About 6 million years ago, a mile-high field of salt formed across the entire Mediterranean seafloor, sucking up 6 percent of the oceans' salt.

Now, new research has pinpointed when key events during the formation of that "salt giant" occurred. The new research, presented here Dec. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, could help unravel the mystery behind the great salt crisis.

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Whether you're new to the iPad or looking to add to your app collection, 2013 brought in a healthy dosage of innovative, addictive options for Apple tablets.

From strategy games to educational apps, some of the most engaging iPad downloads may be ones that slipped under the radar.

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Every year, Silicon Valley creates new buzzwords to make its startup founders, corporate spokespeople, and “thought leaders” feel like they’re doing something important.

According to linguists, jargon proliferates in Silicon Valley’s tech scene faster than almost anywhere else.

For one thing, terms like “big data,” “(data/infrastructure/software/platform) as a service,” and “Internet of things” are a convenient way to describe highly complex technologies. It takes a far more advanced level of understanding to explain how processes actually work.

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Innovation is for everyone – society, government, companies and the individual. It is a new idea that builds a new revenue stream. Innovation helps differentiate as against commoditisation and also helps fight price warriors. Yesterday’s thinking cannot solve today’s challenges.

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I’ve been involved in the enterprise storage industry since 2000, first as a buyer/end-user at Loudcloud, then as a vendor at EMC, and finally as an independent analyst. The dynamics in the cloud storage market have eerie similarities to the intense competition between EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, NetApp, and Veritas circa 2001.

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When the Samsung Galaxy S4 debuted, there was a lot of hoopla over its Air Gesture and Eye Scroll features. With Air Gesture, users can simply wave a hand over the phone and it will respond accordingly, by answering a call or skipping to the next track. Eye Scroll uses eye movement to move up or down a page.

Many users ultimately found the features underwhelming, but it doesn’t really matter. These new features — still in their infant stages — mark another milestone for mobile.

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The Indian start-up ecosystem is still in its nascence unlike the Silicon Valley where the ecosystem is mature. Yet this in itself has not stopped the entry of multiple accelerators into the ecosystem. Innovation being one of the keys to succeed, major corporations across the world cutting across sectors are planning to set up accelerators. Recently, Target, a retail giant, announced its plans to start an accelerator in India. Not to mention the existing accelerators such as Microsoft Ventures, Tlabs, GSF, etc. While technology companies like Intel, SAP, Qualcomm, etc, have invested in Indian start-ups, non-tech companies such as Target and Coca Cola have also proposed to venture into the accelerator space.

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When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act to regulate the big investment banks so that a financial meltdown like the one we experienced five years ago “would never happen again,” a centerpiece of the effort was the Volcker Rule, named for former Fed chairman Paul Volcker. When Volcker initially formulated the rule, it was simple enough to fit on the back of an envelope: banks could not engage in “proprietary trading.” That is, banks could not hold and trade equities, for profit, on their own accounts. Banks were to be restricted to engaging in financial activities that served and profited clients. A simple rule. But alas, the world was not so simple. Banks had “legitimate” reasons to hold and trade equities. For example, there is “risk-mitigating hedging,” banks may need to invest in hedging instruments to manage the risks of their other financial transactions. Also, a bank may want to acquire securities not for itself but “in anticipation of customer demand”—to “make a market.” So exceptions would have to be carved out. What exceptions, and worded how? The lobbyists had a field day, and each of the five regulatory agencies involved has had a slightly different set of concerns. Years went by and hundreds of pages were added to Volcker’s simple idea. Now, at long last, the relevant regulatory agencies have agreed on a version of the Volcker Rule. The battle is not over, of course: there will likely be more lobbying efforts by banks, and even lawsuits. But at this point, it looks as though some version of the rule will be operative before too long.

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Since the recent recession, and at least partially sparked by it, I’m seeing a real resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a better place, rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere.

