General Electric’s Global Research division has taken its latest technologies and applied them to Santa’s sleigh. GE researchers have taken out the old sled/reindeer/magic-based system and added OLEDs, carbon-fiber composites and ceramic materials, RFID, medical sensors, sodium batteries, and a 500 GB holographic CD.
Seems like a big investment considering he’s been getting it done without it. Click the interactive feature above to check out the upgrades.
Today’s news of open-source statistics software maker REvolution Computing’s $9 million round of venture funding comes a week before a unique demonstration of its software: The 2009/2010 Houston Rockets season opener.
NBA front offices are a burgeoning, if limited to exactly 30, group of users of REvolution’s R statistical analysis software. Houston Rockets GM, MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference organizer and former Celtics statistics analyst Daryl Morey, who recently got a 2-year contract extension, is the Michael Lewis-annointed Billy Bean of basketball.
Morey has used analytics to find players either underrated or cast off by other teams, like Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry and most notably Shane Battier, the Kevin Youkilis of basketball stat-nerdery. According to our sister publication, the Sporting News, Morey’s style is very Kendall Square:
Imagine that the Rockets are stockpiling — nay, engineering — long, athletic players with high IQ who know how to shoot and enjoy pinpoint defense. If this assembly line gets going, we should all be awed and frightened.
Rockets stars Yao Ming is out for the year with a broken foot and Tracy McGrady is also out indefinitely; both were pre-Morey acquisitions. This year will be the first time every player on the floor is a guy drafted, signed or traded for by Morey, based on whatever crazy numbers he and his team are running through R.
Popular Science has chosen “10 Young Geniuses Shaking Up Science Today,” and not surprisingly, four of them come from New England. Take that, Rest of the Country.
Among the 10:
PopSci also helpfully notes that, John Cusack notwithstanding, the planet Nibiru will not collide with Earth, wiping out all life, in two years.
Six New England researchers have won “genius grants” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
MIT economist Esther Duflo, Harvard researchers Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan and Peter Huybers, Yale researchers Richard Prum and Mary Tinetti, and Project HEALTH founder Rebecca Onie each received $500,000 to further their research.
Mahadevan, above tries to answer everyday questions with applied mathematics — how cloth falls, or how skin wrinkles.
After the jump, watch video of the remaining New England grant recipients. (more…)
Staff writer Julie Donnelly talked to New England Business Day about a few startups that have launched despite the sorry state of the economy for life sciences firms.
Connecticut newspaper the Day reports General Dynamics Electric Boat is working on a submarine that could travel submerged at about 100 knots, or about four times faster than the current fastest sub.
Electric Boat plans to test a version of the DARPA-funded sub off Rhode Island in early 2010:
The technology, if developed, could revolutionize ocean transportation if it could be adapted to cargo and passenger ships.
The vehicle would travel inside a large gas bubble created in the water, a process known as supercavitation. The bubble reduces drag, since the drag is much lower in air than in water, allowing the vehicle to travel at high speeds.
Supercavitation is not new. The technology has been applied to weapons, but never to transport vehicles, according to DARPA.
New England Tech Stock Index
Joule comes out of stealth, North End stays in stealth but gets some money, and Verizon cuts jobs in today’s NewsFlash Roundup.
• Joule Biotechnologies comes out of stealth with solar-powered biofuel tech
The two-year-old clean tech firm founded and backed by Flagship Ventures managing partner Noubar Afeyan emerged from stealth mode Monday, announcing it is working on a large-scale test of its Helioculture technology, which uses the genetically engineered cells to produce fuels with the sun, wastewater and carbon dioxide.
• Stealthy North End Technologies gets $1.2M in bridge funding
Landing a Series B “will allow us to bring a product to market,” Kayton said. What that product is has been a subject of much speculation, and Kayton would not reveal any details other than to say “we are in an alpha stage.”
• Verizon to cut 8,000 positions; N.E. numbers unknown
Verizon Communications Inc. said it would 8,000 more positions by the end of the year as the company continues to be stung by a slowdown in corporate accounts. (more…)
New England Tech Stock Index
Nexage moves in, Oscient files for bankruptcy and Delfigo partners with Children’s Hospital in today’s Finance Roundup.
• Oscient faces de-listing, files Ch. 11, sells Factive drug
Drug maker Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, along with its wholly owned subsidiary, Guardian II Acquisition Corp. At the same time, Oscient is selling one of its two drugs, Factive, for more than $5 million.
• Nexage raises $4M, plans move to Boston
California mobile advertising firm Nexage Inc. said it closed a first round of funding with $4 million and will move its headquarters from Fremont to Boston.Nexage said the funding came from Wellesley-based GrandBanks Capital and BlackBerry Partners Fund of Canada.Delfigo Corp., a Boston developer of authentication software, announced Tuesday the launch of its first product, DSGateway, and the signing of Children’s Hospital Boston as its first customer. (more…)
IPierian mergers and leaves, Biogen wins a speedy review, and Millipore sues Goretex in today’s NewsFlash Roundup.
• SBIR vote makes major changes to federal R&D program
First, the bill would establish a guideline saying that only firms less than 50 percent owned by venture capital firms are eligible to receive SBIR grant money. Previously, there had been no limit on funding for VC-backed companies, but there had been a limit on how much each agency could give to VC-backed firms. That limitation — 15 percent of the total grant money by a federal agency — has been removed in the bill, known as HR 2965.
• Biogen wins speedy FDA review for MS drug
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted “Fast-Track” status for a Biogen drug target for multiple sclerosis. Biogen is currently enrolling patients in a Phase 3 clinical trial for the drug, called PEGylated interferon beta-1a (BIIB017). The company plans to enroll 1,200 patients in the study.
• IPierian merges with iZumi Bio, takes stem cell R&D to Calif.
Boston-bred pharmaceutical startup iPierian Inc. has merged with San Francisco-based iZumi Bio Inc., a stem cell and drug discovery firm. The newly formed company, to be named iPierian Inc., has received $11.5 million in funding, led by Boston venture capital firm and iPierian founding investor MPM Capital. (more…)
In today’s NewsFlash roundup, Northeastern launches a new Master’s, a Sepracor drug trial comes up disappointingly inconclusive, and IMS Health gets a chief privacy officer.
• NH signs with ConEd for wind power
The energy contract runs through May 31, 2010, and moves the Granite State closer to its goal to have 25 percent of its power from renewable sources. ConEdison, based in White Plains, N.Y., said in a statement the wind power comes from developments across the U.S. The energy supplier purchases renewable energy credits that equate to the amount of electricity supplied to the state.
• Northeastern to launch clean energy-focused master’s degree
The program is intended to give engineers or technical business majors cross-disciplinary education in technologies that are sustainable and marketable. The program will comprise engineering and capital projects financing and will teach students how to integrate traditional energy systems with alternative systems using solar, wind, hydropower and photovoltaic technologies.
• Conn. reopens solar rebate program with new funds
The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund is once again accepting applications to its solar rebate program thanks to $3.1 million in fresh funding.
The rebate program, which provides rebates of up to 40 percent for installation of small solar photovoltaic systems, had been closed since November because all previous funding had been allocated. The new funding comes from a mix of federal stimulus funds and electricity ratepayer charges. (more…)
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