Eric is, by all means, a very successful entrepreneur. His technology company has grown considerably in the past five years. He’s raised two rounds of funding, has a customer base in the thousands, and is managing a team of eight employees.

Although admired by fellow entrepreneurs, Eric harbors a dark secret: He goes home every night feeling extremely exhausted and unhappy. Naturally a quiet person, Eric has become distressed by the endless networking, fundraising, and people management that he is required to do. He feels physically and emotionally drained, no longer able to sleep well or concentrate during the day. He finds that work is no longer as enjoyable as it used to be, so his motivation and performance have taken a hit.

Each January brings a renewed desire to challenge ourselves and learn something new. But by February the energy starts to wane. Becoming proficient at something takes too much time, we lose motivation to practice, we struggle to pay attention in class after a long day at work — the list of reasons goes on.

I recently came across some motivation to stick with a new pursuit. A few weeks ago I read an article in the New York Times about “superagers,” people who function at extremely high levels (academically, professionally, and physically) well into their eighties. Their performance on tests of memory and concentration is comparable to people one-third their age.

Health investors from the United States are discovering vast prospects in Toronto as a hot-spot for biotech innovation and a place to invest in cutting-edge life sciences startups. To Jerel Davis, managing director of Versant Ventures, the global venture capital firm behind recent landmark deals in the city, “Toronto is pretty remarkable,” as a “completely under-tapped” market with strengths in fields ranging from regenerative medicine and oncology to heart disease, children’s health, radio medicine and imaging.

Markets are great ways of organizing human activity because they are really efficient. They’re flexible, filled with rational actors who move quickly to meet demand with supply. That goes for markets in goods such as oil, and in markets for services such as labor. If there is a shortage of labor, the theory goes, companies increase pay and benefits to make them more attractive and lure more applicants. If there’s a surplus of labor, employees will lower their asking wages. And technology enables this process to happen quickly. Need a driver? Summon one via Uber instantly.

In labs testing how brain implants could help people with physical disabilities, tales of success can be bittersweet.

Experiments like those that let a paralyzed person swig coffee using a robotic arm, or that let blind people “see” spots of light, have proven the huge potential of computers that interface with the brain. But the implanted electrodes used in such trials eventually become useless, as scar tissue forms that degrades their electrical connection to brain cells (see “The Thought Experiment”).

Image: https://www.technologyreview.com

This essential capability is a blind spot for many nontech leaders.

In his 2013 message to GE shareholders, CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt wrote, “We believe that every industrial company will become a software company.” Last year, he doubled down, moving GE’s corporate headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Boston, in large part to lure world-class software engineers in the area.

The block room at the Randolph School in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., is bustling with preschool builders. One boy places a tall, wood, cross-shaped block under a newly erected archway, explaining to onlookers that it is a revolving door. On a nearby wall hang drawings the children have made of past creations; sometimes the students build over several days, creating miniature, interconnected cities. This is a preview. Make a selection below to access this issue. Already have access? Sign in.

Knowledge@Wharton: Could you give us a brief summary of this research? This paper is a follow-up to something you had done recently.

Joseph Simmons: We’re studying a phenomenon called “algorithm aversion,” which is the tendency for people to not want to follow specific evidence-based rules when they make decisions, even though a lot of the research shows that’s exactly the way you should be making judgments and forecasts. A lot of people just want to rely on their gut or go by the seat of their pants. They don’t want to rely on consistent, evidence-based rules — and they should.

A drone that can carry people will begin "regular operations" in Dubai from July, the head of the city's Roads and Transportation Agency has announced at the World Government Summit. The Chinese model eHang 184 has already had test flights, said Matt al-Tayer. The drone can carry one passenger weighing up to 100 kg (220 pounds) and has a 30 minute flight time. The passenger uses a touch screen to select a destination. There are no other controls inside the craft.

To increase worker performance, employers often invest in a number of things, from rewards and incentives to education and training. These traditional approaches develop employees’ skills and enrich their work experience. But we discovered a surprisingly simple way to increase productivity, one that was low-cost and had immediate impact: better office seating arrangements.

