You’re getting warmer, comrade: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we work our way through this – dare we say “summerlike?” – week of socioeconomic innovation.
It’s May 19 out there, sunny and 80 here on Long Island, but hearts may be warmest amongst our many readers in Kyrgyzstan, the landlocked Central Asian nation where today is Mother’s Day. Schastlivogo dnya materi!
High on the Hogg: They’re not all as bad as fictitious Hazzard County Commissioner J.D. “Boss” Hogg, but many elected officials are no better.
Some of them don’t entirely suck: In this sad and divisive age of political extremism, seeking and holding public office ain’t what it used to be – but there are still some forthright lawmakers out there, worth noting on Celebrate Your Elected Officials Day.
The icing on top: May 19 is also National Devil’s Food Cake Day. That’s big trouble.
The battle of Ohio: Speaking of trouble, England’s King George II – challenging a century-old French claim to the entire Ohio River Valley – granted the Ohio Company of Virginia a charter for 200,000 acres stretching west from the Ohio River on this date in 1749. (Neither France nor England wound up owning Ohio.)
Flame on: Massachusetts inventors William Channing and Moses Farmer earned the first U.S. patent for an electric fire alarm – officially, an “Electromagnetic Fire Alarm Telegraph for Cities” – on May 19, 1857.
Other U.S. patents issued on this date include one in 1987 for Missouri inventor Chet Fleming, who preserved his “Device for Perfusing an Animal Head” – essentially, a cabinet providing physical and biochemical life support for a severed head.
The (one-time) Greatest Show on Earth: Officially closed as of 2017, the traveling Ringling Brothers Circus debuted 137 years ago today in Wisconsin, featuring five of the seven brothers, a rented horse and a traveling wagon.
Tunnel vision: Through the Alps we go.
Simplon minds: Now merely the world’s 26th longest railway tunnel, the Simplon Tunnel – a two-tube, 19.6-kilometer underground passage connecting Italy and Switzerland through the Alps – was the world’s longest when it opened on this date in 1906.
Doogie-like: And Balamurali Ambati became the world’s youngest doctor on May 19, 1995, when he graduated from New York City’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine – now the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai – at age 17.
For the record, Ambati – who understood calculus at age 4 – graduated from New York University at 13, scored above 99 percent on his National Medical Boards and interned at North Shore University Hospital.
X factor: African American civil rights icon Malcolm Little (known best as Malcolm X, 1925-1965) – an ex-con, Muslim minister and one-time vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam, who alternately advocated for Black supremacy, the separation of races and racial equality “by any means necessary” – would be 96 years old today.
Jane Brody: You are what you eat.
Also born on May 19 were American entrepreneur, philanthropist and university namesake Johns Hopkins (1795-1873); American botanist and renowned scientific illustrator Catharine Furbish (1834-1931); American civil engineer John Fillmore Hayford (1868-1925), who founded geodesic science; Vietnamese revolutionary and polyglot poet (!) Hồ Chí Minh (1890-1969); and Dutch-American theoretical physicist Abraham Pais (1918-2000), who defined particle physics as we know it.
To your health: And take a bow, Jane Brody! The famed New York Times “Personal Health” columnist – who’s also written numerous books on nutrition and other science topics, including death – turns 80 today.
Wish the celebrated nutritionist and all the other May 19 innovators well at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips and calendar events always fill us up right.
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the college provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility and service. Through SJC Brooklyn, SJC Long Island and SJC Online, the college offers degrees in 50 majors, special course offerings and certificates, and affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Two-parter: The 2021-2022 Advanced Energy Conference is two parts of a whole, according to David Hamilton.
Never too early: From the Fail to Plan/Plan to Fail file comes the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, which is gearing up for next month’s virtual Advanced Energy Conference – and already knee-deep into a flesh-and-blood sequel scheduled for September 2022.
Officially a “two-part conference,” according to the event webpage, the AEC series spotlights technological innovation, key policy changes and new business models related to energy efficiency. Co-sponsored by a host of regional universities, utilities and stakeholders, Part 1 – slated to stream June 9 and 10, moderated by AERTC Chairman and regional energy icon Robert Catell – features posters, presentations and a host of prime speakers, including Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Glick, U.S. Department of Energy loan director Jigar Shah and NYSERDA Vice President John Lochner, among others.
