Adventure time: Welcome to Wednesday, fellow travelers, as we continue our exciting journey through the wilds of innovation and chart a course for socioeconomic fortune and glory.
It’s April 27 out there, and we’re swinging toward the back side of this latest exhilarating workweek. Don’t worry, we’ve got a map – follow us!
Red alert: Like your roast rare? Well done!
Tell us another one: Speaking of exciting tales, April 27 is Tell a Story Day, celebrating the art of oral storytelling across the United States and the United Kingdom.
Follow us for more recipes: Here in the States, today is also National Prime Rib Day, honoring what is arguably the choiciest of the eight primal cuts of beef – and if you order, cook or eat it anywhere above rare (as in a cool red center), we need to talk.
For dessert: National Devil Dog Day. (Milk is standing by.)
New Zoo review: There were no devil dogs – of the Drake’s or Canis demonicus varieties – to be found when the London Zoo, Britain’s first scientific menagerie, opened to the public on April 27, 1828.
Any person … any study: Happy anniversary to Cornell University, the Ithaca-based Ivy League cornerstone that was chartered on this date in 1865.
Hear ye: The first electric hearing aid was patented 142 years ago today by innovators Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster, who sold the patent before commercializing the invention.
For those keeping score, Miller Reese Hutchinson – a one-time engineer in Thomas Edison’s New Jersey workshop – is officially remembered as the inventor of the first electrified hearing aid.
Far turn: The field enters the homestretch at Jamaica.
Keeping track: Jamaica Race Course – one of three thoroughbred horse-racing tracks operated simultaneously on Long Island by the Greater New York Racing Association, along with Aqueduct and Belmont, in the early 20th Century – opened on April 27, 1903.
The mouse that roared: And it was this date in 1981 when the computer mouse was commercially introduced, as part of the Xerox 8010 Star Information System.
While the Xerox Star workstation sparked a thought revolution on computer interactivity, computer-mouse technology actually dates back to the 1960s.
Code talker: American painter and inventor Samuel Morse (1791-1872) – who devised a single-wire electric-telegraph system and co-wrote a unique tonal alphabet to maximize its potential – would be 231 years old today.
Civil rights queen: Coretta King carved her own legacy.
Also born on April 27 were 18th U.S. President Ulysses Grant (1822-1885), an American Civil War military genius; American chemist and inventor Wallace Carothers (1896-1937), the DuPont organic-chemistry mastermind who invented nylon; British aviator Sheila Scott (born Sheila Christine Hopkins, 1922-1988), the first Brit to fly solo around the world; American author and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King (1927-2006), the first lady of American social activism; and iconic countdown king Kemal Amin “Casey” Kasem (1932-2014), who was Shaggy, the Boy Wonder (on “Super Friends”) and other cartoon voices you know.
Most days in spaaaaace: And take a bow, Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov! The Russian cosmonaut and physician – who holds the record for longest continuous stay in space, a 438-day visit to the now “de-orbited” Mir Space Station – turns 80 today.
Wish the marathon spaceman well at editor@innovateli.com, where we happily fill space with your news tips and your calendar events keep us going and going.
About our sponsor: Sahn Ward is one of the region’s most highly regarded and recognized law firms. Our attorneys are thought leaders, dedicated to achieving success through excellence. With our broad experience in land use, development, litigation, real estate, corporate and environmental law, we have the vision and knowledge to serve our clients and our communities. Please visit sahnward.com.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Breaking newsletter: A hearty welcome to the newsletter-publishing world to our good friends over at Mission Disrupt, the Huntington-based digital agency now pumping out the subscription-optional e-publication Marketing Mindshare.
Focused exclusively on “informing and inspiring the next generation of marketing leadership,” the new e-publication – which debuted April 21 – aggregates content from sites like TechRepublic (a study of zero-party data), The Drum (a dive into the Baskin-Robbins rebrand) and AdAge (inside Shaquille O’Neal’s $5.6 million reunion with Papa Johns). It also links to third-party podcasts and marketing-, finance- and R&D-themed articles by Forbes, OpenAI and other sector-specific publishers (fair warning: some of those firewalled sites require subscriptions).
