Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19-tracking map has leveled up to show more granular data on the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases around the globe.

Since January, well before the coronavirus began rapidly infecting people in the United States, a team from Johns Hopkins University had been tracking the virus’ spread in China and other countries worldwide. Now, a little over two months since launching the interactive map, the tool now shows data reflecting real-time confirmed cases in cities and localities across the U.S. and internationally.

Image: A look at the updated dashboard for Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus-tracking map, which now shows granular data for counties and cities. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Nonprofits are among the most misunderstood companies in existence. While their creators tend to regard them highly, they usually get relegated to second-place status among other companies. Different areas of business tend to look at the field with confusion about how nonprofits actually work, whether they should be making a profit or what kind of causes they support. 

Image: https://www.forbes.com - Forbes Nonprofit Council members detail common misconceptions about the industry. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS.

1.   Between light and greyness, we live in exciting times that are sources of creative thoughts.

On the one hand, the brightness of the cognitive revolution underway with recent technological advances, from synthetic biology to artificial intelligence and pervasive computing. On the other, a sort of Victorian memory 'smog age' due to geopolitical tensions, social and economic unrest and uncertainties (from anthropogenic climate change to epidemics). Most people are not comfortable with uncertainty (will the crowds of disruptive technologies crash down on jobs, wiping them out?), openness to the unknown, confident intuition and the freedom of the mind to wander. 

Mar.20 -- Jeff Richards, managing partner of GGV Capital, speaks to Bloomberg's Emily Chang about how the coronavirus is impacting venture capital in Silicon Valley. He appears on "Bloomberg Technology."

The message is getting out: #StayHome. In this early phase of the coronavirus pandemic, with undetected cases accelerating transmission even as testing ramps up, that is critical. But there are many people whom the country needs to keep going into work—grocery cashiers, first responders, factory workers for critical businesses. Most obviously, we need health-care workers to care for the sick, even though their jobs carry the greatest risk of exposure. How do we keep them seeing patients rather than becoming patients?

Image: The success of Hong Kong and Singapore in stemming the spread of the coronavirus holds many lessons for how to contain it in the United States.Photograph by Tsuji Keith / Abaca / ZUMA

Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Others will work hard on a business plan, and then mail it indiscriminately to every potential investor they can find on the Internet. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Since the first stirrings of the internet, artists and curators have puzzled over what the fluidity of online space would do to the experience of viewing works of art. At a conference on the subject in 2001, Susan Hazan of the Israel Museum wondered whether there is “space for enchantment in a technological world?” She referred to Walter Benjamin’s ruminations on the “potentially liberating phenomenon” of technologically reproduced art, yet also noted that “what was forfeited in this process were the ‘aura’ and the authority of the object containing within it the values of cultural heritage and tradition.”

Image: http://www.openculture.com

Under normal circumstances, maintaining a schedule is a helpful tool to create a greater sense of calm and order. I’ve seen this in the lives of my time management clients for many years.

But under the abnormal circumstances we find ourselves in now, having a schedule isn’t just helpful, it is essential. It will mean the difference between feeling like you have no grounding and sense of direction, leading you to waste huge amounts of time each day, and developing a sense of clarity, purpose, and productivity.

The daily news of startups raising multi-million-dollar funding is enough to suggest it’s almost easy to raise venture capital. Unfortunately for most entrepreneurs, nothing could be further from the truth — VC firms are more selective than ever in allocating their money.

The University of Wyoming’s business incubator, the Wyoming Technology Business Center (WTBC), has announced that, amid the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the center’s startup challenge programs will continue, but with some changes.

“It’s very common that our startup companies have to pivot several times between their initial conception and launch,” says WTBC Laramie Director Dave Bohling. “Now, it falls to us to do the same. We’ve long believed that an incubation program is more important than an incubation space. The current situation is just letting us test that.”

Rich speaks with VIVA Creative • Business Development & Strategic Partnerships.

Image: http://vivacreative.vzaar.me - From Video

Firms today recognize that there are more capabilities for innovation in the marketplace than what they can possibly create on their own. This open innovation model, the antithesis of the vertically integrated, closed innovation approach followed by industrial R&D labs through much of the 20th century, is the perfect vehicle for today’s fast-moving environment...

The biopharma industry spent $90 billion on R&D in 2016, a figure that represents about 20% of total sales. Despite this significant financial investment by the industry and splashy media headlines, how much, or little, is healthcare really digitizing?

During the 2020 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, a panel of senior executives, including Brent Saunders, chairman, president and CEO of Allergan, Tariq Shaukat, president of industry product and solutions for Google Cloud, and Sara Nayeem, MD, partner at New Enterprise Associates, joined me to share their perspectives and insights on how biopharma and medtech companies are driving digital health.

To further reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 and enhance the safety of staff, the National Institutes of Health is shifting all non-mission-critical laboratory operations to a maintenance phase. Beginning on Monday, March 23, only mission-critical functions within NIH research laboratories will be supported. Mission-critical functions include the following: care of research participants in NIH clinical protocols that are non-elective, research directly on COVID-19, urgent public health research recommended by NIH scientific leadership, work involving significant research investments that could be lost if not continued, and protection of life, property and resources, including the care of research animals. This follows a March 13 guidance to all eligible NIH staff to telework to the maximum extent possible.

The concept of ‘entrepreneur’ is way more romanticized than what it is in reality. As of 2018, 90 per cent of Indian start-ups failed within their first five years of existence, according to a study by IBM Institute For Business Value and Oxford Economics. The hard truth is that being an entrepreneur means keeping your company, and yourself, at the very cutting-edge of change; for if you do not, the alternative is failure.

Herndon, VA, March 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the global and national COVID-19 situation evolves, it is vital to communicate that the health and safety of everyone is our number one priority. Our thoughts are with those who have been most affected by this crisis. There will be significant economic effects on all businesses; the innovation, research, and entrepreneurial communities in Virginia are no exception. The nature of these effects will evolve over the coming weeks and months. However, I remain confident that the continuity of innovation efforts happening now will be critical to weathering the storm and will speed the eventual long-term recovery in the Commonwealth. With that said, I would like to make it clear that CIT is open for business.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to climb worldwide as officials take unprecedented steps to combat and contain the outbreak. People are asking questions as they face the uncertainty of the pandemic.

These are the top five questions asked in the United States about coronavirus in the past week, according to Google Trends – and their answers.

Image: https://www.cbsnews.com

Thirty innovators will compete on March 23, 2020 in a virtual showcase

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --  Thirty semi-finalists have been named in the annual "Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!" competition presented by the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Medical Devices (NCC-PDI).  The competition is adopting a virtual format for the March 23rd event to eliminate the need for travel or an in-person gathering due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized by nonprofit accelerator MedTech Innovator, contestants and judges will connect in online meeting rooms for the pitch presentations, which feature innovations in cardiovascular, orthopedic and spine, and NICU devices.

Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), offered hope to the thousands of people with confirmed cases of COVID-19, and the millions around the world whose lives have been disrupted by the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, when he expressed to a congressional panel last week his hope that the first patients would be dosed with vaccines in development for the novel coronavirus “in a few weeks.”

Image: https://www.genengnews.com

This week, Erin Goley froze research at her Johns Hopkins University lab — literally. With the university sending students and professors packing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Goley stopped experiments in the medical school lab and stored in freezers bacteria that scientists are studying.

Goley, an associate professor of biological chemistry, considers herself fortunate because the research they do — studying how bacterial cells grow and divide, knowledge that could help confront the growing problem of antibacterial resistance — can be paused without losing vast amounts of work.

Image: https://www.washingtonpost.com