Fear not: Don’t panic, dear readers! We’re wrapping up another busy workweek and easing into another relaxing weekend – even though Sunday is Halloween, making Saturday All Hallows’ Eve, which actually is kind of scary.
Samhainophobia notwithstanding, you have indeed survived five more days of socioeconomic innovation, and that’s worthy of celebration (and a dip into the candy bowl, for sure). But first, let’s finish with style.
No joke, those strokes: Before we get into the fun stuff, a somber salute to World Stroke Day, the World Stroke Organization’s annual education and prevention effort focused on cerebrovascular events, which afflict 15 million, kill 6 million and permanently disable 5 million people every year.
Bowled over: Paging Wilford Brimley.
Mush push: You know what’s good for your cerebrovascular health? A warm bowl of boiled oats – an ideal start to any day, but especially National Oatmeal Day, celebrated this and every Oct. 29.
This last Friday in October also serves up National Breadstick Day – not quite as healthy, but oh so tasty.
Long, winding road: There’s not much fresh bread to be found along the Alaska Highway – a 1,424-mile road connecting Dawson Creek, B.C., and Big Delta, Alaska – or at least there wasn’t when the highway was officially completed 79 years ago today.
Originally proposed in the 1920s, that first rough-and-tumble road (it’s paved smooth now) was actually a hasty U.S. Army World War II project designed to connect the Lower 48 to Alaska, with a looming Japanese threat to the North American West Coast.
Having a ball: The original Reynolds Rocket.
More to the point: Also connecting the dots was the first ballpoint pen sold in the United States, the Reynold’s Rocket, which hit shelves on this date in 1945 – and immediately triggered a patent war.
Making it rain: General Electric pilots soaring over New Hampshire wrote themselves into the history books on Oct. 29, 1947, when they “seeded” cumulus clouds with dry ice – producing a downpour that drenched a forest fire below.
On purpose: Also making history on this date was the National Organization for Women, which adopted its Statement of Purpose in 1966, during the equality organization’s first-ever National Conference.
Healing power: And while bioelectric medicine is sizzling now, it’s hardly a new idea – in fact, on Oct. 29, 1971, surgeons first announced they’d used electricity to heal a broken bone.
Specifically, a fractured ankle, made whole by University of Pennsylvania surgeons who zapped it with 10 microamperes for nine consecutive weeks.
Daddy issues: Bulgarian-American chemist, novelist, playwright and poet Carl Djerassi (1923-2015) – the “father of the pill,” credited with developing the first oral contraceptives – would be 98 years old today.
Funny girl: Ziegfeld Follies alumna Brice.
Also born on Oct. 29 were American paleontologist Othniel Marsh (1831-1899), a towering giant of early paleontology; American archaeologist Alfred Kidder (1885-1963), the 20th Century’s foremost archaeologist of the southwestern United States and Middle America; American comedienne Fannie Borach (1891-1951), known best as the multitalented Fanny Brice; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (born 1938), the former president of Liberia and first woman elected to lead an African state; and American painter, instructor and TV host Robert Norman “Bob” Ross (1942-1995), who brought joy to painting.
Defense department: And take a bow, Denis Charles Potvin! The Canadian hockey great – a brutal defenseman, beloved captain and vital cog in the New York Islander’s epic Drive for Five – turns 68 today.
Everyone (except Ulf Nilsson, probably, and every New York Rangers fan ever) can wish Potvin a happy birthday at editor@innovateli.com, where someday we’ll raise the cup thanks to your news tips and calendar events.
About our sponsor: Nixon Peabody is an international law firm with an office in Jericho that works with clients building the technologies and industries of the future. We have the experience necessary to drive your business forward and help you negotiate risks and opportunities related to all areas of business and the law, including startup work, private placements, venture capital and private equity, IP and licensing, labor and immigration, and mergers and acquisitions.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Face facts: Marschilok, unmasked.
The woman in the carbon-fiber mask: A new study led by a Stony Brook University researcher sheds light on materials that do – and don’t – make for good protective facemasks, a continuing concern through the end of the COVID pandemic and beyond.
