It has four chambers, blood vessels and it beats — sort of.

In a first, scientists have 3D printed a heart using human tissue. Though the heart is much smaller than a human's (it's only the size of a rabbit's), and there's still a long way to go until it functions like a normal heart, the proof-of-concept experiment could eventually lead to personalized organs or tissues that could be used in the human body, according to a study published Monday (April 15) in the journal Advanced Science.

ANN ARBOR—Universities and federal laboratories are the cornerstones of American innovation, developing new products that address important societal issues and drive economic growth.

The University of Michigan, with support from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, studied public research universities across North America to identify best practices for bringing new products to market. The findings aim to improve national competitiveness by providing universities with a practical roadmap on how to translate research from the lab to the marketplace.

Image: https://news.umich.edu

If asked “What’s the most talent competitive city in the U.S.?” few Americans would name the top of our global list: Washington, D.C. (1). Often considered to be a (political) quagmire, the greater metropolitan area actually has a tremendous amount to offer. With an excellent environmental quality, major universities, an impressive number of physicians in the area and, of course, the presence of international global organisations, the greater Washington area provides a complete environment for talent competitiveness.

Houston—Sensors that can measure rising waters in real time through internet-connected digital road signs, preventing commuters from driving into flooded underpasses.

Traffic signals that use cameras and analytics to adjust the time allowed to cross streets, depending on the individual who is in the crosswalk.

Do you like what you do?

Now, I don’t mean that in the broad sense of wondering whether you’re on the right career path. I mean on a day-to-day basis, if you thought about every single task your job entails, could you name the parts that give you genuine joy? What about the tasks you hate?

It’s an odd question. We don’t often step back to ask whether the small, individual components of our job actually make us happy.

On February 27, 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile. It was the fifth-strongest earthquake ever recorded; NASA estimated that it changed the tilt of the Earth’s axis by three inches. Schools, hospitals, roads, homes, and businesses across a huge swath of Chile’s midsection were left devastated, paralyzing the country for weeks. The recovery effort cost Chile the equivalent of 18 percent of its GDP.

Image: Illustration by James Yang - https://www.strategy-business.com

The first few weeks of a new quarter bring a predictable pattern: We look back on past goals and set our sights on fresh, new ambitions. But while plans are projected in months, we know the true progress happens by the week, day and hour — where all the distraction traps are laid and it’s easier to lose your way.

It’s on those time horizons where competing priorities clamor for our limited time, and finding focus becomes all the more vital, despite the stumbling blocks that stand in our way.

With the increasing importance of the small firm sector to national economies, there has been a progressive attempt by many governments to develop policies specifically targeted at supporting the development of small firms.

However, given that small firms are meant to operate within a free market economy, why should the government support small firms?

One of the primary arguments for the development of specific small firm policies is that they are disadvantaged in the market relative to larger firms. There are four major areas of market failure that might justify the development of policies to support and promote small scale enterprise.

CLEVELAND, April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A JumpStart program that provides startups with mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs will broaden its reach through a $1 million grant from the Hudson-based Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

The grant provides continuing support for JumpStart's Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program, which connects startups and small businesses with teams of up to four mentors who offer invaluable advice on everything from sales and marketing to raising capital and forming a board of directors.

Google's 10,000 employees are spread across over 150 cities. Google has offices in more than 50 countries. Two in five Google teams include employees working from different locations.

It means lots of coordination and logistics involving meetings on video chat. Veronica Gilrane, the manager of Google's People Innovation Lab, wanted to learn more about the productivity and effectiveness of Google's distributed team model.

Akron's Bounce Innovation Hub will rev up its Generator with a daylong open house on Wednesday, May 22.

The incubator's 27,000-square-foot, first-floor space, dubbed the Generator, has undergone a transformation to build out and update the area to make it open and welcoming to entrepreneurs and the public. The redesigned first floor houses a coworking space, conference rooms, rentable office and event space, a makerspace, a café and a coffee shop, and an esports arena.

From memory foam mattresses to the little upturned wing tips on airplanes and beyond, technology transfer from NASA’s labs has given commercial industry some iconic inventions.

But while the agency overall has some good policies and processes in place for encouraging this flow of ideas, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., struggles. This is the takeaway of a recent audit by NASA’s inspector general, which found that compared to other NASA centers, lack of communication between Goddard’s Technology Transfer Office and its Office of Patent Counsel “hindered” the center’s tech transfer process.

Last year, TED announced the Audacious Project: a massive philanthropic effort to fund projects tackling specific but pernicious issues across the globe. According to Chris Anderson, the head of TED, the Audacious Project “came out of people in the TED community saying, ‘Do more, turn ideas into action.'” TED is now a nonprofit with an annual revenue of over $66 million; its annual conference costs thousands to attend, and draws attendees from the nonprofit, business, and impact communities. People were getting frustrated, Anderson says, that the organization was not doing enough to actively support the kinds of ideas it brought onto the stage.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that the federal government is investing $52.4 million in a Scale-Up Platform, which will see Communitech, MaRS Discovery District, and Invest Ottawa come together to support Canadian tech companies.

“When it comes to innovation, Canada is home to countless success stories,” Trudeau stated, as he made the announcement at Communitech in Kitchener. “We have all the right ingredients to lead the future, a future where tech and innovations are engines of prosperity.”

Image: https://betakit.com

Watch out, Silicon Valley. Mountain towns are changing the opportunities for entrepreneurs and start-ups to launch and grow their businesses outside of the traditional hubs, and people are looking at Vail.

Vail Valley Young Professionals hosted the second annual Innovate Vail Speaker Series in March. Back by popular demand, this event featured a panel of diverse and inspiring Vail Valley entrepreneurs who shared their journeys of starting and growing businesses in our mountain community. The results left the audience empowered to tackle a new project, launch a business and dream big.

Image: https://www.vaildaily.com

The markets are jittery about a possible recession. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision earlier this year to ease off further interest rate increases in 2019 as it keeps a watchful eye on economic signals — after doing four hikes in the previous year — has only buttressed those fears.

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Greenspan

In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, Simon London speaks with McKinsey partners Rajesh Krishnan and Brooke Weddle about the ins and outs of organizational health.

There is no shortness of risk in an entrepreneur’s life. When you’re trying to get a brand-new company off the ground, you need to put yourself out there like you’ve never done before -- and it’s scary!

In my early days of starting my own business, I let the fear of those risks control my decisions. I was scared of failing, of making the wrong decisions and of losing everything I had worked so hard to create. However, I quickly learned that playing it safe meant I was suffocating my own business growth. I was making small gains, but they weren’t enough to bring my agency to the next level.

For most of my working life, I’ve felt way too busy. Sometimes heart-stoppingly, wildly so — working long hours, missing out on family time or fun, and stressed beyond belief. And yet, a few years ago, as I was cleaning out my file cabinet before leaving the Washington Post after nearly 20 years, I found folder after folder of half-reported stories that would have been good. Really good. If only I hadn’t been too busy to actually work on them.