Flowery language: Welcome to a wet Wednesday on Long Island, dear readers, as Mother Nature delivers on promises of an early spring, complete with warmer-than-average temperatures and all these April showers arriving a tad prematurely.
Whether that means May flowers will blossom in April remains to be seen – but we can offer you this blooming bed of innovation right now.
Open wide: Three cheers today for dentists, professionals with real bite.
Smile when you say that: It’s March 6 out there, and we begin with a bouquet to the healthcare professionals everyone loves to hate – National Dentist’s Day, smiling brightly upon the underappreciated practitioners who dare to focus on teeth and gums. (Rinse, please.)
Not coincidentally, we’re smack-dab in the middle of National Dental Assistant Recognition Week, which runs March 3-9 this year. (Spit, please.)
All dressed up: Today is also National Dress Day, a combination fashion statement/women’s empowerment celebration that boldly tells us “Dresses aren’t going to change the world. The women who wear them will.”
And if you want to squeeze into that sassy little number, take it easy on National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day, fresh and creamy and sinfully sweet every March 6.
Periodic: Speaking of numbers and sizes, the first periodic table of elements – a bit limited by today’s standards, but still iconic – was presented to the Russian Chemical Society on this date in 1869 by groundbreaking chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.
Acidic: Other chemical breakthroughs associated with this date include acetylsalicylic acid (you know it as aspirin), which was patented by German company Bayer on March 6, 1899.
Fantastic: Grab the milk! Oreo Cookies (known first as Oreo Biscuits) first graced the shelves of a Hoboken, NJ, grocery store 112 years ago today.
Cold start: Frozen foods weren’t quite this fancy when they debuted in 1930.
Arctic: Also packing innovation’s grocery bags on this date are frozen foods, which were test-marketed in 1930 by icy innovator Clarence Birdseye (originally a field naturalist working in the Arctic, for those keeping score).
Silic(one): And it was March 6, 1950, when Silly Putty made its public debut.
The unique amalgam of silicone polymers – famously packaged as playthings in little plastic eggs – was originally created as an industrial rubber substitute during World War II.
Art imitates life: French satirist and dramatist Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) – a political/science/fantasy writer who inspired many romantic legends, including playwright Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” which highlighted the real Cyrano’s prominent proboscis – would be 405 years old today.
Old money: Greenspan is 98 and still crunching numbers.
Also born on March 6 were Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), the High Renaissance master who chipped it down to just “Michelangelo”; English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), a shining star of the Victorian Era; American watchmaker and industrialist Aaron Lufkin Dennison (1812-1895), the “father of the American watch factory”; American chemist and inventor Harry Coover (1917-2011), who discovered a class of chemicals called cyanoacrylates, later marketed as Super Glue; and American economist Alan Greenspan (born 1926), former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Gender equality in spaaaaace: And take a bow, Valentina Tereshkova! The Russian engineer, politician and retired cosmonaut – the first (known) woman to fly in space, completing 48 Earth orbits in 71 hours aboard the Vostok 6 capsule – turns 87 today.
Send your best to the former member of the State Duma (essentially, Russia’s version of the U.S. House of Representatives) at editor@innovateli.com, where the people adore your news tips, comrades, and your calendar events rocket us to higher orbits.
About our sponsor: Farrell Fritz, a full-service law firm with 15 practice groups, advises startups on entity formation, founder and shareholder agreements, funding, executive compensation and benefits, licensing and technology transfer, mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions. The firm’s blog, New York Venture Hub, discusses legal and business issues facing entrepreneurs and investors.
BUT FIRST, THIS
A+ in AI: Farmingdale State College is launching a new bachelor’s of science degree in Artificial Intelligence Management – the first such degree program offered by any State University of New York school.
Built for post-graduates, working adults and other learners with computer-science backgrounds, the Bachelor of Science in AI Management is designed to prepare transfer and continuing-education students for careers in the emerging AI fields by combining business and computer-science education. Machine learning, algorithms, statistical reasoning, ethics and sustainability – tailored to marketing, finance, operations, project support, supply-chain management and other business protocols – are all in play.
