COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Researchers at the University of Maryland have invented a single tiny structure that includes all the components of a battery that they say could bring about the ultimate miniaturization of energy storage components. A billion nanopores could fit on a postage stamp. Credit: NEES, a DOE Energy Frontier Research CenterThe structure is called a nanopore: a tiny hole in a ceramic sheet that holds electrolyte to carry the electrical charge between nanotube electrodes at either end. The existing device is a test, but the bitsy battery performs well. First author Chanyuan Liu, a Ph.D. student in materials science & engineering, says that it can be fully charged in 12 minutes, and it can be recharged thousands of time.

Image: http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu 

Conjuring up a fresh, eye-catching, perfectly phrased cover letter feels like an exercise in futility after your fourth—or fourteenth—application sent to the void. Mired in a job hunt, all you really want to say is, “Hire me, please!”

Stop throwing your time, energy, and insincerities into the job market black hole, and write a “pain letter” instead, says Liz Ryan, former Fortune 500 human resources senior vice president. Hit your target employer where it hurts—their biggest problem areas—and don’t wait around for an open position to do it.

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While teaching history for a cash-strapped school in the Bronx, Charles Best often found himself buying basic school supplies for his students with his own money.

“I figured there were people out there who'd want to help teachers like us if they could see exactly where their money was going,” he says. “This was a few years before ‘crowdfunding’ was even a word, but I could sense that backing specific projects would be much more exciting for people than getting a solicitation and being asked to send in a check.”

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You may not know Tamara Steffens by name, but you’ve downloaded her apps. Running business development for companies like Path, Color, and most recently breakout email app Acompli, she’s responsible for millions of mobile downloads and blockbuster deals with the likes of Sprint and Verizon that have brought in even more. In doing so, she’s come to signify a new breed of BD professional — a hybrid of quantitative marketer and sales leader who is laser focused on delivering what young startups need most: Users.

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Many entrepreneurs seems to be convinced that the “crowd” of regular people using the Internet will somehow solve their startup funding needs, when they sense a lack of interest from accredited investors. Professionals maintain that there is plenty of money and equity for qualified startups, and funding marginal startups via any source will only make more people unhappy.

Arizona State University with inventions licensed to existing companies or to form new startups will be entitled to a larger share of the proceeds under a new university policy developed by the Intellectual Property and Institutional Review Committee and approved by President Michael Crow.

Under the previous policy, net licensing proceeds (after administrative and legal fees) were split equally between the inventor(s), their lab(s) and the university. Effective as of Nov. 1, the “lab share” will be reduced so that a greater percentage of royalties flow directly to inventors

Image: ASU researcher Charlie Arntzen has focused on plant-based vaccine delivery systems; Arntzen recently has used tobacco as a way to make and deliver a promising vaccine for the Ebola virus. 

For entrepreneurs, there seems to be a lot of decision-making that goes into raising venture capital. Part of it is whether they even should raise new money, and whether that is the right decision for them at that time. Raising money just for the hell of it is probably not a great idea. But there is another part of it: who they should raise the money from.

I've heard many, many startups talk about their values when it comes to raising money, discussing what they wish to accomplish, and whether the firm they are raising money from will help them meet those goals. But whether or not the firm will actually help them get follow-on money is another important aspect that does not seem to be talked about quite as much.

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As part of our weekly series of America's employment landscape, we look at the revival in urban manufacturing.

Why is there a shift back to artisan based production?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently hosted a symposium on the topic:

If you talk to enough people involved with the brand new VT Investor Network, based jointly out of Virginia Tech’s Ballston campus and Virginia Tech’s main campus in Blacksburg, the slogan “Hokies helping Hokies” doesn’t just sound like a phrase, it sounds like a mantra.

Government ministers are today (5 November 2014) announcing £67 million of funding to support British businesses and scientists to bridge the 'valley of death' that lies between research and the marketplace.

Innovate UK - previously the Technology Strategy Board - is pledging £50 million to 7 new areas of technology where Britain is well positioned to take a leading role in the future like 3D printing of human organs, better drugs to tackle global needs and 'free power' for electronic devices.

