Second thoughts: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we roll into the second half of the year’s second workweek.
To celebrate, here’s the second Innovate Long Island Wednesday Newsletter of 2026 – sure to be the best 300 seconds of your day.
Have it your way: Fine … skip the slaw, if you must.
Pet peeve: Today is Jan. 14 and we’re opening up this hump-day edition with an observance we don’t necessarily endorse – in fact, we think outfitting helpless dogs and cats in human-style clothing is silly and probably torturous for our furry companions. However, it is National Dress Up Your Pet Day, so if you must shred every last ounce of their four-legged dignity, well, have at it.
That’s more like it: We’d much prefer you dive deep into World Logic Day, UNESCO’s annual homage to knowledge, science, technology, critical thinking and peace through dialogue – all the things that make innovation rock.
Of course, whether you’re a bastion of levelheaded thought or some kind of furball fashionista, we all can enjoy National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day, served salty and steaming – on rye with melted Swiss, coleslaw and a generous slather of mustard, if you know what you’re doing – every Jan. 14.
Heads of state: United States President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other Allied leaders knew what they were doing on this date in 1943, when they gathered in Morocco for the historically significant Casablanca Conference – and planned the endgame of World War II. (True story: The conference marked the first time a U.S. President traveled overseas by airplane.)
Royalty: Still the gold standard for morning news shows, the NBC Television Network’s “Today” show debuted on Jan. 14, 1952.
King (for a day): Not everyone enjoys a paid holiday next week, but if you’re looking ahead to a three-day weekend, thank President Jimmy Carter, who urged Congress 47 years ago today to designate a new national holiday in honor of Martin Luither King Jr.
Late-r, peacock: NBC and “The Tonight Show” passed on Letterman, who had the last laugh.
King (of late night): After being passed over as Johnny Carson’s successor, David Letterman announced on this date in 1993 that he was taking his talk-show talents from NBC to the rival CBS Television Network – and would go head-to-head with Jay Leno’s “The Tonight Show.”
Titan: And it was Jan. 14, 2005, when the European Space Agency’s Huygens space probe – after a seven-year journey from Earth and nearly three-hour descent through thick atmospheric layers – landed gently on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon.
The probe – named for 17th Century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens – transmitted photos of Titan’s rocky surface and other data for about four hours before shutting down.
Dear Watson: American businessman, diplomat, pilot and philanthropist Thomas Watson Jr. (1914-1993) – the one-time U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union and longtime president of IBM who carried his father’s technology company into the computer age – would be 112 years old today.
Well composed: Toussaint, who passed more than a decade ago, is still influencing music and musicians.
Also born on Jan. 14 were American scientist and industrialist David Wesson (1861-1934), namesake of Wesson Oil; French polymath Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), a theologian, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, physician and prototype Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Polish-American logician and mathematician Alfred Tarski (1901-1983), a prolific author who mastered metamathematics; American radio and television writer Andy Rooney (1919-2011), remembered best for 30-plus years of cranky commentaries; and American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer Allen Toussaint (1938-2015), a backbone of New Orleans-style Rhythm and Blues.
Hands Dowd: And take a bow, Maureen Dowd! The American news and sports reporter, former Time magazine correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times op-ed columnist – known best for her sardonic wit and stinging criticisms – turns 74 today.
Send your best to the comedically caustic columnist at editor@innovateli.com, where our eds – including our news features and calendar events – are greatly influenced by your ops.
About our sponsor: Located in Old Bethpage, the Museum of American Armor chronicles our shared heritage of America’s defense of freedom and the nation’s legacy of military technology. Start your adventure through history right here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
The tau of Long COVID: A common protein essential to the transportation of brain neurons may be causing headaches, vertigo and other neurocognitive difficulties in Long COVID patients – and it could get worse over time.
That’s the warning from Stony Brook Medicine researchers who studied 227 patients still experiencing brain fog, disrupted balance and other neurocognitive issues years after first contracting the COVID-19 infection. Published this month in the open-access scientific journal eBioMedicine, the study reveals an average 59 percent increase of the protein tau – which stabilizes microtubules, the internal transport system that moves neurons through the brain – in the blood plasma of Long COVID patients.