Led by Amy Marschilok, co-director of Stony Brook’s Institute for Electrochemically Stored Energy and an associate professor in the university’s Department of Chemistry, investigators used inorganic, physical and analytical chemistry to mimic respiratory droplets that can carry viruses. The results – published in September by Applied Materials & Interfaces, an American Chemical Society journal – revealed the absorptivity of different mask materials, providing minute but critical differences in protection from SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
Tested masks ranged from a commercialized N95 product to a “potential future mask material” prepared by the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with a variety of testing methods at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials – electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and others – in play. “We decided to compare mask materials that … represented a range of technology and manufacturing readiness,” Marschilok noted. “Our goal was to develop new approaches to characterize mask materials.”
Incentivizing is in their blood: A leading regional hematology/oncology practice will invest $12.3 million in a new Ridge headquarters, thanks to an infusion from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency.
The IDA has issued preliminary approval for a tax-abatement package that will help Ascend Realty Partners and North Shore Hematology-Oncology Associates – doing business as New York Cancer & Blood Specialists – consolidate administrative and back-office functions and create 50 new positions with an average salary of $85,000. New York Cancer & Blood Specialists will purchase a 51,000-square-foot building on Research Road and renovate approximately 35,000 square feet into dedicated office space for executive, administrative and support-service employees, most of whom are currently spread across multiple Port Jefferson locations.
The tax deal must still undergo final review and a full IDA vote, but the practice group – which employs more than 200 doctors, physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners at dozens of Long Island offices – is already planning the acquisition of new office equipment, furniture and fixtures. “This latest investment will ensure our executive, administrative and support teams are functioning at their highest levels,” said New York Cancer & Blood Specialists CEO Jeffery Vacirca. “We are incredibly grateful to the Suffolk IDA’s support in creating new jobs and making our operations more efficient.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Quantum leap: Qunnect has the quantum-computing goods, but needed the right CEO to make it fly – and it found that leader in veteran scientist/executive Noel Goddard.
Cor(tex) values: Stony Brook University researchers have taken a deep dive into the human brain to change conventional thinking on Parkinson’s disease treatments.
Ghost rider: Just in time for Halloween, Season 2 of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast visits the other side with Long Island Paranormal Investigators co-founder Michael Cardinuto.
ICYMI
Gathering big thinkers to battle climate change; gathering creative designers to celebrate craft beverages.
BEST OF THE WEST (AND SOMETIMES NORTH/SOUTH)
Innovate LI’s inbox overrunneth with inspirational innovations from all North American corners. This week’s brightest out-of-towners:
From California: Los Angeles-based mushroom-extract ace Nammex announces the first harvest from its breakthrough “turkey tail” cultivation – big news for naturopathic medicine.
From Oregon: Beaverton-based education innovator Vernier Software & Technology offers free access to interactive, engaging college-level chemistry sets.
From Texas: Lubbock-based healthy hydration house The Wellness Enterprise floats Aqua Energizer, an advanced maintenance- and electricity-free water filter.
ON THE MOVE
Kevin Law
+ Kevin Law has been nominated by Gov. Kathy Hochul to lead the Empire State Development Corp. The St. James resident – former LIPA CEO and president/CEO of the Long Island Association, currently a partner and executive vice president at Tritec Real Estate Development Co., chairman of the Long Island Housing Partnership and chairman of Accelerate Long Island – is awaiting State Senate approval.
+ Ulises Cartagena has been named associate director of Westbury Arts. He is a co-founder of New York-based nonprofit Pazitos.
+ Anthony Parziale has been appointed to the Illinois-based Office Moving Alliance’s Board of Directors. He is president of the Farmingdale-based Advance Group.
+ Brightwaters-based Sheehan & Company has announced two promotions: Stephanie Handel, formerly an audit manager, is now a principal, and Megan Scotti, formerly a staff accountant, is now a supervisor.
BELOW THE FOLD (Halloween Classics Edition)
Clear a few things up: Be afraid … be very afraid.
The fog: San Francisco is losing its famous haze, and scientists are scared.
The “exercist”: Why certain exercises work for others, but not for you.
Nightmare on Elm Street: Supply shrinks, prices spike across the Long Island housing market.
The shining: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Nixon Peabody, a bright beacon of business-development expertise and professionalism. Check them out.