As AI functionality – which mimics human intelligence and learns quickly from enormous amounts of data – continues to proliferate, the new degree program will benefit professionals in production, customer relations and other wide-ranging fields on Long Island and beyond, according to Farmingdale State College Provost and Senior VP Laura Joseph. “We tailored our new AI program to meet the unique needs of transfer students from Long Island community colleges and the Greater New York region,” Joseph noted. “Its allure extends far beyond geographical boundaries and can be attractive to working adults from all over the country.”
Big brains: Long Island Brain Bee winners (from left) Stephanie Soo, Melody Hong and Isabella Fong are heading to the Brain Bee Nationals.
A+ at the Bee: Three budding Long Island geniuses created big buzz at the sixth-annual Long Island Brain Bee, held this week at Hofstra University’s major-league medical school.
Roughly 60 high schoolers from across Long Island and New York City gathered at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead for Monday’s regional round, focused on the human brain and, possibly, future neuroscience careers. Melody Hong of Levittown’s General Douglas MacArthur High School (first place), Stephanie Hsu of Jericho High School (second place) and Isabella Fong of Great Neck South High School (third place) all earned tickets to the National Brain Bee Championship, scheduled for April at the University of Central Florida.
There, the New Yorkers will take their shot at qualifying for the IBB 2024 World Championships, slated to take place virtually in October. “The Brain Bee is a great way to expose young students to the brain,” noted Zucker School Associate Professor Vanessa Reddin, this year’s regional Brain Bee organizer. “Hopefully, after participating in this fun experience, students can say they learned something they found interesting … that might inform some of their choices in the future.”
TOP OF THE SITE
No game: With (largely sedentary) eSports gaining popularity, New York Institute of Technology researchers are examining potentially deadly blood clots among players – and the best ways to prevent them.
Plus one: Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast is the only podcast that goes one-on-one with the inventors, executives, activists, lawmakers, academicians and other generous geniuses empowering the Long Island innovation economy. Pick one and go.
VOICES
This week, Innovate Long Island adds another ace to our powerful Voices rotation: Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island Co-president and Avison Young-Long Island Principal/Managing Director Ted Stratigos, who pitches his new perspectives on regional commercial real estate – as frustratingly challenging/uniquely promising as ever, according to our new RE anchor.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Full speed ahead: Corporate accelerators are revolutionizing innovation. Newsweek hits the gas.
Gray matter: A rare gray whale has been spotted in the North Atlantic for the first time in 200 years. Phys.org blames climate change.
Too close to home: With political violence looming, a new movie about a second American civil war is stoking real fears. Hollywood Reporter questions the timing.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Particle, a California-based artificial intelligence-powered news-reader, raised $4.4 million in seed funding, led by Kindred Ventures, Adverb Ventures and Ev Williams.
+ Salvo Health, a New York City-based health-tech startup, raised $5 million in seed prime funding led by City Light Capital, Human Ventures and Threshold Ventures.
+ Fervo Energy, a Texas-based geothermal developer, raised $244 million in funding led by Devon Energy.
+ Redi Health, an Ohio-based digital health startup, raised $14 million in Series B funding led by Blue Heron Capital, Refinery Ventures, Mutual Capital Partners, Rev1 Ventures and M25.
+ Axiom Cloud, a California-based software innovator focused on refrigeration management for groceries and cold storage, raised $5 million in funding led by Toshiba Tec and Windsail Capital Group.
+ FamilyWell, a Massachusetts-based health-tech focused on pregnant and post-partum parents, raised $4.3 million in seed funding led by .406 Ventures, GreyMatter Capital and Mother Ventures.
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 Farrell Fritz). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Artificially Intelligent Edition)
We come in pieces: But with brains behind the brawn, robots are putting it all together.
In plain sight: AI is already everywhere.
In reverse: Public faith in AI technologies is falling fast.
In robot bodies: Automatons that can think … what could go wrong?
Au naturel: Please continue sponsoring the amazing firms that sponsor Innovate Long Island, including Farrell Fritz, where genius comes naturally and legal expertise is organically grown. Check them out.
