Hey, kinda warm out there: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as Long Island’s innovation workforce sweats our way through a surprisingly summerlike first week of October.
Weekend update: Before we chill out with a cool innovation review, this quick update from Innovation Command – your favorite socioeconomic-news website is performing some self-maintenance this weekend, so no Calendar Newsletter on Monday, Oct. 9.
Back with fresh content Oct. 10. We’ll remind you Friday.
Get a handle: Nothing … sexier? … than CB radio, according to this vintage ad. (Editor’s note: Notice the pottery. Classy dame.)
Breaker! Breaker! As for today, it’s 10/4 out there – National CB Radio Day, naturally, an annual Oct. 4 celebration of one-to-many bidirectional communications operating around 27MHz in the high-frequency/shortwave band (a.k.a. Citizen Band radio).
Ten … fore? Today is also National Golf Lovers Day, specifically for swingers.
And it’s National Vodka Day, also kinda for swingers.
Watch this: Often swinging on a chain is the pocket watch, patented on Oct. 4, 1675, by Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens.
Early lead: The Soviet Union swung to the lead in the Space Race 66 years ago today when it blasted Sputnik – the first manmade satellite – into Earth orbit.
Over seas: The de Havilland Comet introduced jet travel to the world.
How an ocean becomes a pond: Racing between London and New York City on this date in 1958 were two DeHavilland Comet airliners, officially heralding the start of the Transatlantic Jet Age.
Measured response: Joining the second (measuring time), the meter (distance), the kilogram (mass), the ampere (electric current), the kelvin (temperature) and the candela (luminosity), the mole (essentially, measuring the amount of a substance present) became an International System of Units base quantity on this date in 1971.
The secret is out: And speaking of moles, it was Oct. 4, 2006, when Australian editor, publisher and digital saboteur Julian Assange launched international secret-information leaker Wikileaks in Iceland.
Still incarcerated in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison – and still fighting extradition to the United States – Assange has now earned the support of Amnesty International, which demands the dismissal of all U.S. espionage charges.
Omega man: American actor and political activist John Charles Carter (1923-2008) – known best as Charlton Heston, the award-winning leading man of Biblical epics and other classic adventures who went from civil rights champion to five-term National Rifle Association of America president – would be 100 years old today.
She gets around: Fisher, self-described “entrepreneur, mom, driver, graduate, speaker, coach, everyday person.”
Also born on Oct. 4 were Danish astronomer and astrologer Christian Longomontanus (born Christian Severin,1562-1647), best known for backing up Brahe; 19th U.S. President Rutherford Hayes (1822-1893), who helped reconcile the Civil War-torn nation; American physicist and inventor John Atanasoff (1903-1995), credited as the “father of the computer”; Russian physicist Vitaly Ginzburg (1916-2009), whose superconductivity contributions earned him a Nobel Prize; and American author Anne Rice (1931-2021), multifaceted master of gothic horror, erotic fiction and Christian literature.
Driven: And take a bow, Sarah Fisher! The entrepreneur and retired American racecar driver – a nine-time Indianapolis 500 starter (the most by a woman), the all-time fastest female Indianapolis 500 qualifier and the first woman to own an IndyCar team, among other accomplishments – turns 43 today.
Wish the pioneering racer well at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips start our engines and your calendar events always checker our flag.
About our sponsor: The Long Island Business Development Council has helped build the regional economy for 54 years by bringing together government economic-development officials, developers, financial experts and others for education, debate and networking.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Prize possessions: Freshly minted Nobel laureates Drew Weissman (left) and Katalin Karikó celebrate their Ross Prizes in 2022.
Oh, that’s nice, too: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has finally caught up with the Feinstein Institutes.
This week, the Oslo-based organization responsible for doling out five annual Nobel Prizes named University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman co-winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology. The duo – which led groundbreaking messenger RNA research that led to the development of Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines – was previously awarded the 2022 Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine, the top honor bestowed by Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
It’s no surprise the Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized the Ross Prize winners for efforts that “revolutionized the development of vaccines that saved many lives from COVID-19,” according to Feinstein Institutes President and CEO Kevin Tracey. “Drs. Karikó and Weissman are pioneers whose unrelenting research helped unlock our understanding of mRNA,” Tracey said Monday. “On behalf of the 5,000 scientists and staff at the Feinstein Institutes, we offer our most heartfelt congratulations.”
