Trying to figure out how much an IPO prospect like Facebook is worth based on its registration statement can be more challenging than managing the social network friends you’ve accumulated over the years.

Reuters Estimates about the company’s worth have centered around $75 billion-$100 billion in recent weeks. But last Wednesday’s S-1 filing offered some detail about how the company itself thought the market might value it recently.

When you are about to collide into something and manage to swerve away just in the nick of time, what exactly is happening in your brain? A new study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University shows how the brain processes visual information to figure out when something is moving towards you or when you are about to head into a collision. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), provides vital insight into our sense of vision and a greater understanding of the brain.

Researchers at The Neuro and the University of Maryland have figured out the mathematical calculations that specific neurons employ in order to inform us of our distance from an object and the 3D velocities of moving objects and surfaces relative to ourselves.  Highly specialized neurons located in the brain’s visual cortex, in an area known as MST, respond selectively to motion patterns such as expansion, rotation, and deformation. However, the computations underlying such selectivity were unknown until now.

Broken bones in humans and animals are painful and often take months to heal. Studies conducted in part by University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center researchers show promise to significantly shorten the healing time and revolutionize the course of fracture treatment.

“Complex fractures are a major cause of amputation of limbs for U.S. military men and women,” said Steve Stice, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, animal and dairy scientist in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and director of the UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center.

“For many young soldiers, their mental health becomes a real issue when they are confined to a bed for three to six months after an injury,” he said. “This discovery may allow them to be up and moving as fast as days afterward.”

In my last blog, I argued that the world needs more systems thinkers given the scope of problems/opportunities we face. I believe our major systems have a long way to go, and I write from that angle and set of assumptions. But having an awareness of how our systems, and therefore work habits, are changing is a critical skill for anyone in this economy, not just social change enthusiasts.

There are two ways to look toward the future of work:

• What might the world need from us in terms of the companies we build or work we do?

Building on a break-out inaugural year, the 2012 Florida Companies to Watch awards program is back to recognize and award growing second-stage companies, headquartered in Florida, that have established themselves as high performance companies in their marketplace. This year's group of companies will have the opportunity to join an esteemed group of national Companies to Watch honorees recognized from across the U.S. on Friday, October 19, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando.

Developed by the Edward Lowe Foundation, Companies to Watch was formed as an exclusive way to honor second-stage companies who exhibit innovative business strategies and processes. The companies recognized by this award are leading the way for second-stage companies and prove themselves to be "worth watching".

There actually are “litter twins” in the canine world but the only way you know is to do a DNA test or see them in the same sack at birth. When dog trainers know they are dealing with litter twins they suggest training them separately after weaning to maximize each one’s potential.

In business, you might want to follow the lead of the canine trainers and separate a high potential specialized product or service by creating a separate position and budget. This is what we describe as the Litter Twin Strategy.

With the launch of the Warrior, a large wheeled robot with a hefty mechanical arm, military robots just got significantly larger and more adaptable. The robot rides on caterpillar tracks like a tank. It can climb stairs and cover rough terrain, and perform tasks ranging from the delicate (opening car doors) to the destructive (smashing car windows) with its two-meter-long mechanical arm.

Warrior is the latest invention from iRobot, the Bedford, Massachusetts, company best known for the Roomba robotic vacuum, and its line of remote-control PackBots, used by U.S. combat forces to disable improvised explosive devices and perform other dangerous tasks. The robot could be weaponized—in one test it launched a rocket that trailed explosives behind it to clear mines or other obstacles (see video).

After polling innovation managers and experts from all over the world about the size of the organization in relation to the ease of starting an innovation initiative, Gijs Van Wulfen takes a look at the arguments.

The fuzzy front end of innovation confronts you with a lot of questions. In my new book ‘Creating innovative Products and Services’ I try to solve them with the FORTH innovation method.

In one of my last blogs on InnovationManagement I discussed more than 40 reasons why people struggle with innovation. Corporate culture, uncertainty, a lack of support, a lack of market insights, the absence of an appropriate process, missing the tools and lacking the right resources all matter a great deal.

The World Intellectual Property Report 2011- The Changing Face of Innovation – a new WIPO publication – describes how ownership of intellectual property (IP) rights has become central to the strategies of innovating firms worldwide. With global demand for patents rising from 800,000 applications in the early 1980s to 1.8 million in 2009, the Report concludes that growing investments in innovation and the globalization of economic activities are key drivers of this trend.

The National Business Incubation Association has awarded the NBIA Soft Landings International Incubator designation to the University City Science Center in Philadelphia.

The NBIA's Soft Landings Program recognizes incubators that are especially capable of helping nondomestic companies enter the incubator's domestic market. The University City Science Center was selected for the program because of its slate of business services for nondomestic firms and its demonstrated success at helping firms enter the U.S. market, said Tim King, NBIA international programs operations manager.

Through its Global Soft Landing (GSL) Program, the Science Center's Port Business Incubator helps global companies establish a foothold in the region's life sciences and technology markets. GSL provides international companies with fully-equipped labs, plug and play offices and access to the Science Center's full suite of business support programs, as well as assistance tailored specifically to nondomestic firms, which help foreign companies establish strategic relationships with a highly qualified network of industry experts in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Collaboration is a contact sport. “Regional collaboration” has long been a somewhat idyllic phrase within technology-based economic development circles. Beyond the websites and trade show booths, its rare to find “collaboration” expressed in an every day operating plan. Geography, municipal boundaries, political districts and competing organizations provide real challenges for regional initiatives to find and sustain common ground.

