of 100 in some cases. At the last EXPO in Shanghai, amongst the Small and Medium Enterprises selected by the Italian government to represent national excellence, was Novaetech of Naples, that thanks to an INAF spin-off, has developed a balance so sensitive that it can weigh the fine dust particles that threaten the environment in our cities.