The study, which focused on blood biomarkers collected from patients in the Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program, pinpoints this abnormal tau buildup as a “biomarker of lasting brain damage,” according to Corresponding Author Sean Clouston. “These study results imply that Long COVID could worsen with time,” noted Clouston, a professor in the Renaissance School of Medicine’s Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, “and lead to cognitive difficulties that become worse.”
Kara Cannon: Taking on Tesla.
Driving Tesla: The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe has a new executive director.
The Shoreham compound – a living homage to all-time innovator Nikola Tesla’s influential Long Island tenure – has tapped veteran life sciences executive Kara Cannon, the former CEO of New York City-based Enzo Biochem, as its new exec. She succeeds former New York State Assemblyman and longtime TSC Executive Director Marc Alessi, who steps aside after leading the center through years of fundraising, construction and programmatic growth, and out of the ashes of a devastating 2023 fire that nearly wiped away Tesla’s last standing laboratory.
Cannon will oversee the ongoing restoration of the historic Wardenclyffe lab and continue expanding its public programming, while spearheading the launch of the Eugene Sayan Visitor Center – a STEM-learning hub that will serve as the site’s first-ever welcome center. “I am honored to lead Tesla Science Center … at such an exciting and meaningful moment,” Cannon noted. “Together with our team and partners, we will establish Wardenclyffe as a global center for imaginative thinking – one that preserves, restores and advances Tesla’s legacy through education and innovation.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Fresh air: With unlawful presidential orders and high-stakes countersuits clogging courts, federal judges are repeatedly ruling in favor of offshore wind farms – big wins for Long Island’s best socioeconomic future.
How are we gonna top that? The sixth season of “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” is now in production, featuring an exciting slate of all-new special guests. And they better be special – those first five seasons are a tough act to follow!
VOICES
Generative Artificial Intelligence is already revolutionizing the American legal system, according to Sahn Ward Braff Coschignano Managing Member and Voices Law Anchor Michael Sahn, who offers a constructive checklist to ensure that the actual practice of law remains in human hands.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Whose economy is it, anyway? Trump blames Biden, but economists blame import tariffs as inflation, rents and consumer costs rise again. Reuters calculates reality.
Swing your partner: Nothing fuels innovation like unlikely collaborations (just ask Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart). The World Economic Forum makes friends.
Reward/risk: In climate-related innovation, greater efficiency often invites system-level failures. Forbes assesses risks.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Vibrant Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biotech co-headquartered in Guangzhou, China, raised $61 million in new financing led by Pfizer Ventures and Apricot Capital, with participation from Bayland Capital, HSG, Northern Light Venture Capital and First Principle Venture Limited.
+ Neuramint, a Colorado-based Web3 artificial-intelligence pioneer developing an AI agent platform, raised $5 million in Seed funding led by Maelstrom, Borderless Capital, Selini Capital, Symbolic Capital, Lattice Fund and Node Capital.
+ Avenue Biosciences, a California-based biotech focused on protein-engineering technologies, raised $5.7 million in an extended Seed round led by Balnord and Tesi, with participation from Voima Ventures, Inventure, the University of Helsinki and Dimerent.
+ Cytotherix, a Minnesota-based biotech focused on cell-therapy treatments for liver disease, raised $60 million in Series A funding led by Ouroboros Family Founders Fund I.
+ VieCure, a Colorado-based software maker focused on oncology care, raised $43 million in funding led by Mitch Rales and Northpond Ventures, with participation from Durable Capital Partners, Socium Ventures and Sator Grove Holdings.
+ AirNexis Therapeutics, a California-based clinical-stage biotech focused on pulmonary diseases, raised $200 million in Series A funding led by Frazier Life Sciences, with participation from OrbiMed, SR One, Longitude Capital, Enavate Sciences and Life Sciences at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
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 – on Long Island, and soon, across New York State (just ask the Museum of American Armor). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (At The Movies Edition)
Pandora-ing to fans: Stop us if you’ve heard this already.
Screen on: The usual blockbusters, major biopics and Spielbergian nostalgia await 2026 moviegoers.
Am I blue? (Or green? Or Uhura?): A 21st Century sci-fi standout becomes history’s highest-grossing actor.
Same old story: Exploring the “sequel paradox,” in which less innovation sells more tickets – at least, at first.
War movies: Please continue supporting the innovative institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including the Museum of American Armor, where the drama of America’s military history comes alive. Check them out.
