BALTIMORE - At the John's Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, researchers have been working for years to figure out how prostate cancer cells are able to move from one infected organ and spread to other parts of the body.

“Because we know that's the type of cancer that eventually will kill a man with prostate cancer," said Johns Hopkins Associate Professor of Oncology and Pathology. Dr. Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian.

About 10 months ago, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and Space X, asked some engineers from both of these companies to help him invent a new form of transportation. Today he unveiled the design for what he calls the “hyperloop,” which would convey passengers from San Francisco to LA in about half an hour. It involves propelling 28-passenger “pods” through a tube at speeds of up to 760 miles per hour. The pods would be propelled by something called a linear motor, and they would ride on a cushion of air to minimize friction.

Image: https://www.technologyreview.com

On August 31, 2012, four Amazon engineers filed the fundamental patent for what ultimately became Alexa, an artificial--intelligence system designed to engage with one of the world’s biggest and most tangled data sets: human speech. The engineers needed just 11 words and a simple diagram to describe how it would work. A male user in a quiet room says: “Please play ‘Let It Be,’ by the Beatles.” A small tabletop machine replies: “No problem, John,” and begins playing the requested song.

Like many people, the phone is a tool of last resort. I’d rather text or Slack or email or carrier pigeon. But I’ve noticed that many of the most successful, productive people I’ve met are what you might call “phone-prone.” If you send them a text, they call you instead of texting back. Email them? Get a call back.

The Apple brand is synonymous with creative product design as well as appealing to the creative artist. This was in large part thanks to the work of Steve Jobs, whose creativity was a guiding force in his approach to leadership, product design and marketing. While there’s no doubt that Jobs had a naturally creative brain, thanks to modern research, we can see that Jobs’ artistry was also due to practices every entrepreneur can adopt to enhance creative thinking.

Image: Steve Jobs - Matthew Yohe

“Congratulations, Neil!”

I was sitting across from an HR exec at Walmart a few years ago. His hand was outstretched, and on the desk in front of us was a crisp sheet of paper spelling out all the terms of my new promotion. I shook his hand and left doing mental cartwheels down the hall.

This was it! The dream job: More money, bigger team, fancier title, more interesting work.

Image: Flickr user Shawn Spencer-Smith

In numerous missives, I’ve discussed my role on a particular board, both nonprofit and corporate. I love being on boards. The excitement of guiding an organization forward to greater success is exhilarating. The angst of guiding an organization forward through a disaster or desperate financial situation is exhilarating. My fellow board members and the CEO are stimulating.

I’m asked by executives from time to time how I do it—how I get my board seats, and, it follows, how they can get one too. They’re usually thinking about corporate board seats that come with cash and/or some form of equity. Not non-profit board seats where the board member money flows the other way.

With Canada’s 150th birthday squarely in the rear-view mirror, we should now look to our future. Our government has been staking much on an “innovation economy” – if the regular speeches by various ministries are anything to go by. So how do we get there?

Follow the government’s own evidence and part of the answer is clear: invest in research.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 7, 2017) – Baylor University’s LAUNCH program has a simple mission statement: Enable accelerated commercialization of things that matter.

Greg Leman, Ph.D., a clinical professor of entrepreneurship in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, is the founding director of LAUNCH. He said a thing that matters has two qualities: personal importance to the business owner and a positive impact on society.

Leman knows from experience that entrepreneurs need passion for their ideas to overcome the inevitable challenges of starting a business. He was awarded two patents during his 11 years as an engineering scientist with the Cabot Corporation, and has several patents pending.

Image: Kevin Ludlum (middle) and Calvin Richard (right) of God Strong Fitness discuss elements of their presentation with Monica Vardeman, program manager of the LAUNCH Innovative Business Accelerator.

Chattanooga clung to its old ways and manufacturing past for too long, leaving the former "Dynamo of Dixie" with barren factories and a polluted environment when old-line businesses relocated from Chattanooga to cheaper places offshore, Mayor Andy Berke said Monday.

But Berke said Chattanooga is now building a more sustainable, innovative economy. During a brainstorming session Monday night in the hub of Chattanooga's Innovation District, Berke urged community leaders to help design a better way to create more innovation in the heart of the city, using the ultra-fast broadband links in the self-proclaimed "Gig City" by bringing together the academic, business and cultural attributes found in an urban city.

Time and time again, senior executives are challenged to transcend their personal limitations. This often relates to the way their behavior is perceived. They may be brusque with people, or somewhat disorganized, or easily distracted, or they may act out of their depth in some other way. They discover they must change if they hope to keep the loyalty of the rest of the enterprise. They have to learn to communicate and make decisions in new ways that may feel uncomfortable at first.

