For the first time, scientists have watched the Earth heal itself after an earthquake.

The process is similar to the body repairing a cut, researchers from China and the United States report today (June 27) in the journal Science. During an earthquake, the ground tears apart along a fault, leaving a jagged series of fractures. After China's devastating magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, fluids filled the fractured fault, like blood gushing into a wound, the team found by drilling into the fault. Within two years — a blink of the eye in geologic time — the fault was speedily knitting itself back together, closing gaps through a combination of processes. But the gashes occasionally reopened when damaged by shaking from distant earthquakes, the study reports.

Nashville Capital Network announced today the launch of NCN Angel Fund II, LP. This is the second angel co-investment fund raised by Nashville Capital Network and one of the larger funds of its kind in the country. The $10 million fundraising target was oversubscribed by more than $1 million, bringing the total fund size above $11 million. More than 80 investors are participating in the partnership, growing NCN’s angel roster to 120 unique investors. Angel investors are high net worth individuals who typically take an active role in the companies in which they invest.

NCN Angel Fund II will invest in twelve to fifteen early stage companies alongside the individual angel investors in the group; most of whom are successful entrepreneurs themselves. These individuals will work with NCN to evaluate the opportunities, serve on the board of directors, and provide guidance to the entrepreneurs. Based on the historical co-investment activity of the angels in the group, the new fund and its investors could provide up to $20-25 million of capital for local early stage companies.

The jobs of the future are going to require a more educated workforce, to the point where the U.S. may have as much a 5-million-person shortage of people with post-secondary education by 2020.

That number, via a new Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce report, shows that recent weakness in the job market for young graduates isn't a sign that a degree has lost any value. On the contrary, degrees are getting more valuable, and the cost of missing out is growing. 

Getting enough sleep is important, but don't be afraid to work through the night when necessary.

Eric Epstein's new book, 24 Hours Genius: Unlocking Your Brain's Potential with Strategic All-Nighters, chronicles some memorable stories of how successful people pulled all-nighters that led to some amazing breakthroughs. 

Sure, curmudgeons are good in theory, but can critics improve a company? I figured it was an idea worth exploring. Here’s what seven entrepreneurs learned from their biggest critics. Share your insights from grumps in the comments.

Procrastination is worse than making a mistake I had a Board member who was a critic but a constructive one. A situation occurred where I delayed a decision and it resulted in a delay which was detrimental to the company. The Board member was aware of it, took me aside and pointed out my procrastination and the negative impact it had on the company. I knew I was procrastinating at the time and perhaps it was the fear of making the wrong decision. After thinking long and hard about past situations like these I have evolved my thought process in order to not procrastinate, to be more decisive, not fear mistakes and to take risks where appropriate. Prompt decisions, based on the best information at the time, even though they may be wrong, lead to innovation and forward progress. This discipline has helped my subsequent businesses in terms of making better decisions faster, preserving cash and getting quality products to market sooner. It should also be noted that concurrent with the above, good planning, implementation and execution is critical. Peter DeComo is the CEO of ALung Technologies, a medical device company that’s developed an artificial lung

When you’re starting your own company for the first time, you experience many ups and downs and go through big changes, both good and bad. You no longer have any bosses who check your work or make final decisions. Instead, you take responsibility for your decisions, take care of nearly every task required to start a business, and overcome any obstacles that get in your way. For first time entrepreneurs, these sudden changes can be initially overwhelming and hard to adjust to.

From wearing legwarmers while doing aerobics to bashing truck tires with a sledgehammer, fitness trends seem to change with the season. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that young people from all over the world are trying to get fit by any means necessary. Here’s a look back at some of the biggest trends of the 90s and how they compare to what society is doing to stay fit today.

Throughout his lifetime, Kauffman Foundation founder Ewing Kauffman drew on life lessons that would help him as he followed his entrepreneurial path. One of those lessons came in World War II when he served as a Navy signalman on merchant ship convoys assigned to protect oil tankers and troops from submarines. On duty one fateful night, Kauffman learned the value of trusting your instincts and taking a calculated risk.

Entrepreneurs know that investors appreciate companies that successfully emerge from incubators because incubator-trained startups get a crash course in running a business, increasing their chances of making it in the long run. Similarly, a number of “startup schools” are beginning to pop up across the country, taking bright people and honing their talents into career skills ideal for the long-term rigors of the startup world.

For tech entrepreneurs — like myself — that are based outside of Silicon Valley, these startup schools have proved to be excellent resources for hiring incredible employees who are prepared to start right out of the box.

