Wendy Suzuki, was on a river rafting trip in Peru, when she had a major wakeup call. Suzuki found that she was the weakest person on the expedition, an observation that bothered her given that she was only in her mid-thirties at the time. But Suzuki also wasn't all that surprised. A professor of neural science and psychology at New York University, she had been spending all her time in the research lab. "I was in New York, in my lab, eating takeout, and gaining weight," says Suzuki.

Coming off of the holiday season and in the spirit of providing some levity to the rigors of startup life, here is my list of the top 10 things that only an entrepreneur could be grateful for:

WiFi, Wherever and Whenever: What’s the first thing you look for when contemplating a hotel for a business or personal trip? For me, it’s access to WiFi. I’ve learned to appreciate time away from email, but any entrepreneur can relate to the stress-satisfying nature of having WiFi connectivity.

January brought one faculty job candidate the happy news that she had five campus interviews. Then came the not-so-happy details: Two of the departments insisted she visit on the same day. A third let her choose a date, only to ask her to switch to one that conflicted with another interview. And the fourth department could only bring her in on one date — the day of her parents’ 30th wedding anniversary party.

Winners of the 2015 Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition were announced this week, and they include images of rarely seen marine life.

The contest, in its fifth year, attracted entrants from over 50 countries. Organized by the Underwater Photography Guide, Ocean Art 2015 judges were professional underwater photographers, including the guide's publisher, Scott Gietler.

Image: http://mashable.com

For the past century, the price and performance of computing has been on an exponential curve.  And as futurist Ray Kurzweil observed, once any technology becomes an information technology, its development follows the same curve, so we are seeing exponential advances in technologies such as sensors, networks, artificial intelligence, and robotics.  The convergence of these technologies is making amazing things possible.

Take a quick glance around your workspace: Do you see piles of papers on your desk? Supplies you haven’t yet put away? An overflowing trash can? This clutter adds up and can make you stressed out and overweight.

Clutter isn’t just a housekeeping issue; it’s a health issue. "I'm a firm believer that physical clutter creates emotional clutter," Robin Zasio, author of The Hoarder In You: How To Live A Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life, said in an interview with Prevention magazine. "Every time you walk into your home, that clutter brings you down. There's this sense of not feeling comfortable and emotionally free in your own house."

It’s no secret: innovation is difficult for well-established companies. By and large, they are better executors than innovators, and most succeed less through game-changing creativity than by optimizing their existing businesses.

The robots didn’t really take over in 2015, but at times it felt as if that might be where we’re headed.

There were signs that machines will soon take over manual work that currently requires human skill. Early in the year details emerged of a contest organized by Amazon to help robots do more work inside its vast product fulfillment centers.

As an entrepreneur, I pride myself on my move-fast-take-no-prisoners approach to work.  And I believe there’s a lot to recommend a degree of impatience: it feeds your drive, ambition, tenacity, persistence.

THE internet outperforms financial institutions when it comes to funding entrepreneurs and is the best marketing tool any start-up could have.

Today, many of us could build a workable car using a 3D printer, but can you imagine the world of Henry Ford? Every part in his Model T had to be machine-tooled or acquired from individual suppliers. Before he even got to the stage of his famous assembly line, he had to physically pound the pavement in search of a wealthy funder with an optimistic streak and money to burn.

AT&T has formed Smart Cities Alliances with Cisco, Deloitte, Ericsson, GE, IBM, Intel and Qualcomm Technologies to help support the Smart Cities Framework, building more connected communities.

AT&T is building Smart Cities Framework to help cities better serve their citizens by using Internet of Things (IoT) innovations to create impactful solutions for cities and forming alliances with technology leaders and industry organizations.

Image: http://www.teleanalysis.com/

In conversation with Stanford Engineering Dean Persis Drell, panelists Steve Jurvetson, Christina Smolke, and Astro Teller unpack the concerns and opportunities created for society by innovations, and the importance of educating the public on the full capabilities of new technologies.

NEW YORK, Jan. 07, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading global startup accelerator Dreamit announced today that four of its alumni, Ben Rubin, Candace Mitchell, Danny Cabrera, and Ricky Solorzano, were named to the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 List. The list celebrates “the brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents, and change agents in 20 different sectors.”

From securing investments, finding the right distributors and hiring the perfect team, being a startup entrepreneur means wearing many different hats. Here are five roles every entrepreneur can expect to play in their startup:

Janelle R. Anderson, PhD, Managing Partner of CTI Life Sciences Fund, has started a new podcast, Human Proof of Concept, in which she interviews business leaders within the life sciences and venture capital spaces. The goal is to bring light to new medicine and technology.

In the first two episodes, She speaks with Ron Cohen, CEO and founder of Acorda Therapeutics and Chair of BIO. In the interviews, he discusses his career and its challenges/successes, comments on the high drama from 2015 and how it has affected the industry and also discusses the drug pricing conversation that has been especially prevalent lately. He also touches on new trends for biotech coming up.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

In sharp contrast to the opinion piece, “Paradise is being poisoned” (Jan. 5, 2016), I can personally attest to the care that Hawaii’s farmers have for our land.  As a resident of Hawaii, a concerned mom and an advocate of both environmental protection and agricultural technology, I can tell you that our state is proud of our successes in both these areas.   

Since the advent of biotechnology and GMO crops, the increased use of insect-resistant crops has reduced the need for insecticides and the adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops has enabled farmers to switch to more benign products to control weeds.  An international study reviewed GM crop data collected between 1995 and 2014 and found that GMO crops have reduced chemical pesticide use by 37 percent, increased crop yields by 22 percent and increased farmer profits by 68 percent. 

From entrepreneurs you know already such as Fubu founder Daymond John of "Shark Tank" fame, to inventors you might not have heard of like Adam Steltzner of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, there are a raft of business books designed to teach, amuse and inspire those who are running their own companies in 2016. Take a look at some of the forthcoming titles.

Image: Daymond John of Shark Tank fame is just one of the entrepreneurs coming out with a book… more COURTESY OF HSN

LAS VEGAS –- After a few years of showing off less-than-impressive smart gadgets at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, companies stepped it up this year by showing off innovative, but also useful, products.

From a food scanner that reveals the nutritional makeup of your meal to a refrigerator that tells you what’s inside while you’re at the grocery store, there was a creative spin on traditional high-tech tracking.

Image: http://mashable.com

In his latest investment round, William Paiva poured money into an electrocardiogram administered via smartphone, a sickle-cell anemia treatment and a smoke alarm for the hearing-impaired. His portfolio is befitting of biotech’s birthplace in Cambridge, Massachusetts, or the tech hub of Silicon Valley. But Paiva manages the Oklahoma Life Science Fund in Oklahoma City, equidistant from Los Angeles and Washington. 

Entrepreneurship comes with a host of challenges. Rewarding challenges, but harsh challenges nonetheless. Experienced entrepreneurs have to deal with this no matter how long they’ve been in business -- trying to establish a brand, adjust to match or exceed the competition and keep your business profitable is a challenge no matter how many years you’ve been in business.