Summer swan song: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we muscle our way through the penultimate week of the Summer of 2023.
It’s not quite summer’s chronological end, but the back-to-school sales are swinging, college dorms are rocking and that empty-lake-empty-streets-sun-goes-down-alone feeling is already heavy in the air. Yeah, summer’s about over … but hey, stop waxing nostalgic! We’ve got work to do!
Cuba goodie: It has more to do with Tampa than Havana, but wherever it’s from, the classic Cuban Sandwich is a tasty treat.
Love and Haiti: A snappy innovation review will focus you back on business – but first, this solemn nod to the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, UNESCO’s commemoration of a 1791 Haitian uprising that helped topple the transatlantic slave trade.
Hard pressed: Here in the states, we also get to enjoy a snazzy Cuban sandwich – a spicy spin on the classic ham-and-cheese that was not invented in Cuba (it comes from Florida) but is the main course on National Cuban Sandwich Day.
And soak up the fun on National Sponge Cake Day, another Aug. 23 staple celebrating the light-and-fluffy loafs (layered with fruit jam and whipped cream, when done right).
Rights, from the left: There was not much fluff on this date in 1850, when 1,000 delegates from 11 states – against stiff opposition from a majority of Americans, who liked things how they were – descended on Worcester, Mass., for the first-ever National Women’s Rights Convention.
Round one: Speaking of rights and lefts, televised boxing matches became a thing 90 years ago today, when the BBC broadcasted a six-round middleweight bout between pugilists Archie Sexton and Lauri Raiteri live from London.
Round trip: It was Aug. 23, 1966, when NASA’s Lunar Orbiter I probe – making its 16th pass around the Moon – transmitted the first picture of Earth taken from the vicinity of our rocky satellite.
Put your feet into it: The Gossamer Condor soars, sorta, in 1977.
Winged feet: Also reaching new heights, so to speak, was the Gossamer Condor, which became the first human-powered aircraft to exhibit “controlled and sustained flight” on this date in 1977 (pedaled aloft for roughly six minutes by California pilot Bryan Allen, who executed a figure-eight course about a dozen feet off the ground).
Hash life: And it was Aug. 23, 2007, when technologist and self-described “hash godfather” Chris Messina suggested the pound sign (alternately the “number sign” or “the little tic-tac-toe thing,” depending on whom you ask) to indicate group tweets on the then-fledgling social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Messina’s post is considered the birth of the hashtag.
Fossil-fueled: French naturalist Baron Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier (1769-1832) – a pioneering zoologist, anatomist and education reformer remembered as the “founding father of paleontology” – would be 254 years old today.
Rain man: Kelly, performing his most famous number.
Also born on Aug. 23 were Irish physicist and engineer Osborne Reynolds (1842-1912), who led the way on fluid dynamics; British physicist William Eccles (1875-1966), a pioneer of radio communications; American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer Eugene Curran “Gene” Kelly (1912-1996), the ultimate song-and-dance man; English American computer scientist Edgar Codd (1923-2003), who essentially invented the modern database; and Puerto Rican physician Antonia Coello Novello (born 1944), the first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as U.S. surgeon general.
Dream on: And take a bow, Barbara Jean Eden! The American actress – known best for her titular turn on the 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie” – turns 92 today.
Wish the pop icon (and well-known philanthropist) well at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips are like magic – and we dream about receiving new calendar events.
About our sponsor: Presberg Law P.C. is the premier “IDA” and business law firm for businesses locating, relocating and expanding on Long Island. Founded in 1984, this multigenerational practice focuses on the purchase, sale, leasing and financing of commercial and industrial real estate, SBA and other loan transactions, construction projects and business sales and acquisitions.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Epigenetic eye-opener: Confirming what you likely already suspected, new research shows that understanding epigenetic changes in glial cells is key to combatting brain tumors.
The science is thick, all right, but the premise is simple: Researchers examining how incurable tumors originate from otherwise normal brain cells are studying epigenetic changes – alterations that change a cell’s characteristics, but not its DNA – and the results are promising, according to “Modeling Epigenetic Lesions That Cause Gliomas,” a new study published this summer in the scientific journal Cell. Most impressively, the study reveals the precise brain-cell genes in mouse models that change epigenetically en route to cancer.