The early-stage e-newsletter is the latest foray for up-and-coming Mission Disrupt, a full-service B2B/B2C digital agency launched in 2016 by founder Dean DeCarlo. Previous ventures have included promotional content for global healthcare distributor Henry Schein and another incarnation of Marketing Mindshare – this an education/training community for small-business managers.
Stream of thought: A malfunctioning heat-pump prototype gave NASA scientist Lonnie Johnson the idea for the iconic Super Soaker.
Class acts: Though it’s not Long Island-specific, we’d be remiss if we didn’t salute the 2022 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, set to take their place alongside Edison, Tesla and the rest in a special ceremony next week.
In partnership with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Ohio-based NIHF will welcome its newest members in a May 5 event billed as “the greatest celebration of American innovation.” The Class of 2022 includes New York City-born Google Vice President of Engineering Marian Croak, the prolific inventor who’s turned Voice over Internet Protocol into a practical reality, and Alabama native Lonnie Johnson, a distinguished NASA and U.S. Air Force veteran who invented the Super Soaker.
The NIHF will also posthumously induct German automotive engineer Carl Benz, American infrastructure giant James Buchanan Eads and American ophthalmologist Patricia Bath, who blasted cataracts with lasers. “As a nation, we innovate and we grow,” noted U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “Advancing innovation and entrepreneurship is critical to the future of our country, and the National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees inspire a culture of invention.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 8: Arthur Germain, perfect for Tell a Story Day.
We can’t wait to raise the curtain on Season 3 of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, coming this summer to a top-rated podcasting platform near you. Before we do, catch up with the two-dozen thought-provoking conversations that distinguished Seasons 1 and 2.
Inventors, executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities and more, all sharing their unique perspectives and unparalleled knowledge in entertaining and informative 30-minute lessons … absorb some greatness today!
TOP OF THE SITE
Help from above: Regional conservationists fighting to permanently preserve Plum Island have been emboldened by powerful Capitol Hill reinforcements.
ACT now: With Albany’s help, an Amityville nonprofit has activated the nation’s first Assertive Community Treatment program for children with severe mental illnesses.
Parental guidance suggested: Thanks for sharing this awesome newsletter with your innovation team – and for strongly suggesting they get their own individual subscriptions, which are always easy and always free.
VOICES
Voices historian Tom Mariner recollects the evolution of positron emission tomography and recalls Brookhaven National Laboratory’s critical role in the development of PET scans – one of several historical contributions the U.S. Department of Energy-funded national lab has made to medical science.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Tweetstorm: Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter acquisition is the best thing that ever happened to free speech – or the worst. The BBC reads the leaves.
Shipping news: Can retooling the world’s largest vehicles save the planet? Vox Recode charts a course.
Meanwhile, back on the farm: How to innovate like a farmer. Forbes sows the seeds.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Agility Robotics, an Oregon-based robotics manufacturer focused on warehouse environments, raised $150 million in Series B funding led by DCVC, Playground Global, The Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, MFV Partners, ITIC, Robotics Hub, Safar Partners, Sony Innovation Fund and TDK Ventures.
+ CertiK, a New York City-based web3 and blockchain-security company, raised an additional $60 million in funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global.
+ Sionna Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based life-sciences company focused on cystic fibrosis, closed a $111 million Series B financing led by OrbiMed, with participation from funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Q Healthcare Holdings, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Qatar, RA Capital, TPG’s The Rise Fund, Atlas Venture and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
+ Aspecta.ai, a Connecticut-based, Yale student-founded talent-engine startup, raised $2 million in funding led by Zhenfund.
+ Glacier, a California-based manufacturer of AI-powered waste and recycling robots, raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates, former GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt, climate investor Sierra Peterson and former Uber CPO Manik Gupta.
+ Free Market Health, a Pennsylvania-based health-tech, raised $13.5 million in Series A funding led by Alta Partners, Highmark Ventures and 653 Investment Partners.
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 Sahn Ward). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD
Cube squared: And you thought Rubik’s Cube was hard.
Head-scratching: Nobody’s happy with President Biden’s latest fossil fuel compromise.
Confusing: The Internal Revenue Service’s “math error” notice does not compute.
Puzzling: Behold, history’s 10 greatest brain-benders.
Keep it simple: You want the best results, you go with the best – like the legal eagles at Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz, one of the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island. Check them out.