Companies around the world are cutting back their financial-incentive programs, but few have used other ways of inspiring talent. We think they should. Numerous studies1 have concluded that for people with satisfactory salaries, some nonfinancial motivators are more effective than extra cash in building long-term employee engagement in most sectors, job functions, and business contexts. Many financial rewards mainly generate short-term boosts of energy, which can have damaging unintended consequences. Indeed, the economic crisis, with its imperative to reduce costs and to balance short- and long-term performance effectively, gives business leaders a great opportunity to reassess the combination of financial and nonfinancial incentives that will serve their companies best through and beyond the downturn.

The relentless parade of new technologies is unfolding on many fronts. Almost every advance is billed as a breakthrough, and the list of “next big things” grows ever longer. Not every emerging technology will alter the business or social landscape—but some truly do have the potential to disrupt the status quo, alter the way people live and work, and rearrange value pools. It is therefore critical that business and policy leaders understand which technologies will matter to them and prepare accordingly.

As part of our effort to provide thought leadership in the venture capital industry, and to keep you up-to-date on relevant investment trends, we at PitchBook are excited to release our 2013 VC Healthcare Report. Driven by data from the unparalleled PitchBook Platform, this report analyzes venture investment trends in the healthcare space, dating as far back as 2004 and as recently as May 2013. Featuring Q&A interviews with industry professionals, as well as unique visual presentations of the data, this report offers a quick and easy way to explore recent and historical healthcare-related VC investments.

Download the PDF

The Seeking Solutions approach combines both open innovation and collaboration at a local scale. Using a web-based broadcast technique, the approach encourages companies to share a problem that they are not able to solve on their own with a community of experts. However, instead of ending the process with solutions proposed virtually – without any collaboration amongst the different solvers when using Innocentive or NineSigma for example – a face-to-face working session is organized to stimulate collaboration and idea exchange around the problems that have been submitted. Seeking Solutions is neither just another open-innovation technique nor just another collaboration approach. It is a new mindset that combines both aspects to achieve local open innovation.

The venture capital industry is getting rightsized, with less capital raised and deployed, smaller funds, fewer active venture capital firms, and more regulation. The exit climate has picked up, but is still not at the level required. And valuations are overall more rational, with some exceptions at the later stages or in consumer-facing momentum companies.

However, with the confluence of not one but four big market drivers (discussed below), and the rise of a new technology cycle,  we think this is still a great time to be a venture capitalist or entrepreneur.

When we say that we're "waiting for the right time" to start on something, we tend to mean that we want to feel good about what we're doing--but new research suggests that a pinch of negativity can actually be a creative spark.

How so? Creativity, as we know, is both an emotional and intellectual process: Psychologists have found that positive emotions open up your inventory of possible actions--one of the many reasons that it's good to feel good. But, as new research in the Academy of Management Journal suggests, it's good to feel bad, too--depending on how you roll through the day.

More than 70% of Americans don't know--or don't believe--that they could suffer from eye strain, the Vision Council reports, though the most adults are on digital media from four to six hours a day--with 14% of young adults spending more than 12 hours a day looking at screens.

And yet anybody who spends all day in front of a screen is susceptible to eye strain--the all-too-familiar face fatigue we don't know quite how to fight.

Global competition and a weak economy have made growth challenging. But, some organizations like Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks defy the laws of economic gravity. Dave Power, president of Power Strategy, shared four best practices of the most successful innovation growth companies with Harvard.

Find the Next S-Curve. The best business models go through a predictable cycle of growth, often depicted as an S-curve. Diminishing returns set in as the most attractive customers are reached, price competition emerges, the product loses its luster, customer support challenges emerge, and new skills are required.

Our homes will get a lot smarter in the coming years, allowing us to use a smartphone to manage an integrated system of appliances and other electronics from any room—a kind of universal remote control for the “Internet of things.” An even easier, more intuitive approach, however, would allow us to flip through TV channels or turn on the coffeemaker with a simple hand wave.

A team of University of Washington (U.W.) computer scientists is developing just such a system (pdf). Dubbed “WiSee,” the system uses a modified wireless router to receive and identify slight disturbances in wi-fi signals that permeate living spaces. Software algorithms interpret the hand or body gestures that create those disturbances and translate the movements into commands for controlling specific wireless devices.

Aside from Canada Day, Waterloo, Ont. has something else to celebrate today – the launching of a new crowdfunding platform specifically designed for citizen engagement purposes that is backed by city hall.

The new Web site, iFundWaterloo.ca, has partnered with the City of Waterloo to be the first site of its kind in Canada. The site will be used to fund and promote the needs of Waterloo residents and encourage civic engagement around different projects. One project looking to raise money at the site launch is the design and building of a new community park, complete with a modern and safe playground and challenge courses.

Czech scientists have discovered a fast and cheap way of diagnosing flu via filter paper with two quantum dots, or artificially produced nanoparticles, Denisa Ranochova, from the Technology Transfer Centre of Mendel University in Brno, has told CTK.

The new method that may be applied as from next year already is a result of cooperation of scientists from the Brno University centre and CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology.