That was close: Welcome to the first Friday of February, intrepid innovators, as Long Island narrowly escapes this week’s nationwide winter storm – a just reward for another productive week of socioeconomic innovation.
Well aware: Knowing is half the battle on World Cancer Day.
Half full: It’s Feb. 4 out there, and some would say we’re due for better weather – not only did Holtsville Hal predict an early spring on Groundhog Day, but we’ve mathematically entered winter’s second half here in our lovely Northern Hemisphere (the exact midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox was yesterday).
Speaking of things looking up, today is the Union for International Cancer Control’s annual World Cancer Day, which accentuates the positives on a mission to eliminate preventable cancer deaths.
Home-grown: It’s also National Hemp Day (highlighting less-euphoric uses) and National Homemade Soup Day (celebrating 9,000 years of family recipes).
And Feb. 4 delivers National Thank a Mail Carrier Day, showing some love for the slightly antiquated, still vital snail mail brigade.
Inexact science: But it worked well for Mary Baker Eddy.
Word up: Speaking of deliverance, Mary Baker Eddy – who would later found The Church of Christ, Scientist – recovered from what doctors diagnosed as a fatal spinal injury on this date in 1866, thanks to a Bible.
E for effort: Turning to Earth sciences, Radium E became the first radioactive element synthetically produced in a lab on Feb. 4, 1936, when University of California at Berkeley physicist John Livingood bombarded bismuth with neutrons.
Teflon Roy: Also achieving a laboratory breakthrough was DuPont Co. chemist Roy Plunkett, who patented tetrafluoro-ethylene polymer – known best by its stage name, Teflon – 71 years ago today.
Other U.S. patents issued on Feb. 4 include a Thomas Edison trifecta, for his “Improvement to Circuits for Chemical Telegraphs” (1873), “Quadruplex Telegraph” (1890) and “Reversible Galvanic Battery” (1902).
Radical weight-loss plan: Chicago doctors completed history’s longest recorded surgery – four days! – on this date in 1951, and that’s just half the story.
Not only would the 58-year-old, 600-pound patient recover completely, but removing her 300-pound ovarian cyst (and subsequent operations to remove excess skin) left her below 300 pounds for the first time in decades.
About Face: And “The Facebook” – initially a great way to share interests and catch up with old friends, fated to rip apart the fabric of society as we know it – launched on Feb. 4, 2004.
Spirited: Lindbergh’s public views often caused consternation.
Wingman: American aviator, military officer, author, inventor and activist Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) – a U.S. Army Air Service reservist and obscure U.S. Air Mail pilot, until destiny called – would be 120 years old today.
Also born on Feb. 4 were French engineer and inventor Clément Ader (1841-1926), who was the Wright Brothers before the Wright Brothers were cool; American civil rights icon Rosa Parks (1913-2005), the “mother of the freedom movement”; American journalist and activist Betty Friedan (1921-2006), who co-founded the National Organization for Women; British mathematician Sir Erik Christopher Zeeman (1925-2016), a catastrophic genius; and American singer/songwriter Alice Cooper (born 1948), still riding that freakshow vibe.
Pound for pound: And take a bow, Oscar De La Hoya! The retired American boxing champion – an all-timer who captured 10 world titles in six weight classes – turns 49 today.
Wish the Golden Boy well at editor@innovateli.com, where we punch above our weight thanks to your news tips and calendar events.
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
Payback U: The New York Institute of Technology places in the top 2 percent of U.S. colleges in return-on-investment for low-income students.
So says a new report by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, which ranks New York Tech 72nd out of 3,410 nationwide public, private and nonprofit institutions offering certificates, associate’s degrees and bachelor’s degrees. The 2022 Colleges Where Low-Income Students Get the Highest ROI report leveraged U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard data to compute each surveyed college’s “net present value,” which calculates a college’s net costs and the mean earnings of students from low-income families at six and 10 years after graduation.