Being mistreated at work can make people take out their frustrations on loved ones at home. But a new study suggests that getting more exercise and sleep may help people better cope with those negative emotions by leaving them at work, where they belong. People who burned more calories on a daily basis—by doing the equivalent of a long walk or swim—were less likely to take out their anger about work issues on people they lived with, the researchers found in the new study, which was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

There is scarcely a university in the western world today that doesn’t have some kind of facility to support students and academics who wish to create new companies around their work.

Alas, a recent study from Baylor University suggests that these incubators often do more harm than good, and actually reduce the quality of innovations emerging from our universities.

BOSTON — A group of scientists and their supporters are set to march Sunday in Boston’s Copley Square in an event they’ve dubbed “a rally to stand up for science” in the Trump years.

Inside a large nearby convention center, meanwhile, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the United States’ largest general scientific society, has featured speeches and panel sessions further underscoring the sense that under President Trump, scientists could face wide-ranging political conflicts and challenges, and will have to decide how to meet them.

I often share my thoughts on how leaders and organizations can leap forward and lead others into the future. Sometimes the examples come not from business, but from government, and in this case, perhaps an unlikely one.

Rwanda, a small country in Africa that barely survived a horrific genocide that decimated it in 1994, planted some of the seeds of recovery via cutting-edge technology. For example, starting in their capital city, Kigali, they are deploying a fully-integrated electronic information system that will replace all existing traffic management processes from drivers’ license tests to traffic fines. You’ll actually be encouraged to electronically pay the fine to the police officer issuing a citation right after you’re caught speeding! The New Times: How the hi-tech traffic control devices work, Times Reporter

Oceans across the globe are slowly losing oxygen, which poses a major problem for every living marine animal and underscores the serious consequences of climate change, researchers say. A new Nature study published this week found that oxygen levels in worldwide oceans have dipped by more than 2% in the last half-century. While the change may seem small, scientists say even subtle shifts in gas levels can alter entire ecosystems.

The world’s richest doctor had a very bold plan.

He’d assemble an unprecedented collaboration of companies, researchers, and doctors. Their mission: to vanquish cancer. By the year 2020, they’d build a working vaccine and test therapies in 20,000 patients. They would forever transform medicine.

Or so Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong vowed when he launched his audacious “Cancer MoonShot 2020” a year ago.

From the drones buzzing around capturing footage of building sites to the latest computer software enabling ever closer collaboration between teams, the construction industry is awash with new technology.

It’s not only having a huge impact on how project managers, contractors and service firms do their everyday jobs but it’s also helping to streamline processes and offer solutions to many of the issues currently facing the U.S. construction sector.

Good morning. Thank you for being with us today. 

It's not hard to be inspired in this building, and with this view. I'm looking out and seeing the Lincoln Memorial.

President Lincoln was a great leader and visionary.    Throughout the darkest days of the Civil War, Lincoln held close a vision for the future of America. He saw a place of hope. A place where common people like him could do uncommon things.

Despite the division of our current politics, I strongly believe that America still provides that hope.

Yet, we need to recognize that not all of our citizens feel this way.

When the term Information Highway was coined, little did the majority of the world realize the impact this concept and the resulting Internet Superhighway would have on humanity. In 1994, MIT described the concept this way: “The information superhighway brings together millions of individuals who could exchange information with one another.”  Spring forward to today. You can simply “Google” anything and receive an instantaneous response to gain immediate knowledge.  This is our expectation—immediate access to data anywhere in the world, day or night.

The products that make cities "smart" will be developed, tested and perhaps scaled in our backyard.

A partnership of the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology, D.C.-based Smart City Works and 22 CityLink, the master developer of the Gramercy District smart city planned for Ashburn, is accepting applications for its initial cohort of companies in Smart City Works @ Herndon. The program, expected to launch March 27, is pitched as the world’s first smart city “actuator” — think next-level accelerator — focused exclusively on early-stage companies with products that serve the needs of smart cities.