With the announcement of the Federal Regional Innovation Cluster (RICs) initiative in March of 2010, those barriers are becoming more transparent. That initiative defined RICs as “geographically-bounded and active networks of similar, synergistic or complementary organizations which leverage their region’s unique competitive strengths to create jobs and broader prosperity.”

Since its launch, the RIC initiative has established several programs such as the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator, the Energy Regional Innovation Cluster and the I6 Green Challenge, all of which leverage technical resources and financial incentives to help formalize networks and link key assets in tangible and responsive ways.

After many years of being known primarily for their research, Maryland’s universities are looking to turn their science into commercial sales.

One of the catalysts behind this drive is the Maryland Innovation Initiative, an effort joining five state research universities with businesses and government officials, in hopes of accelerating technology transfer from the lab to the market.

The initiative is to be presented to the Senate Finance & Budget and Taxation Committee at 1 p.m. Tuesday, on behalf of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D).

You have an idea for a phenomenal company. Problem is you have zero background in that industry, no prior entrepreneurial experience, never got an MBA and can't lean on your family for financing or business resources.

At first glance, you're facing an uphill battle. Likewise for the second glance and the foreseeable future. Your background and ability to leverage connections is a major draw for investors and early stage employees. There is no sugarcoating that there are major advantages to having industry knowledge, entrepreneurial know-how, advanced business degrees or family money. Regardless, personal and empirical evidence has proven that it can be done. With some tweaks and persistence, it's possible to overcome these massive roadblocks.

New companies with high growth potential – and with high potential to create jobs – often struggle to obtain sufficient capital to cross the so-called "Valley of Death" in the process from concept to prototype. With continued economic uncertainty, government funding is no longer a guaranteed solution, and private investors have become increasingly risk averse. According to a new report released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, both startup activity and investment would be increased by a permanent tax exemption on capital gains on investments in startups held for at least five years.

This idea is embodied in the Startup Act proposed by the Kauffman Foundation in July 2011, in Startup legislation proposed by the Administration, the Startup Act legislation recently introduced in the Senate by Senators Moran and Warner and in a Small Business Tax Extenders Bill introduced this week by Senators Snowe and Landrieu.

Lack of proper regulatory framework, among other hurdles, the biotechnology (BT) industry is having to surmount, is affecting the sector and its growth. The government will have to move fast and speed up growth of the Indian BT sector as it has the potential to emerge as a leading sector, said Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on Monday.

Speaking at the inauguration of the three-day Bangalore India-Bio 2012, inaugurated in Bangalore on Monday, she said, “Only a proper regulatory framework would help realise these expectations. The regulatory system was necessary to provide support for innovation.”

India has made great strides in drugs, both patented and generic, while a good progress has been made on the vaccine front. Agriculture challenges have been addressed and India has now emerged as a net exporter of Bt cotton and the success of Bt cotton has resulted in pesticide imports falling, thus impacting eco-sustainability.

American companies have been investing in China for years — but mainly in the form of cheap labor. With all the R&D moving into Asia, there's a huge opportunity for companies to invest in innovation abroad. But they need to know how to approach the market.

In A CEO's Guide To Innovation In China, McKinsey's Gordon Orr and Erik Roth, who are based in the company's Shanghai office, discuss the four biggest obstacles to innovation in China:

From robber barons to TV personalities, the world's billionaires didn't get rich without acquiring some wisdom along the way.

Thanks to MyComeUp.com for compiling some of the best billionaire quotes.

In my recent piece Reengineering Capitalism I highlighted a phenomenon that the global entrepreneurship ecosystem is paying very little attention to: Over 99% of entrepreneurs who seek funding get rejected. Yet, the entire world is focused on the 1% that is "fundable."

The media, when pitched a startup story, is interested in who funded the venture. They seldom ask how much revenue the company has or if it is profitable.

Incubators take pride in how exclusive they are and how many "deals" they "reject." Angels and VCs, of course, discard most of their "deal flow." And entrepreneurs? They seem to have confused the definition of entrepreneurship altogether. Entrepreneurship, they mistakenly believe, equals financing!

Facebook employees and others who are contemplating when to sell their stock can get some help from a new startup called Wealthfront.

The company has created a financial planning tool that lets anyone who works in a tech company test their options for selling stock after an initial public offering.

Andy Rachleff, chief executive of Wealthfront and co-founder of Benchmark Capital, said in an interview that the company is targeting tech professionals in their 20s and 30s who are sitting on a lot of startup stock and need advice about what to do with it.

“Very few people know the answer to the question about when they should sell stock,” Rachleff said. “It’s always the No. 1 question we get from people that we work with. Another popular question is when should I exercise my stock options.”

What makes YOU stop, read and respond to blog articles?   Do you notice a pattern with articles that get re-posted and commented on the most? I do. I started this conversation here in,  The Emergence and Power of Blogs, Blogging and Bloggers and wanted to continue it.

Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2011 report came out at the end of last year highlighting the who, what and how of blogs, blogging and bloggers.  The growth of blogging the past year is significant.  As the content space becomes more and more crowded, getting noticed, read and responded to will also become more challenging.