The solstice with the mostess: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and welcome to summer, which officially arrived here in our glorious Northern Hemisphere at 5:14 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
To our many readers south of the equator: bundle up. Everyone else, gear up – there’s no summer slowdown in the innovation world, and we’ve got work to do.
Jungle fever: Actually, a jungle always has tropical weather; rainforests can be tropical or temperate.
Seeing the rainforest for the trees: We start our midweek review with World Rainforest Day, an annual June 22 observance encouraging protection of these indispensable ecosystems, which shelter half the planet’s animal species and provide essential volumes of oxygen and freshwater.
Snack attack: After safeguarding Planet Earth’s health, ignore your own – today is both National Onion Ring Day and National Chocolate Éclair Day.
And as summer arrives, show some love for the pros who keep the air conditioned – National HVAC Tech Day also chills every June 22.
Mean it: Speaking of impressive technical achievements, raise an éclair today to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which became a thing thanks to a royal warrant issued on this date in 1675 by England’s King Charles II.
Still observing the heavens centuries later, Greenwich Mean Time’s home base was Britain’s first purpose-built scientific laboratory.
Dough! Before you wolf down that éclair, consider your options – according to the story, American seaman Hanson Gregory invented the doughnut 175 years ago today.
Justice league: According to a more evidence-based story, President Ulysses Grant signed a new law creating the U.S. Department of Justice – and significantly enhancing the U.S. attorney general’s purview and powers – on June 22, 1870.
That’s no moon: Skylab, as seen by departing crew members on June 22, 1973.
Welcome back: The first crew to live on Skylab, the original U.S. space station, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on this date in 1973 after 28 days in orbit.
Small wonders: And also in space, while it might not (currently) be counted as a full-on planet, itty-bitty Pluto has its own teeny-tiny moon – five of them, actually, the first of which was discovered on this date in 1978.
With an equatorial circumference of about 2,357 miles, Charon – the largest of the dwarf planet’s satellites – was first spotted by astronomers at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Arizona.
All in his head: Hungarian-American physician Franz Alexander (1891-1964) – often called the “father of psychosomatic medicine” and counted among the pioneers of psychoanalytical study – would be 131 years old today.
Grammy girl: Lauper, lauded.
Also born on June 22 were master American innovator Richard Drew (1899-1980), who invented masking tape; German civil engineer and entrepreneur Konrad Zuse (1910-1995), who built the first programmable computer; English physician, social worker and writer Dame Cicely Mary Saunders (1918-2005), who standardized modern hospice care; American physicist Arthur Rosenfeld (1926-2017), a UC Berkeley scientist remembered as the “godfather of energy efficiency”; and New York City born-and-raised pop icon Cynthia “Cyndi” Lauper (born 1953), a longtime LGBTQ advocate.
Look up: And take a bow, Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep! The 21-time Academy Award nominee and busy environmental activist turns 73 today.
Give the iconic actress – one of only seven all-time performers with three Oscar wins – your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips earn major awards and your calendar events always get plenty of screen time.
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s University has been 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 university 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 rigor, social responsibility, spiritual depth and service. Through its Long Island, Brooklyn and online campuses, the university offers degrees in 60 majors, special course offerings and certificates, and affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Markus Seeliger: Simulation appreciation.
Resistance is futile: Researchers are using detailed computer simulations to determine what, exactly, triggers biological resistance to certain chemotherapy treatments – a potentially huge step toward optimizing across-the-board cancer drugs.
The scientific paper “Protein Flexibility and Dissociation Pathway Differentiation Can Explain Onset of Resistance Mutations in Kinases,” published recently by Angewandte Chemie, a peer-reviewed journal of the German Chemical Society, discusses a digital model simulating how molecules interact with the cancer drug Imatinib, which treats chronic myeloid leukemia. The drug is considered highly effective, at least at first – late-stage patients are known to develop a resistance that considerably fritzes Imatinib’s performance.