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Since the 2008 financial crisis, the global chorus of voices questioning capitalism has grown steadily louder. It is difficult indeed to reconcile neoliberal optimism about homo economicus with the precipitous slide of the global economy, and the folly of the subprime lending bubble. And the problems that have deepened in the last six years – income inequality, unemployment, the threat of environmental crises brought on by human activity — do not track with the neoclassical notion of the benign, self-correcting global market.  An article in the September 2014 edition of McKinsey Quarterly, of all publications, crystallised this crisis of conscience, calling into question “our long-held assumptions about how and why the system (i.e., capitalism) works.”

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Technology start-ups and the entrepreneurs who lead them should tackle the “many great opportunities” in South Africa and Africa more broadly rather than trying to emulate his decision to move to the US, says Gyft founder Vinny Lingham.

Lingham, now one of the “dragons” in the South African version of reality television series Dragons’ Den, tells TechCentral that there are so many business opportunities at home that technology start-ups should “focus their energies on building the next big thing for South Africa and the African continent”.

Image: Vinny Lingham 

Millennials are young, wild and free — but not for long.

Soon, they'll have to buckle down and prep for the day they retire. It might seem far away, but there are many strategic things they can do now to encourage a comfier future.

We spoke to Holly Perez, consumer money expert at Intuit and Mint.com, and Kali Hawlk, the finance and career blogger behind Common Sense Millennial. They shared their top tips for millennials looking to their future.

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Google is approaching hospitals and universities with a new pitch: Have genomes? Store them with us.

The search giant's first product for the DNA age is Google Genomics, a cloud computing service that it launched last March but which went mostly unnoticed amid a barrage of high profile R&D announcements from Google, like one late last month about a far-fetched plan to battle cancer with nanoparticles.

The U.S. Treasury Department has awarded the state of Hawaii $4.48 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative funds, the final disbursement of a $13.2 million grant the federal government had allotted to the state. In Hawaii, the funds have been used by Hawaii Strategic Development Corp. to propel the HI Growth Initiative and establish is venture capital fund of funds investment programs for Hawaii startups, which include Blue Startups and the GVS Transmedia Accelerator.

Kanye West said at this year's Cannes Festival of Creativity that musician-cum-inventor-cum-businessman will.i.am was one of the only people among the current crop of celebrities that could credibly succeed as a creative director.

Certainly, behind the celebrity, will.i.am has built up a far-reaching career that spans not only music-writing, performance and production (his credits for the latter include working with Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber), but also fashion-design, acting, entrepreneurship and business partnerships.

Image: http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk

What are the most ridiculous startup ideas that eventually became successful?

The best startups seem obvious in retrospect — this is because by the time we find out about them as users, they have already reached critical mass.

Image: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI

Discussion about leadership often focuses on big-picture ideas and sweeping gestures. Leaders are people who take charge and make things happen. We think of them as having big jobs, larger-than-life personalities, and expansive vision.

But none of us were born with these qualities and achievements. Leadership ability is like a muscle – it gets stronger as you exercise it, says leadership coach Susan Mazza, founder of Random Acts of Leadership and author of coauthor of The Character-Based Leader: Instigating a Revolution of Leadership One Person at a Time. She says that enhancing your leadership skills and practicing “random acts of leadership” can cumulatively build your leadership acumen and help you excel when the big opportunities to lead come your way. Here are some acts of everyday leadership that can help.

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Last week a company we enthusiastically backed, uBeam, led by a very special entrepreneur, 25-year-old Meredith Perry, announced a $10 million round of financing. The press around the raise & company was fantastic and the promise of their technology – wireless charging that works as easily as WiFi – would positively affect many of our lives. What person hasn’t crouched at an airport to get 18% extra on one’s battery before boarding an airplane?

Positioning is one of the hardest marketing concepts to not only understand, but to do right, as I detailed in my recently-completed series. It’s very conceptual, highly theoretical, and mostly emotional. Not everyone does well with that combination.