The agenda for Part 2 is still coalescing. But it will continue Part 1’s eye-opening exploration, according to AERTC Chief Operating Officer David Hamilton, who relishes the chance to spotlight 15 months’ worth of game-changing technological and regulatory advances. “We want to show people where we are today, where we need to go and how we’re gonna get there,” Hamilton said. “The virtual conference will hit key topic areas important to the world right now, and then we’ll reconvene in 18 months – hopefully, to discuss how the world has progressed in those critical areas.”
The straight dopamine: The federal government is contributing to a Long Island researcher’s deep spiral into clinical depression.
Don’t worry – assistant professor Weikang Cai of the New York Institute of Technology’s College of Osteopathic Medicine will be fine, especially since his study of brain cells and chronic stress has earned a five-year, $1.6 million National Institutes of Health grant. The funding will support the biochemist’s exploration of Major Depressive Disorder, a common but serious mental illness that hampers cognition and physical activity, fritzes emotions and accelerates death.
Specifically, Cai and co. are out to prove theories about how the brain regulates the neurotransmitter dopamine (a longstanding scientific mystery) and how distribution of the “motivation molecule” – linked mentally to pleasures and rewards – breaks down under chronic stress. “We hope these studies provide new insight into the neural processes … as well as identify novel therapeutic treatments to help prevent and treat clinical depression,” Cai noted.
Commercialization queen: Ann-Marie Scheidt’s contributions to entrepreneurs extend well beyond Stony Brook University.
POD PEOPLE
In today’s episode of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, Ann-Marie Scheidt – Stony Brook University economic development director, “godfounder” of the Long Island Angel Network and all-around entrepreneurism energizer – discusses the differences between a brilliant technology and a brilliant product, and dissects tech commercialization before, during and after the pandemic, at SBU and beyond. Episode 6 is all queued up!
TOP OF THE SITE
Yes, we RNA: A promising biotech collaboration will expand the breadth of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory spinoff Envisagenics’ ingenious SpliceCore technology.
Face the nation: As the CDC amends its post-pandemic guidelines, Albany lifts New York’s mask-wearing mandates for the fully vaccinated.
Sharing is nice: We love it when you forward this engaging e-newsletter, but wouldn’t it be easier if your entire innovation team had free subscriptions? Of course it would.
VOICES
As East End stakeholders come together on a shared vision covering food security and other socioeconomic issues, Voices food-and-beverage anchor Kate Fullam senses a golden opportunity for community input.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Exhaustion caution: The phrase is overused, but burnout is real – and it’s getting worse. The New Yorker diagnoses.
Entrepreneurs in spaaaaace: Not quite – but NASA is investing more than $100 million in small-business technology innovation. SciTech Daily commercializes.
CAPTCHA while you can: Bot-sniffing Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart technology may soon vanish. Gizmodo logs in.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Code Ocean, a New York City-based provider of a cloud-based logistics platform for researchers, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Battery Ventures, Digitalis Ventures, EBSCO, Vaal Partners and others.
+ Forager, a Maine-based online hub for grocers and local farmers, raised $4 million in funding led by Duncan Saville of ICM Ltd., social impact fund Coastal Enterprises and private investors.
+ Flare Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech developing precision medicines for cancers and other diseases, raised $82 million in Series A financing led by Third Rock Ventures, with participation from Boxer Capital, Nextech Invest, Casdin Capital, Invus Financial Advisors and Eventide Asset Management.
+ Lili, a NYC-based mobile banking app designed for freelancers, raised $55 million in Series B funding led by Group 11, with participation from Target Global, AltaIR and existing investors.
+ Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, a Maryland-based clinical-stage biotech advancing therapies against drug-resistant infections, closed a $40.75 million Series B funding led by Deerfield Management Co., with participation from the Mayo Clinic and an additional undisclosed institutional investor.
+ Sixty8 Capital, an Indiana-based seed-stage VC firm supporting Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+ and women-led startups, held the first close of its new $20 million fund. Investors included the Indiana Next Level Fund, 50 South Capital, Bank of America, Eli Lilly and Co. and others.
BELOW THE FOLD (Lotto Edition!)
Golden ticket: A Patchogue resident has claimed the second of three $3 million jackpots in the New York Lottery’s 50X game.
All you need is a dollar and a dream: The 10 best investments you can make in 2021.
Got to be in it to win it: If your health isn’t reason enough to get vaccinated, maybe a cool million is.
Dream big: A Patchogue man won $3 million playing a New York Lottery scratch-off game – and there’s still another “50X” jackpot out there somewhere.
Bet with your head: Don’t take chances with your future – St. Joseph’s College, one of the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, invests equally in character and academic credentials. Check them out.
