Which technologies have the most momentum in an accelerating world? We identified the trends that matter most.

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If you want to believe, now is the time: the hope that we might one day stumble upon alien life is greater than it ever was. No, it’s not going to be little green men speeding through space in flying disks—more likely microbes or primitive bacteria. But a discovery like that would nevertheless be a sign that we are not alone in the universe—that life elsewhere is a possibility. 

Image: An illustration of Cassini diving through plumes erupting off Europa's surface. NASA/JPL-CALTECH

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and U.S. Representatives Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) introduced the Next Generation Entrepreneurship Corps Act to encourage new business and job creation in underserved communities through a competitive fellowship for entrepreneurs. With a six-year investment of $330 million, the bill will identify talented entrepreneurs through a national competition and directly support the creation of 320 new businesses each year.

The Earth has finally attained popular recognition for its fifth ocean, with a decision by the National Geographic Society to add the Southern Ocean around Antarctica to the four it recognizes already: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans.

Although the designation of the frigid waters around the icy southern continent as a separate ocean has kicked around for almost 100 years and is widely used by scientists, until now it has not had popular backing.

SHELLY BELL KNOWS an acquisition can be a game changer for an organization. "In the world of investment, to be valued is to be acquired," says the founder and CEO of Black Girl Ventures, a Fort Belvoir, Virginia-based funding commu nity for Black and Brown women entre preneurs. An attachment to a bigger company can give you more leverage to scale. Plus, every payout that goes to an underrepresented founder helps build generational wealth, she says.

Image: Photo: Courtesy subject. Illustration: Inc. Magazine

Canada made headlines during U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for its efforts to lure STEM workers north. Trump is gone now, but Canada hasn’t stopped trying to recruit talent from its neighbor — and one of the hottest fronts in this talent war is biotech.

For generations of Canadian engineers, coders and researchers, Silicon Valley’s better salaries and weather were a siren call. But four years of Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric, policy and visa restrictions gave Canadian tech companies and governments a competitive advantage.

Apple is well known for its innovations in hardware, software, and services. Thanks to them, it grew from some 8,000 employees and $7 billion in revenue in 1997, the year Steve Jobs returned, to 137,000 employees and $260 billion in revenue in 2019. Much less well known are the organizational design and the associated leadership model that have played a crucial role in the company’s innovation success.

Image: Mikael Jansson/Trunk Archive 

This past year, we've lived through remote work and virtual schooling, signed up for contact tracing apps, and became familiar with ordering goods online and picking up in person. How we see the world has changed—we’re much more aware of how our physical and digital experiences interconnect.

"If we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic,” psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom once said. Nearly 15 months into the global pandemic, it seems we’ve gained enough altitude to extract its lessons and gain a clear perspective on our post-COVID future. 

Venture capitalists invest in the dreams of entrepreneurs. At 7wireVentures, I have met thousands of people pitching ideas. Many are first-time founders, while others are experienced CEOs with multiple successes. There are qualities common and essential to those who prosper:

Universities in the US have given birth to some of the best companies we know. Companies like Facebook, Google, Qualcomm, Bose, and many others were started on a university campus. 

The lack of global tech players from India squarely points to the failure of Indian universities. Our higher education institutions need to equip themselves better to match the enviable record of their counterparts in the West.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., June 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovation Quarter today announced a new master plan for the second major phase of development in the innovation district. Featuring 10 proposed buildings and 2.7 million total square feet, the new phase of development will feature the same mixed-use, ground-level activation found in the existing district.

The 28-acre site for Innovation Quarter Phase II sits on either side of Research Parkway, the majority south of Third Street and north of Salem Parkway. Upon completion, it is anticipated that the development will allow for an additional 1 million additional square feet of clinical/lab/office space. The Innovation Quarter currently comprises 2.1 million square feet of similar space.

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Today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the newly formed National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Resource Task Force which will write the road map for expanding access to critical resources and educational tools that will spur AI innovation and economic prosperity nationwide.

As directed by Congress in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, the Task Force will serve as a Federal advisory committee to help create and implement a blueprint for the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) — a shared research infrastructure providing AI researchers and students across all scientific disciplines with access to computational resources, high-quality data, educational tools, and user support.

One of the most important things I was slow to learn in business was that real communication only happens when your audience finally hears and understands what you think is a perfectly clear message. As a business executive and leader, I found that meant I had to repeat most communication several times, in different contexts, before all members of my team really heard it.

All too often, entrepreneurs approach success as something that happens all at once. It’s a grueling mountain to the summit; a big boss vanquished at the end of a video game; a buzzer-beater that wins the series. We can probably blame this on popular culture—after all, a cresting moment of triumph is way more fun to watch than all of the slow, inching steps that build to it. 

Venture capitalists know that their advantage lies in identifying the most promising opportunities before their competitors do. This is confirmed by a University of Chicago study by Morten Sorensen, which shows that investors create 60% of their value from the upper part of the funnel, specifically from sourcing and screening.

Image: AI can transform sourcing and screening from investors’ pack mentality, to funding more female founders who build better products and services — and create higher returns for investors. Photo: Pexels

This is the annual report published by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) on top university patent holders. The Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents in 2020 were compiled using data obtained from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The Top 100 highlights the vital role patents play in translating university research and innovation. Published annually by the NAI and IPO since 2013, the report ranks the top 100 universities named as the first assignee on utility patents granted by the USPTO during the 2020 calendar year.

Kroger’s first commercial drone delivery only took a few minutes Wednesday. But there’s an historical through-line between that brief flight in Centerville and years of work by local advocates pursuing federal authorization for a certain kind of drone research in the Dayton and Springfield areas.

That first drone delivery did not happen in the New Jersey backyard of TELEGRID Technologies’ drone operator Drone Express. It didn’t happen in the vicinity of Kroger’s Cincinnati headquarters or any of the company’s Queen City stores.

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Being your own boss can be rewarding, and it can be hard. Daily unpredictability confronts many of the 60 million Americans employed in the gig economy. When, where, and which job should they work on any given day of the week? How much money are they earning across multiple gigs? Information and data is sparse for workers — and not being about to count on a predictable pay rate makes it nearly impossible to plan out professional life.

I continue to see stories of really young entrepreneurs, like this article, profiling 25 kids that made a million dollars before graduating from high school. This makes me wonder what starts that entrepreneurial drive in kids, and how early parents and schools should start teaching the basics.

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