Another year, another string of headlines. From the U.S. government shutdown to the sassy reintroduction of a once-dormant dance, 2013 was anything but boring.

But a year is still a long time. It's easy for some events, especially the smaller ones, to flee our memories. For your recapping benefit, we've rounded up a dozen stories you may have forgotten from the past 12 months. Some are funny and heartwarming, while others are appalling and intriguing. Two cases are even career-ending.

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Most of us have worked with great colleagues, bosses and employees over the years who we’d be happy to recommend on LinkedIn (or anywhere, really) in a heartbeat if asked.

Problem is, of course, that sitting down and writing said recommendation always takes more time than you think it will. What should you say that will make your contact stand out — but still sound genuine? Should you describe every amazing skill this person has — or keep it short and sweet?

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If you're like me, you're probably wondering where the past year went. You probably feel a sense of accomplishment about the things you did — and you should! But there are probably other things that you didn't get to and wish you had.

It's true that you can't do everything, but sometimes, you need some extra inspiration to put yourself out there and do the things that you really want to do. It could be to try something you've always dreamed about, like starting your own business, or skydiving, or taking on last year's winner in the New York state hot-dog eating contest (um, what? Let's move on).

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Sitting under an apple tree may have played a part in Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation but it takes more than an epiphany to innovate.

The notion that innovation starts with a sudden flash of insight, an electric light bulb or Archimedes in the bathtub moment, is far from accurate. Innovation takes time and effort. It’s less an idea and more a process. Here are the four big myths which, more often than not, act as barriers to innovation and the development of new concepts and designs.

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Many multinational companies have hidden, unrecognised multicultural gems within their ranks. To find these and get the most from their unique skills means taking the time and trouble to carefully develop and deploy multicultural managers in critical positions.

Multicultural managers can make a huge, positive difference to the success of global innovation projects and processes. The research of Hae-Jung Hong, now an assistant professor at the Rouen Business School and co-author of our article  (“How L’Oreal masters multiculturalism” in the June 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review) on cosmetics giant L’Oreal shows how unique features of multicultural minds enable them to play five critical roles better than their monocultural counterparts.

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What is the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when dealing with angel investors?

Angel Investors Aren't Banks

JAMES SCHRAGER : Entrepreneurs fail to realize that angel investors take huge risks and look for huge gains. Angel money is the most expensive money on the street because these investors tackle the biggest, rawest gambles. Angels aren't banks. They are swashbuckling risk takers and expect to be rewarded when they win.

You have likely spent months preparing for the holiday buying season by ordering new merchandise, placing gift items at the front of your store and maybe even hiring temporary workers. But a bad returns experience can keep shoppers away from your store forever, so don't forget to plan for the post-holiday season. 

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I am a biotech VC, but not a techie. So I don’t follow stem cells, gene therapy, and other similar “blockbuster” technologies in the life sciences. Rather than looking at all the gosh-and-golly stuff going into the biotech pipeline, I wait to see what is coming out of the other end. So far, very little in the most innovative areas.

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A buddy of mine is a big-deal business professor at an even bigger deal university.  And for reasons I still don’t understand, he asked me to come in and explain to his graduate students what I have learned from spending 30 years talking to, researching and writing about entrepreneurs.

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I was recently talking with another member of LinkedIn’s founding team.  It’s been awhile since we worked together on a daily basis so a lot was just general catch up, but one of the primary reasons for our chat was that this person was starting to become a more active angel investor and was just looking for feedback.  I’ve had similar conversations in the last year or so with other folks looking to begin, or ramp up, their activity as angel investors.

Equity crowdfunding (ECF) will change considerably by the end of 2014. The introduction of Title II of the JOBS Act on September 23, 2013 gave entrepreneurs the ability to publicly advertise their need for funding. Title III is expected to become law in the spring of 2014 and will provide entrepreneurs with a much greater investor pool, as unaccredited investors will then be able to participate in ECF.

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