Epigenetics – the science of how behavior, environment and metabolic changes alter gene functions – might be central to many cancer mysteries, according to former Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Gilbert Rahme, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine and first author of seven on the paper. “We … discover(ed) and functionally demonstrate(d) the role of epigenetic alterations in gliomas,” Rahme noted. “By doing this, we discovered genes regulated epigenetically in gliomas … that drive the tumor growth.”
Day(care) trip: Hochul and friends tour the remade Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center.
Euphoric re-opening: Three years, $3.3 million and one pandemic later, the doors to a reborn, state-of-the art Bridgehampton childcare center have swung open.
A full slate of state and local officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, joined local leaders last week to ceremoniously reopen the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center, the resuscitated 7,828-square-foot heart of a circa-1950s daycare/educational facility that’s historically served Black and lower-income East End families. The $3 million-plus renovation – covered in part by a $300,000 Empire State Development Corp. grant – adds multiple classrooms, a computer lab, extra bathrooms and other community-centered spaces to the busy facility, including a fully functional kitchen.
It also furthers the seven-decade-plus mission of the BHCCRC, an “extraordinary” overhaul that modernized the critical-but-aging facility “in the throes of the pandemic,” according to Hochul. “We know that childcare is not a luxury – childcare is a necessity,” the governor said at the Aug. 18 ribbon-cutting ceremony. “And that’s for our families, our moms, our parents, our economy, and for the health of our state.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 17: Renee Flagler, throwing like a girl.
Endless summer? Not on Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, which returns from its summer hiatus next week with an all-new, all-progressive conversation straight from the innovation economy’s front lines.
Between now and then, 40-plus leading innovators are standing by with stories, secrets and peerless perspectives – a who’s who of regional genius sharing everything you need to know.
TOP OF THE SITE
Moving tributes: Plenty of Long Island names you know are on the go this summer, with several top-tier rainmakers and organizations making significant personnel moves.
Such a good friend: Please share this engaging and educational newsletter with all your innovative pals – and maybe sign them up (always easy, always free) to keep them ahead of the curve. Friendly gestures here.
VOICES
Four decades later, the T7 Protein Expression System – a bioscience cornerstone born at Brookhaven National Laboratory – has come full circle, thanks to another key acquisition by an ambitious Stony Brook-based biotech.
Voices historian Tom Mariner’s latest time tunnel digs deep into Long Island’s past – and adds futuristic layers to our amazing Voices library, where the biggest brains powering the Long Island innovation economy share their unique perspectives and best ideas. Fill that brain.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Rock steady: Ancient materials meet robotic sculptors in the architecture of the future. Slate builds foundations.
Poor-cast: There’s no science – at all – in those “Farmer’s Almanac” weather predictions. InsideHook foresees failure.
Phone tag: Forty years after beaming a note to distant extraterrestrials, scientists were expecting a return call on Tuesday. The Economic Times dials in.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Ghost, a California-based, members-only B2B surplus-inventory marketplace, raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation, Union Square Ventures, Equal Ventures and Eniac Ventures.
+ Viome Life Sciences, a Washington State-based longevity and preventative-healthcare pioneer, raised $86.5 million in Series C funding led by Khosla Ventures, Bold Capital and WRG Ventures.
+ Yard Stick, a Massachusetts-based soil-carbon measurement innovator, raised $10.6 million in Series A funding led by Toyota Ventures Climate Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Pillar VC.
+ Phospholutions, a Pennsylvania-based developer of sustainable fertilizer technologies, raised $10.15 million in funding led by Advantage Capital with Conti Ventures, Tekfen Ventures, Maumee Ventures, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Keytrade.
+ Rondo Energy, a California-based, zero-carbon industrial heat and power provider, raised $60 million in funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Rio Tinto and SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust.
+ ElectroTempo, a Virginia-based software maker focused on electric-charging networks, raised $4 million in seed funding led by Buoyant Ventures, Schematic Ventures and Zebox Ventures.
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 Presberg Law). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (100 Percent Edition)
The hills are alive: A century later, still ranked among the most recognizable U.S. landmarks.
Over the hill: One-hundred years later, the $21,000 “Hollywood” sign stands tall.
History repeats: Even at 100 years old, only Kissinger could go to China.
Beans to that: Want to live to see 100? Eat these.
Maximum strength: Please continue supporting the hardworking firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Presberg Law, which puts unmatched institutional knowledge – and 100 percent effort – into every land-use issue. Check them out.