Based on that formula, the Westbury-based institution outperformed most other schools on the CEW’s list – and earned a higher ROI score than Stony Brook University (ranked 165th), Hofstra University (346th) and all other Long Island schools. “Access to education is a key determinant of social mobility,” noted New York Tech President Hank Foley. “That’s why we’re proud to not only offer one of the lowest private-college tuitions in New York State, but also a high-quality education that graduates students into good-paying jobs.”
Where blame is due: An attribution tribute by SoMAS scientist Kevin Reed.
Response team: A Stony Brook University researcher is adding his voice to the chorus of international scientists demanding governments create more equitable and effective global responses to extreme weather events.
Associate Professor Kevin Reed, the associate dean of research in SBU’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, joined researcher Michael Wehner of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to pen a piece for the inaugural issue of the Public Library of Science’s PLOS Climate, an open-access scientific journal disseminating climate-related research. The sharp commentary, published Tuesday, suggests that “operational extreme weather event attribution” can help “quantify climate change loss and damages,” if done correctly.
Among the authors’ primary points: The costs of extreme weather events have been unevenly distributed around the world over the past 50 years, while “attribution science” that measures the influence of human-caused climate change on specific weather events can play a significant role in quantifying loss and damage. “Our idea is to help guide and push operational centers and governments to use attribution technology,” Reed said in a statement. “The developed world can be better responsive to losses and damages in the developing world.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Tour de force: Amazon Prime’s popular anthology “The College Tour” highlights STEM and diversity at Garden City’s Adelphi University.
Combo platter: Uniondale law firm Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz has enhanced its menu of legal services by absorbing a veteran Garden City business- and family-law firm.
Who’s responsible for this? There’s a good chance it’s David Chauvin, the ZE Creative Communications exec who infuses social responsibility into every marketing message. Learn more on Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast.
ICYMI
A new high-profile home for a former Suffolk prosecutor; a dire e-commerce warning for mom and pop.
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 Missouri: St. Louis-based food-tech Benson Hill collaborates with fish farmer Riverence Holdings to enhance aquaculture supply chains.
From California: San Jose-based cloud-security ace Lacework helps digital innovators detect suspicious development-stage activity with multicloud Polygraph Data Platform.
From Washington: District of Columbia-based research and policy group Future Teaching Institute sets out to validate the competency of teachers around the globe.
ON THE MOVE
Colleen Merlo
+ Colleen Merlo has been elected to the Mental Health Association in New York State’s Board of Directors. She is CEO of the Association for Mental Health and Wellness in Ronkonkoma.
+ Timothy Sini has joined Nixon Peabody’s Long Island office as a partner in the Litigation Department and Government Investigations and White Collar Defense Practice Group. He is a former Suffolk County district attorney.
+ The Long Island Water Conference has announced four appointments to its Board of Directors:
- Kevin Durk, director of water quality and laboratory services at the Suffolk County Water Authority, was named chairman.
- John Kilpatrick, director of engineering at Liberty Utilities, was named vice chairman.
- Jason Belle, superintendent of the West Hempstead Water District, was named second vice chairman.
- Robert McEvoy, commissioner of the Oyster Bay Water District, was named secretary.
+ Tracey Cullen has been elected to the Board of Directors at Hauppauge-based Long Island Cares, The Harry Chapin Food Bank. She is the vice president of Hauppauge-based King Kullen Grocery.
+ Rasheda Wallace has been hired as assistant to the superintendent for human resources in the Wyandanch Union Free School District. She was previously assistant business administrator in the Sag Harbor School District.
+ Richard Bianchi has been hired as vice president and commercial lending officer at Valley Bank in Jericho. He previously served as senior business relationship manager for Chase Bank in New Hyde Park.
BELOW THE FOLD (Help Wanted Edition)
You’ve got the touch: Congratulations, DevOps engineers.
Competitive salary: Glassdoor’s 10 best jobs of 2022 all pay over $100,000.
Flexible hours: Why the 9-to-5 workday is an antiquated relic of the past.
Some travel required: Visitors to the Beijing Winter Olympics have very specific boxes to check.
Jobs well done: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including massive employer Northwell Health, where upwards of 70,000 staffers work hard to create the best patient outcomes. Check them out.
