Life Sciences
Aside from the continuing use of the annoying “save the planet” meme (the planet will be fine – it’s really “save the humans from an ugly step-down crash”) this is a great talk that Adam Werbach just gave recently tothe Teens Turning Green conference. Adam is the Global CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, author of [...]
This site contains my general blogging, published articles, and information on speaking dates where I discuss how business, technology, and finance can be used to create an open, healthy, and environmentally and economically vibrant society. Please feel free to contact me at troy at troyangrignon dot com to rant, discuss, or have me speak at [...]
What is it with humans and their pets? Three completely unrelated news stories of late all connected in the neurons of my brain and I have to ask: what low-level function in the human brain is responsible for this intense desire for humans to have pets? Maybe the nurturing gene(s)? Dogster got some funding back [...]
The 19th Annual Angel Forum came to a successful close this afternoon. Thirty-six companies in the software, manufacturing, communications, internet, and medical device sectors presented to 70+ investors over the course of a full day of sessions. Each presenting company was given 10 minutes to pitch their company, market, team, market problem, solution, and investment [...]
I attended the Ready to Rocket 2006 session this morning, which was sponsored by Rocketbuilders , a Vancouver based market strategy and consulting firm that helps technology companies capitalize on market opportunities. The presentation started with an overview of the successes from 2005. Next, Geoff Hansen presented an IT Outlook for 2006. This was followed by [...]
I just spent two days at the IT Financing Forum and will likely be putting up some notes soon. But the quick summary is that it was a great two days with many wonderful conversations, a good overall mood, some fantastic learning, and I met quite a few new people from Vancouver as well as [...]
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Please forward as appropriate to your respective networks. Sorry for the late notice on this everyone, but I just found out today that a company my good friend Ean Jackson has just started with, Genesis Exchange, is looking for more good candidate companies to present their elevator pitches to a group of private equity investors. [...]
It’s that time of year again. Bob Chaworth-Musters, principal of the Angel Forum, will be hosting a one-day session where up to 34 pre-screened technology, service and manufacturing companies seeking equity funding of up to $1 million, will present to 70+ pre-screened private equity investors (80 investors registered in April). Private equity investor preferences (detailed criteria on [...]
If you haven’t checked it out yet, check out “Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough To Live Forever” by Ray Kurzweil. It’s his newest book. The premise is that there are three bridges to get us to a nearly unlimited life span. The first is using what we already know. The second bridge is using biotechnology [...]
http://www.eetimes.com/at/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=53700939&pgno=1. Interesting article. I don’t know enough to dispute or add to the article. I do know that the Insititute for Biological Energy Alternatives (Craig Venter’s new project) is looking at sea-life to find more efficient methods for solar conversion than is currently available through standard photosynthesis and that they are hoping to find solar [...]
I did not attend the 16th Angel Forum held in Vancouver, BC, Canada on November 22nd but I got a report back from Bob Chaworth-Musters that it was a great event, with 90 registered investors (including from Denver, Seattle, Edmonton & Calgary, Kelowna and Victoria as well as nearly all Vancouver vc fund managers) listening [...]
On November 8th & 9th, I volunteered at the Canadian IT & Biotech Financing Forum, assisting Dave Thomas, Reg Nordman, Nick Tattersall, Mary McDonald (of McDonald & Associates) and the gang from Rocketbuilders. I had the opportunity to meet the founders and entrepreneurs from 40 different companies and to watch some of them present to [...]
My nephew Matt sent me a link to this Wired article on rat neurons being used to control a flight simulator. In essence, they have plugged the feedback and the control systems into the neurons and have found that eventually the neurons learn how to “fly” the virtual plane. Now, I have heard of using [...]
I love stories like this one at the Christian Science Monitor about Chris Anderson, a New Zealand scientist using crops to clean up contaminated mines. (Thanks Z+Partners for the link.) In one fell swoop, he has come up with a process to improve the environment (both by having plants around and by having the plants [...]
This is an extremely long post on Massive Change, the multi-media exhibition that is intended to be the starting point for a global discussion on the role of design in creating our world. Here is a bit from their website that gives you a sense of the goals of the project.
It’s not the specifics of this article that are interesting, but more the fact that I’m constantly humbled by natures complexity and intricacy, much of which is invisible to us. When researchers learn these tiny little tidbits, they always make me smile because I think there must be a googoljillion other processes just like it [...]
Portland Indymedia (pdximc) has a long and interesting post on the ecological costs of shifting from fossil fuels to biodiesel in particular that is very interesting. In short, it states that we use 1 billion gallons of fossil fuel per day and that we only generate 1.5 billion gallons of vegetable oil per year. He [...]
I love Ray Kurzweil. Here is a short but interesting interview from CIO magazine where Kurzweil predicts things that will sound outlandish to most people: • outsourcing is a good thing and in the bigger picture not an issue because it’s not a zero-sum game – he gives a 200 year view of these similar [...]
Okay, so it has to use human poop to attract the flies and it still can’t actually catch the flies – it has to have them fed to it’s little mouth – but all the same, the interesting parts of this equation are: • it is self-powered • it uses microbial fuel cells to generate [...]
I am extremely interested in this field of bio-energy and am excited by all the possibilities of using microbes to convert solar power into useable hydrogen as well as to store energy similar to traditional batteries. Here is a great Wired Magazine article on some of the upcoming possibilities.
Here is yet another example of the nano-bio convergence that is happening, although this time it is the disciplines themselves physically converging in a new research facility. This can only help accelerate the interesting developments between the two sciences.
Sure it would be nice to have a googlebajillion MIP processor or some nano-opto-electronics to speed up your internet connection or a petabyte of storage on your keychain fob but these people are working on something that REALLY matters: odor-killing socks.
I thought that corn being turned into bio-diesel was cool but Toyota is experimenting with using sweet-potato-derived materials for some parts of new cars. The biomaterial is strong, light, and totally biodegradable. Maybe when we’re done with our cars, we’ll be able to break them into parts and toss them into the farmer’s fields…
Bruce Schneier comments on the new “Trusted Traveller” program. Also, who’s creating all of the Orwellian program names in the U.S. government?
Here is another great article about some research going on by various researchers who are patterning their robotic creatures after snakes, lobsters, and other animals. One of the interesting parts to me is…
Here is a Reuters article on the National Cancer Institute’s new $145M USD nano-medicine funding plan.
This fall is shaping up to be a busy one for those technology companies seeking opportunities to learn about or acquire some funding. Here is an incomplete list of events sorted by date. I will update this list as dates firm up. September 21, 2004: VIATeC (Victoria): Strategies for Succesfully Raising Money Financing a company [...]
I am thrilled to see Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the premier Valley VC firms, has launched his own blog. One of his recent posts discusses the very ideas that I mentioned in my blog-defining first post – namely that the next 20 years (2005-2025) will bring the same amount of change [...]
Life imitates art. Art imitates life. “Godsend“, a movie opening August 17th, starring Robert de Niro as a doctor who clones children for parents who have lost a child due to early accidents or other loss, has a real-life equivalent. Or so says the man in question – Doctor Panos Zavos. Quoting from a news.scotsman.com [...]