Tanks for the opportunity: Some of Long Island’s greatest environmental challenges are spotlighted in Farmingdale State College’s new Bioscience Aquarium Laboratory.
The state-of-the-art space, unveiled in late September after two years of construction and gear-gathering, boasts a cutting-edge array of tanks, vats, polysynthetic lighting, specialty cameras and more – everything the budding biologist needs to study various species residing in Long Island waters and tackle the evolving challenges threatening regional saltwater and freshwater ecosystems. Much of the equipment was provided by top vendors, including a freshwater flow-through system and saltwater aquarium installed by Bohemia-based Island Fish & Reef and a “customized teaching marine touch tank” installed by New Jersey-based Lobster Life Systems.
With those and other fantastic resources – plus live lobsters pulled from Long Island Sound by Huntington-based Target Rock Charters – the new laboratory will “aim to answer questions and solve real problems,” according to FSC Biology Professor Peter Park. “It will open doors to conversations about local wildlife and it will allow students to empathize with the nature that … surrounds Long Island.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Dance with who brung you: A cornerstone Long Island-based business-law expert has been acquired by a San Francisco-based global law titan – and it’s bringing some friends.
Origin stories: How did the leaders of the Long Island innovation economy become the leaders of the Long Island innovation economy? Funny story (actually, a few dozen of them – and they’re eager to tell you themselves).
Sign post: Breaking mergers-and-acquisitions news? Engaging podcasts? Long Island’s best business-calendar newsletter, sent exclusively to subscribers … and subscriptions are easy and free? Where do I sign?
VOICES
Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island Co-president and Voices Commercial Real Estate Anchor David Pennetta says skyrocketing property-insurance premiums are crippling Long Island commercial real estate – and time’s running out to do something about it.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Safe and sound: Applauding the amazing policework that rescued Charlotte Sena. CNN examines the clues.
See who salutes: Inside the Philadelphia workshop where immigrants create America’s military and Presidential flags. NPR sews it up.
Down and out: The 400 Richest Americans list updates with the NBA’s greatest ambassador (and without devalued ex-presidents). Forbes counts them up.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Piccolo Medical, a California-based catheter-navigation innovator, closed a $5.5 million Series B financing led by Event Capital Strategies.
+ Deka Biosciences, a Maryland-based biotech focused on pharmaceutical pipelines, raised $20 million in Series B2 funding led by MPM BioImpact, Leaps by Bayer, Echo Investment Capital and Viva BioInnovator.
+ Geneos Therapeutics, a Pennsylvania-based clinical-stage Biotech providing personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines, raised $5 million in Series A3 funding. The investment was made by Shanghai Healthcare Capital.
+ Evvy, a New York City-based women’s healthcare startup focused on biomarker discovery, raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Left Lane Capital, General Catalyst, Labcorp Venture Fund, RH Capital, Ingeborg Investments, G9 Ventures, Virtue and Amboy Street Ventures.
+ League One Volleyball, a California-based professional volleyball league, raised $35 million in funding led by Left Lane Capital, Ares Management, Lindsey Vonn and Jayson Tatum.
+ Boisson, a NYC-based non-alcoholic beverage retailer, raised $5 million in bridge funding. Backers included Convivialité Ventures and Connect 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 the LIBDC). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Life Savings Edition)
Cost prohibitive: The price of everything that goes into this drink — especially labor — has gone up.
Saving time: The Senate approves, but the House (gasp!) remains stalled on permanent Daylight Saving Time.
Saving face: Harvard explains how to gently correct folks who flub your name.
Saving cash: How your frilly vanilla oat milk latte got so expensive.
Saving Long Island: Please continue supporting the incredible organizations that support Innovate Long Island, including the Long Island Business Development Council, which has helped sustain six decades of regional economic momentum through downturns, recessions and worse. Check them out.
