The day after: It’s Wednesday out there, dear readers, and not just any Wednesday but the day after the cantankerous, critical and surely headed to court Midterm Elections of 2022.
Our flag was still there: Bends, doesn’t break.
You don’t need a brilliant innovation newsletter to tell you America’s Election Day – once a symbol of freedom and source of national pride – has become an assault on decency and a global embarrassment, undone by willing ignorance and the false-idol worship of self-obsessed “leaders.”
For now, at least, the tsunami subsides – no more campaign ads, no more debates, no more unsolicited texts from Nick LaLota – and we the people can attempt a deep, cleansing breath. At least, until the next political crisis unfolds.
Let’s tune all that out and accentuate some socioeconomic positives. The Republic lives … and so does innovation!
Love wins: The vibes don’t get much more positive than they do on World Adoption Day, an annual Nov. 9 celebration of love, multiculturalism and families of all shapes and sizes.
Although the positrons produced by World Freedom Day – an annual celebration of Democracy, officially commemorating the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall – come close.
Atlantic city: Among those covering that 1989 Peaceful Revolution was The Atlantic, the multiplatform current-events periodical that debuted (in print) on this date in 1857.
Up, up and away: The mighty Saturn V rocket lifts off 55 years ago today.
Chemical attraction: Other built-to-last innovations associated with this date include the American Chemical Society, the first U.S. national society for chemists, which was chartered on Nov. 9, 1877.
On the beam: Also doing science was American physicist Gordon Gould, who conceived the principles of the “laser” (for “light amplified by stimulated emission of radiation”) 65 years ago today, according to his personal notebook.
Saturn or bust: NASA scientists tested their most powerful rocket to date, the Saturn V, on this date in 1967, blasting the prototype moonshot engine into low Earth orbit.
Lit fusion: And fusion power became a thing on Nov. 9, 1991, when scientists in England harnessed enough nuclear fusion to produce measurable electricity.
Although they harnessed a fusion reaction (which joins atoms, as opposed to a fission reaction, which splits them) for only two seconds, the Joint European Torus team generated roughly 1.7 megawatts of electricity, proving commercial fusion power was more than theoretical.
Got milk: American industrialist Gail Borden Jr. (1801-1874) – a newspaper publisher, city planner and inventor remembered best for creating the process behind sweetened condensed milk – would be 221 years old today.
Sagan: True believer.
Also born on Nov. 9 were American anatomist Florence Sabin (1871-1953), the first woman to be elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences; German mathematical physicist Hermann Weyl (1885-1955), a theorist, philosopher and one of the 20th Century’s most versatile mathematicians; American educator and Smithsonian Institution secretary Leonard Carmichael (1898-1973), who spruced up “the nation’s attic”; American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist and author Carl Sagan (1934-1996), who believed strongly in extraterrestrial intelligence; and American singer Mary Travers (1936-2009), who completed one of American folk music’s most popular trios.
That’s incredible: And take a bow, Louis Jude “Lou” Ferrigno Sr.! The partially deaf American bodybuilder and actor – who thinks Marvel’s modern-day Hulk should hit the gym and skip the CGI – turns 71 today.
Give the original live-action green giant your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips are like a gamma-radiation shot and your calendar events are always a smash.
About our sponsor: Northwell Health is New York’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, 750 outpatient facilities and 70,000-plus employees. We’re making research breakthroughs at the Feinstein Institutes and training the next generation of medical professionals at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra/Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Visit Northwell.edu.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Care package: A hefty state stipend will help SUNY Old Westbury build a new childcare center.
An ongoing state initiative has committed a fresh $15.6 million to ensure high-quality childcare centers on or near SUNY and CUNY campuses, with $10.8 million earmarked for State University childcare services and $4.8 million dedicated to childcare solutions near City University campuses. Announced in October, the new funding package includes $1.5 million for SUNY Old Westbury, which is in the early planning stages of a new on-campus childcare center that could service up to 100 children of staffers, students and local working families.
With the new center still on the drawing board, SUNY Old Westbury is planning to re-open a smaller childcare facility located inside its Campus Center, following a two-year COVID closing. “Increasing access to childcare could be game-changing for our student parents and to the many families living near our campus,” noted SUNY Old Westbury President Timothy Sams. “This funding is a first critical step in the process of building the new facility.”