Image: https://www.strategy-business.com

It’s easy to spot and celebrate the innovations that change company fortunes: Apple’s iPhone, Warner-Lambert’s (and then Pfizer’s) Lipitor, Microsoft’s Windows, to name a few. What is harder to appreciate are those innovations that aren’t the blockbusters and home runs but nonetheless play a critical role in a company’s innovation strategy. I’m not talking about the incremental improvements, but rather the value of launching new products and services that hold tremendous value even though they don’t shoot for the moon.

Uber has transformed local transportation in American cities and SpaceX aims to enable Americans to travel to Mars. Chobani is America’s favorite yogurt, while the latest fashion trends from Forever 21 shape the way we dress today. What do these innovative companies share in common? They were all founded by immigrant entrepreneurs.

David Whalen was a junior in high school when he learned about an apprenticeship program at the Siemens factory in Charlotte, N.C., which manufactures generators and turbines. Through the program he could get paid to work while earning an associate of science in mechatronics engineering technology -- a program that combines elements of electrical and mechanical engineering -- from Central Piedmont Community College. Siemens would pay his educational expenses.

“I was planning on going to school for engineering, but I knew how expensive it was,” said Whalen, who started at Siemens as a senior in high school and is now 21 years old. He graduated from Central Piedmont in May and will finish the four-year apprenticeship this summer, after which he plans to stay on at Siemens.

Image: COURTESY OF SIEMENS

Do you remember "The Tortoise and the Hare," one of Aesop's Fables, written by the ancient Greek storyteller and slave? In this seminal tale, an arrogant hare ridicules a slow-moving tortoise. The tortoise challenges the hare to a race, which is readily accepted. When the race begins, the hare jumps out to a huge lead, but over confidently decides to stop to rest and inadvertently falls asleep. He awakens to find the steadily moving tortoise has won the race.

Ever since you were a kid, your parents probably told you not to look directly at the sun. The only issue with that is that if you want to watch the upcoming total solar eclipse on August 21, you kind of need to stare straight in our closest star's direction.

Luckily, there are literally dozens of eclipse glasses you can use to protect your eyes from the sun's strong rays. But knowing which ones to buy, whether they'll actually protect your eyes, and where to buy them can get a little murky.

Over the past few years, brewers have been concocting beers with some exceptionally strange ingredients, and the trend doesn't show any sign of stopping. From Icelandic beer infused with whale testicles to a saison brewed with prehistoric, fossilized yeast DNA—oh, and a pilsner made with human pee—there’s never been weirder ways to enjoy America's favorite beverage. So, whether you’re looking to test your palate or prank a squeamish friend, these are the 13 weirdest brews you could possibly do it with. Cheers!—Hillary Eaton

Image: http://www.foodandwine.com

In my experience as a business advisor and angel investor these days, I seem to more frequently hear from entrepreneurs and business owners with “can’t-fail” or “get-rich-quick” ideas. In my view, these are the least likely to succeed, partially because the people behind them have the wrong expectations and traits. The instant gratification approach just doesn’t work in business.

In addition, I’ve always wondered why an inordinate number of successful businesses today were started by people born outside the U.S., including Sergey Brin (Russia) at Google, Elon Musk (South Africa) at Tesla, John W. Nordstrom (Sweden), and Pierre Omdiyar (France) at Ebay. It seems like these immigrants would be least likely to succeed, with all their extra challenges.

Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/

If there’s one area of the Atlanta startup ecosystem lagging behind the growth of the rest, it’s local capital. Talent, startup activity, public support for entrepreneurship, and corporate innovation are all consistently strong, but the region lacks the investment resources of many of its fellow top-ranked Global Cities.

But investment activity in the city may be picking up. One sign is just-released figures by the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), the state of Georgia’s technology incubator and the oldest startup incubator in the country, which shows that its portfolio companies raised more than double the amount of capital in the first half of 2017 than in the comparable period a year ago.

Image: Above: Advanced Technology Development Center startups raised more than $50 million in seed and series A funding from January to June 2017. Image Credit: Hypepotamus

Influencer marketing is a great way for companies to boost their reach and get their name out to the world. Tapping into the social followings of celebrities and social media icons is an effective way to get new fans and customers, and while it may feel like it’s at its height right now, influencer marketing actually has an old history. In fact, it dates all the way back to the 1700s.

Image: https://www.entrepreneur.com