In an earlier article for Crowdsourcing.org, (How Radical Innovations in One Sector Unexpectedly Affect Distant Markets), I described how the emergence of crowdfunding could be placed within a theoretical framework of evolutionary economics. With the use of Leontief’s method, crowdfunding proponents have ability to predict the future path of technological evolution within a specific geographical region that results from a crowdfunding initiative.

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From the man who brought us real-life Wolverine claws and Magneto shoes that let you walk on the ceiling, comes a new invention that's just in time for the colder weather: A bike with ice wheels.

Amateur inventor Colin Furze replaced his bicycle's wimpy rubber tires with something far more dangerous and fleeting. After making the icy bike wheels in — no surprise — the freezer, he takes his creation on a tour through town and ultimately, on top of a frozen glacier.

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My father has a saying about innovation – which I basically agree with. The central idea is that innovation happens when two people meet over a cup of coffee. For ideas to be shared and innovation to happen, a comfortable, relaxed environment is needed, the two people need to trust each other to dare to be open and the coffee must be good! During my years in digital business and especially in service design I have often seen this phenomenon in action – it is not a coincidence creative companies invest a lot in culture and working environment.

For years we have been warned about the looming, profound impacts that the aging of the U.S. population will have on the country. Well, the gray wave has arrived. Since 2000, the senior population has increased 29% compared to overall population growth of 12%. The percentage of Americans in the senior set has risen from 12.4% to 14.1%, and their share of the population is projected to climb to 19.3% by 2030. There are two principal causes for this: the baby boom generation is reaching 65 years old, while the U.S. fertility rate has fallen markedly in recent decades, despite immigration, and now hovers around the replacement rate.

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When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24. That was three months ago this week. Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

Brought into the spotlight by the "Jaws" movie series and celebrated by the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, great white sharks are among the better-known types of sharks. They can be identified by their gray skin, white bellies, bullet-shaped bodies and rows of up to 300 serrated, triangular teeth.

Image: A great white shark cruises underwater in search of prey. Credit: Neil Hammerschlag 

No matter how many promising software companies St. Louis develops, we’ll never be Silicon Valley. Similarly, we’re unlikely to supplant Boston or San Francisco or San Diego as a hub of health care innovation....

One of the biggest myths in the business world is that startups are no place for Baby Boomers, that aging generation born between 1945 and 1964. They couldn’t possibly understand the new social media culture, new technologies, or have the determination to beat their younger counterparts in the market. Yet credible reports on current trends tell us just the opposite.

According to several recent reports, job satisfaction for employees is at an all-time low. An online survey published earlier this year found that nearly two-thirds of the respondents were not happy at work. One obvious alternative is to become an entrepreneur. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m often asked what it takes to switch and get real satisfaction from this lifestyle.

As more millennials continue to enter the workforce, employers are increasingly turning their attention to recruiting them. But if employers think Generation Y workers will respond to the same old tactics they used in years past, they may want to think again: Millennials aren't always the easiest to recruit.

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Slack Technologies is the latest startup to join the billion-dollar valuation club.

Slack, a startup that builds tools for employees to communicate and collaborate in the workplace, announced Friday that it has raised $120 million in funding at a $1.12 billion valuation. The significant valuation and funding round, which was led by Kleiner Perkins and Google Ventures, is all the more notable considering the startup launched publicly less than a year ago.

Image: SLACK 

In an ever-changing marketplace, large businesses struggle to keep up with the latest in technology and innovation. Corporations move at a snail’s pace, committing millions to research and development, while tech-savvy entrepreneurs often innovate in months (and sometimes days or hours!) rather than years.

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Studies have shown that most successful female entrepreneurs tend to start their businesses as a second, or even third career. Because of this, most enter the entrepreneurial business world later on in life than their male counterparts, often at around 40–60 years old.

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The Ebola virus can spread through contact with an infected person's blood, feces and vomit, but some information online suggests it's also possible to get Ebola by being near an infected person who sneezes.

Experts say it's extremely unlikely that Ebola could spread through a sneeze. And in fact, this has never happened.

Currently there is an annoying tendency to assume that success as an entrepreneur is tied to dropping out of the conventional education stream and forging your own path.

The assumption is based off a few noteworthy successes – Richard Branson, Alan Sugar and university drop-out Bill Gates for example. But it avoids considering the massive amount of drop-outs that do not go on to achieve entrepreneurial dreams as well as the manifold successes of those that choose to running through the traditional educational path before going on to entrepreneurial success.

Women start businesses all the time, but they run few world-changing businesses. Even those who manage to land outside funding don't tend to wind up with businesses as large as those run by men. 

But there is no reason women-owned businesses can't be as large and profitable--if not more so--than those run by men. This isn't just about achieving gender equality for its own sake--the U.S. economy would be better off if more women grew larger businesses, said Sangeeta Bharadwaj Badal, Ph.D., Gallup senior consultant and lead reseacher in entrepreneurship.

At a time when most pop songs were simple and formulaic Mercury’s song was a complex mixture of different styles and tempos. It had six separate sections – a close harmony a capella introduction, a ballad, a guitar solo, an opera parody, a rock anthem and a melodic finale. It contained enigmatic and fatalistic lyrics about killing a man. And it was very long.

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For nearly 400 years, America has turned to Massachusetts as its laboratory for experimentation and innovation — an economy in which the greatest natural resource is the ingenuity of our people.

Massachusetts colleges draw aspiring doctors, artists and entrepreneurs from around the world. Our economic future depends not only on training students for the jobs of a 21st century knowledge-based economy but also on keeping them here after they graduate.

Immigration policy reform is a hot-button issue right now, but it’s affecting the innovation economy in unexpected ways.

U.S. companies are having a hard time recruiting enough skilled workers to fill all their high-level science, tech, and engineering positions. I discussed the issue with Stanford Law School professor Dan Siciliano and Silicon Valley Leadership Group VP Emily Lam.

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For five years, John Eldridge and his team at Profectus Bioscience have developed and tested their Ebola vaccine. First it was on guinea pigs, then monkeys. 

At that point, Eldridge realized monkeys weren't getting sick.

“When I saw those results, I realized that we had a real vaccine candidate which had the potential to make a real difference for mankind,” he says

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