A clot on his mind: The PREVENT-HD tech could be a blood-clot game-changer, according to Feinstein Institutes Professor Alex Spyropoulos.
You’re so vein: A new Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research technology could rewrite the textbooks on deadly blood clots.
Speaking this week at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2022 conference, Feinstein Institutes Professor Alex Spyropoulos presented the results of a five-year clinical trial chronicling the performance of IMPROVE-DD, a novel digital platform developed by the Informatics Group at Feinstein’s Institute for Health System Science. The platform combines electronic health records and a unique “clinical decision support” protocol to assess a patient’s risk of venous thromboembolism, a dangerous blood clot known to occur during and soon after hospitalizations for a range of medical conditions.
Better understanding a patient’s risks can help doctors proactively prescribe clot-prevention medications and take other preventative steps, according to Spyropoulos, a world-renowned blood-clot expert. “Armed with the right clinical-decision tool, physicians can properly prevent dangerous blood clots in hospitalized medically ill patients,” Spyropoulos noted. “The results of our trial using this innovative technology have implications not only for [Northwell Health], but globally … in a very large, at-risk hospitalized population.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 15: Susan Poser, full of Hofstra pride.
From the “mother of all cops” to the “father of bioelectric medicine,” from the campus to the C suite, from NBA frontcourts to world-class laboratories in your own backyard – sponsored by Huntington-based business-building boutique Brandtelling, Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast presents an earful of innovation with a true LI accent. Dozens of amazing conversations are ready to roll.
TOP OF THE SITE
Tech cheque: With its Old Westbury “Fab Lab” cooking, New York Tech is upping the architecture/design game at its Manhattan campus, with a nod to the IDC Foundation.
Inside job: Intelligent CloudCare data-security ace David Courbanou raises the alarm against the biggest IT threat of all. (Spoiler alert: It’s coming from inside the house!)
Need to know: Did you hear the one about those people who invented that thing and changed the face of that industry? You would have, with your own Innovate Long Island newsletter subscription (always easy, always free, by the way).
VOICES
Leading up to yesterday’s divisive election, candidates on both sides of the aisle seemed to be ignoring D.C.’s drama and dysfunction and focusing on important local issues – always a good thing, according to ZE Creative Communications Executive Vice President and Voices media master David Chauvin.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Sore losers (or maybe winners): Before Election Day, Republicans were already challenging results in key states. PBS lawyers up.
Eeeeewwwww: Being grossed out actually serves a strong evolutionary purpose. Scientific American isn’t squeamish.
Nouveau riche: So you’re a sudden Powerball billionaire – now what? Forbes cashes out.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Lusaris Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech creating neuropsychiatric and neurological-disorder therapeutics, raised $60 million in Series A financing led by RA Capital Management, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Deep Track Capital and Boxer Capital.
+ Yes Hearing, a New York City-based audio-technology innovator, closed a $10 million Series A financing round led by Blue Heron Capital, Primetime Partners, Ensemble Innovation Ventures, Maccabee Ventures and Gaingels.
+ Aro Homes, a California-based, tech-enabled homebuilding startup, raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Innovation Endeavors, Western Technology Investment and Stanford University.
+ BookOutdoors, a Colorado-based travel-tech startup, raised $4 million in seed funding led by GreatPoint Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, R-Squared Ventures, Aman Bhutani and Brendan Bank.
+ Xeal, a California- and New York-based electric vehicle-charging solutions provider, raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Keyframe Capital, ArcTern Ventures, Moderne Ventures, Ramez Naam, Alpaca VC, Nexus Labs and Wind Ventures.
+ Tiny Health, a Texas-based gut-health testing company, secured $4.5 million in funding. The round was led by TheVentureCity.
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 Northwell Health). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (SETI Edition)
Human touch: Are we really ready to meet E.T.?
The day the Earth stands still: Will confirmation of aliens trigger a global human conflict?
First impressions: Science is scripting “contact protocols” to break the ice with E.T.
Not “ha ha” funny: Extrasolar “laughing gas” might indicate extraterrestrial life.
(Extra) terrestrial intelligence: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including Northwell Health, where some of the biggest brains on the planet are focused on your wellbeing. Check them out.