Understanding how and why could unlock critical clues about chemotherapy resistance, according to the paper’s four listed authors, including Associate Professor Markus Seeliger of the Stony Brook University School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacological Sciences. “This method in itself is a major technical achievement that extends computational abilities for drug-resistance research,” Seeliger noted. “And importantly, (it) led to us being able to predict how rapidly healthy and mutant proteins would release this drug.”
Well, that’s “New”: Two respected Long Island trailblazers will join nearly five dozen Greater New York contemporaries on a quest to shape a “New” New York.
The “New” New York committee, co-chaired by Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery and former Sidewalk Labs CEO Daniel Doctoroff, boasts 56 business, labor, academic and nonprofit leaders from New York City and slightly beyond, including Long Island Federation of Labor President John Durso and Long Island Association President and CEO Matt Cohen. The LI representatives will join a cadre of corporate executives, university presidents and community-partnership facilitators to examine the future of the regional economy and make recommendations for “specific, immediate initiatives” that foster an “inclusive economic recovery” for the metropolitan region, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who joined Hochul last week to kick off the year-long study group, said “bringing everyone to the table” was critical to a proper regional recovery. “This group … will recommend steps we can take immediately to strengthen our city’s economic engines, while putting forward the big ideas we must consider to build a post-pandemic city that works for all New Yorkers,” Adams added.
POD PEOPLE
Episode 5: Debra Markowitz, lens flair.
Just one week to go until Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast’s exciting Season 3 premiere, kicking off another run of engaging and entertaining conversations with the leaders of Long Island’s innovation economy!
That’s an interminable wait … but it’s just enough time to catch up on the two-dozen amazing dialogues highlighting Seasons 1 and 2. The clock’s ticking!
TOP OF THE SITE
“Hurricane” force: An Adelphi adjunct’s new young-adult novel tackles climate change and teen romance – in unique poetic verse.
Border patrol: A Long Island biotech on the cutting edge of DNA science could play a key role in U.S. efforts to block Chinese imports manufactured by forced labor.
Gratitude with attitude: Thanks for sharing this newsletter with your innovation team – about time they get their own always easy, always free subscriptions, don’cha think?
VOICES
Doctors and nurses are expected to perform their life-or-death jobs through all conditions, but when something like a deadly global pandemic hits, providers’ own mental health can be significantly challenged – a crisis that has finally encouraged a proactive response in mainstream medicine, according to Voices healthcare anchor Terry Lynam.
STUFF WE’RE READING
No swimming: A lifeguard labor shortage is closing U.S. pools – and worse. The Associated Press takes a deep dive.
Middle ground: Innovation is often about balancing risk and resilience. Forbes juggles the big ideas.
Brand on the run: Top tips for crafting your best elevator pitch. CNBC shares the short version.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Transfr VR, a New York City-based, VR-powered job-training simulator, raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Lumos Capital Group, Firework Ventures, Album VC and new investor Spring Tide Capital.
+ General Radar, a California-based manufacturer of high-resolution 3D radar systems, raised $22 million in Series A funding led by Octave Ventures, Disruptive Technology Advisors and Kleiner Perkins.
+ Travertine Technologies, a Colorado-based carbon dioxide-removal and industrial chemical-production company, raised $3 million in seed financing led by Grantham Environmental Trust and Clean Energy Ventures.
+ GeniusX, an Arizona-based VR-powered education provider, raised $1.68 million in seed funding. Backers included ETW founder Lee Benson, among others.
+ Overair, a California-based manufacturer of vertical-takeoff-and-landing electric vehicles, raised $145 million in funding led by Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Aerospace.
+ Boulder Care, an Oregon-based provider of innovative substance-abuse services, raised $36 million in Series B funding led by Qiming Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, First Round Capital, Greycroft, Tusk Venture Partners and Gaingels.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask St. Joe’s). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (You Can Never Have Enough Pitching Edition)
Ready to play: And they don’t need a league of their own, thank you.
NOW pitching: Women may be playing in the majors sooner than you think.
POTUS on the hill: The good, bad and ugly of presidential first pitches.
Pitching in: How to equitably split those household chores.
Pitch perfect: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, where academic achievement harmonizes nicely with personal development. Check them out.
