Snow kidding: Remember those winters when it was kinda warm and it barely snowed and we were all, like, waaahhh, I miss the snow, it’s so pretty and it makes me feel like a little kid again … remember that?
Yeah, good times.
Plowing ahead: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and the midpoint of another wintry workweek, with big snows behind us and more to come – and in between, our undaunted drive toward socioeconomic greatness.
Old softy: Comfort up your sleeve.
Dry and toasty: It’s Feb. 10 out there, and while we might do better this winter with a shovel than a bumbershoot, it is indeed National Umbrella Day.
Also warmly welcomed, in most winters but especially this chilly one, is National Flannel Day, always observed Feb. 10.
Saw it coming: Also making observations was English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist and physicist Edmund Halley, appointed England’s second-ever Astronomer Royal on this date in 1720.
For the record, he’d already predicted the comet (in 1705) – and it returned precisely on schedule (1758), some 16 years after Halley’s death (1742).
Flame out: The first U.S. patent for a fire extinguisher was issued on Feb. 10, 1863, to Virginia innovator Alanson Crane.
Other U.S. patents issued on this date include the very first for influential African American inventor Lewis Latimer, who locked up a trap-door toilet on Feb. 10, 1874.
Game of cat and mouse: With their latest big-screen adventure set to debut later this month, we salute eight decades of chaos with animated frenemies Tom & Jerry, who debuted – as “Jasper & Jinx” – on Feb. 10, 1940.
Interplanetary express: Venus and back at 670 million miles per hour.
There and back again: As part of a NASA experiment, MIT engineers bounced a radar signal off the planet Venus for the first time on this date in 1958.
The beams made the 56-million-mile interplanetary round trip in roughly five minutes.
We all fall down: And the Niagara Falls hydroelectric project – at the time, the world’s largest water-driven power complex – was activated on Feb. 10, 1961.
Still in the flow 60 years later, the facility is now one of several hydroelectric plants dotting the short but swift Niagara River.
A textbook case: American naturalist Benjamin Barton (1766-1815) – who authored the first great U.S. botanical textbook and shaped the course of American science in the 19th century – would be 255 years old today.
Durante: By a nose.
Also born on Feb. 10 were self-taught Irish astronomer Agnes Clerke (1842-1907), who dominated turn-of-the-century astronomy literature; German mineralogist Victor Goldschmidt (1853-1933), a pioneering crystallographer; American comedian, singer and jazz pianist Jimmy Durante (1893-1980); Nobel Prize winner Walter Brattain (1902-1987), an American physicist who helped invent the point-contact transistor; and Oceanside High School graduate Robert Iger (born 1951), now on his farewell victory lap as Walt Disney Co. executive chairman.
Loud and clear: And take a bow, James Edward Maceo West – the African American inventor and Johns Hopkins University professor, who developed the electret transducer technology used in virtually all contemporary microphones, turns 90 today.
Wish the acoustical engineer and all the other Feb. 10 innovators well at editor@innovateli.com, where the microphone is yours. Story tips? Calendar events? We’re listening.
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
Big fan: Daniel Gale Sotheby’s CEO Deirdre O’Connell predicts net gains from new sponsorship deal.
Home ice: One of the nation’s leading residential realtors has announced a multi-year sponsorship agreement with the New York Islanders, including a prominent presence in the coming-soon UBS Arena at Belmont Park.
Cold Spring Harbor-based Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty is now the Residential Real Estate Partner of the Islanders – making it the hockey club’s “preferred partner for its buying, selling and relocation needs,” according to a statement from Daniel Gale Sotheby’s. The deal commences immediately and will continue through the 2021-2022 season, which is scheduled to begin in October with the Islanders in their new Nassau County home (the team is playing the abbreviated 2020-2021 season in the beloved, if creaky, Nassau Coliseum).
For this season and next, the team’s official real estate partner will enjoy in-arena signage visible to the home TV viewing audience and, of course, the throngs packing UBS Arena next fall; the realtor will also have a “strong presence” on the Islanders’ website and social media platforms. “This is our first venture into partnering with a professional sports team,” noted Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty President and Chairwoman Patricia Petersen. “We are exceedingly positive about this exclusive relationship with our hometown heroes.”
Hard work: New York Institute of Technology researchers exploring new heart disease treatments have earned nearly $2 million in National Institutes of Health funding.
A team from NYIT’s Old Westbury-based College of Osteopathic Medicine, led by Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences Olga Savinova, is digging deep into atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries. The five-year, $1.8 million grant from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, will fund exquisitely detailed computer models designed to determine whether vascular calcification contributes to the development of atherosclerosis, primary cause of coronary artery disease – and, if so, whether decalcification treatments can head it off.
The team’s “overarching goal” is to better understand how calcification affects the onset, progression and treatment of atherosclerosis, according to Savinova, who also received a 2018 NIH grant to examine vascular calcification in chronic kidney disease. “We believe calcification is a risk factor for atherosclerosis,” the scientist noted, “and one that can be corrected.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Relocation, relocation, relocation: As real estate markets explode, a Florida-based move-it-yourself innovator comes full circle on Long Island.
Did you hear about this? Of course you did, faithful reader – but how about the rest of your innovation team? Help them out … free Innovate LI newsletter subscriptions always a click away.
Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus: Negative numbers versus the power of positivity – worlds collide in your Long Island pandemic primer, still riding the front lines.
VOICES
Legal anchor Michael Sahn senses an unprecedented moment for climate-change action, as government and corporate interests align and clean-energy investment opportunities proliferate.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Not good: Measuring R&D investment, manufacturing and dozens of other criteria, the United States is no longer a top-10 innovation economy. The Bloomberg Index speaks.
Also bad: China has become a magnet for innovation-focused international investors. The South China Morning Post explains.
Silver lining: Pandemic-based innovation might ultimately equalize U.S. education. The Brookings Institution looks forward.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Coterie, an Ohio-based technology company that simplifies small-business insurance, raised $11.5 million in Series A-1 financing led by Intact Ventures, with participation from Alpha Edison, Lackawanna Insurance Group, RPM Ventures, Allos Ventures and several others.
+ Rad Power Bikes, a Washington State-based e-bike brand, received a minority investment of $150 million. Backers included Morgan Stanley Counterpoint Global, Fidelity Management & Research Co., The Rise Fund, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Durable Capital Partners and Vulcan Capital.
+ Folx Health, a Massachusetts-based digital healthcare services provider for the LGBTQIA+ community, raised $25 million in Series A financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Define Ventures and Polaris.
+ Valera Health, a New York City-based behavioral telehealth service, closed a $3.8 million funding round led by AXA Venture Partners, Windham Ventures, Figure Eight Investments, Tom Insel, TWC and James Nahirny.
+ WorkStep, a California-based human resources company enabling large supply chain employers to source, screen, engage and retain their frontline workforce, raised $17.2 million in funding led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from Prologis Ventures.
+ Nerd Street Gamers, a Pennsylvania-based national e-sports infrastructure company, raised $11.5 million in additional funding led by Founders Fund.
BELOW THE FOLD
New input: Get with the programming.
Around the bend: The best stretches before and after shoveling snow.
Veggie tales: Spinach sends e-mails now – and it’s got lots to say about climate change.
I, robot: What learning to juggle does to your brain.
They raise you: Please continue supporting the amazing organizations that support Innovate Long Island, including Northwell Health, where “Raise Health” is more than just a tagline. Check them out.
