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☆ Life sciences software startup Benchling lays off 9% of workforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 21 (Reuters) - Benchling, which develops software tools for scientists and pharmaceutical research organizations, has laid off 74 employees, or 9% of its workforce, its spokesperson confirmed on Friday. The startup joins a growing number of U.S. firms, including Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), Amazon.com Inc and several startups, to downsize its workforce amid mounting worries of a recession in the United States. The San Francisco-based company, which filed for an initial public offering in late 2021, was last valued at over $6 billion. Benchling offers cloud-based tools and laboratory automation software that allow researchers to collaborate and track projects. Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Nuclear fusion will not be regulated the same way as nuclear fission — a big win for the fusion industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The top regulatory agency for nuclear materials safety in the U.S. voted unanimously to regulate the burgeoning fusion industry differently than the nuclear fission industry, and fusion startups are celebrating that as a major win. As a result, some provisions specific to fission reactors, like requiring funding to cover claims from nuclear meltdowns, won't apply to fusion plants. Other differences include looser requirements around foreign ownership of nuclear fusion plants, and the dispensing of mandatory hearings at the federal level during the licensing process, Holland said. The electricity generated by nuclear fission is considered clean energy by the U.S. Department of Energy because it generates no greenhouse gas emissions. And these reactors deliver massive quantities of power: Half of the carbon-free energy generated in the U.S. comes from nuclear fission reactors.

☆ What the Boston Marathon Finish Line Means Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Talya Minsberg | Matthew Futterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

The Boston Marathon is arguably the most elusive finish line of all, and not just anyone can cross it. In 2013, on a cool, partly sunny day, this ebullient scene was shattered when two bombs exploded near the finish line. On Monday, nearly 30,000 runners will journey, down and up and down, toward the finish line of the 127th Boston Marathon. Volunteer, runner I used to volunteer at the finish line, reading information about runners as they finished for the announcer. It means something so different crossing that finish line compared to other marathon majors.

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of rare talent
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Driven by the recent AI boom, companies are raiding top college campuses for rare technical talent. She's currently on leave from her Stanford AI Ph.D. program to focus on Moonhub. In 2011, new AI Ph.D. graduates took jobs in the tech industry and academia in about equal measure. But since then, the majority of new grads have headed to the AI industry, with nearly double the percentage of AI Ph.D. grads taking industry jobs versus academic roles in 2021, according to Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI's 2023 AI Index Report. "All AI companies have roles for people with Ph.D.s and without," said Attaluri, the soon-to-be researcher at DeepMind.

☆ A D.E. Shaw internship could land a dream gig at the secretive hedge fund. Here's what it takes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Michelle Abrego | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Shaw's recruiting head, took us inside the firm's process for finding talent. Shaw Group is one of the highest-grossing, and most secretive, hedge funds on Wall Street, with $60 billion under management. Launched by former Columbia University computer-science professor David Shaw above a small left-wing bookshop in lower Manhattan in 1988, D.E. The interview process includes an initial video interview, a case study or coding test (depending on the internship), a second round of video interviews, and a reference check. At any point in the process, candidates might even be steered toward an internship other than the one they applied to that could better align with the candidate's skills and interests.

☆ Top 10 colleges to attend if you want to make a lot of money—Harvard and Yale didn't make the list
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Former Caltech attendees earn a median income of $112,166 a decade after starting school, making them the highest earners among the nearly 900 colleges ranked. California Institute of Technology Median income 10 years after attendance: $112,166Median debt among graduates: $17,747 2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Median income 10 years after attendance: $111,222Median debt among graduates: $13,418 3. Stevens Institute of Technology Median income 10 years after attendance: $98,159Median debt among graduates: $27,000 8. Princeton University Median income 10 years after attendance: $95,689Median debt among graduates: $10,450 It shouldn't be too surprising to see several technical colleges make the list.

☆ A summer internship at D.E. Shaw can pay up to $20,000 a month. Here's what it takes to land a coveted spot.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Michelle Abrego | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Europe and the U.S. are scrambling to wean themselves off rare earths from China, which account for 90% of global refined output. Australia's RMIT University estimates there are 16.2 million tonnes of unexploited rare earths in 325 mineral sands deposits worldwide, while the U.S. Idaho National Laboratory said 100,000 tonnes of rare earths each year end up in waste from producing phosphoric acid alone. That, Adamas says, is equivalent to some 8% of expected demand for the two rare earths, vital for making permanent magnets to power EV and wind turbine motors. Reuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsQUICKER THAN NEW MINESRecovering rare earths from waste is much quicker than setting up new projects from scratch. The company will extract phosphorus for fertiliser, fluorine and gypsum in addition to rare earths.

☆ Robots are getting good at dribbling soccer balls, new video from MIT shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Researchers from MIT designed "DribbleBot," a robot that dribbles a soccer ball just like humans. Researchers from MIT's Improbable Artificial Intelligence Laboratory designed the robotic system, which can dribble a soccer ball across a range of surfaces. We need the machines to go over terrains that aren't flat, and wheeled robots can't traverse those landscapes." Four-legged robots designed by other companies, including Boston Dynamics, Ghost Robotics, and Anybotics, are also putting their robot-iterations to work, such as performing equipment inspection checks at companies. But advancements like MIT's show there's still progress being made toward the dream of competitive soccer robots.

☆ On 'Ivy Day,' college hopefuls hear from Harvard, Princeton — but here's the school more students want to attend
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

watch nowMarch 30 is "Ivy Day," when many Ivy League schools release those long-awaited admissions decisions. The colleges that ranked the highest on students' wish lists are "perennial favorites," according to Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief. They are also among the most competitive: MIT's acceptance rate is just under 4%; at Harvard, it's about 3%. Coming out of the pandemic, a small group of universities, including many in the Ivy League, have experienced a record-breaking increase in applications this season, according to a report by the Common Application. The report found application volume jumped 30% since the 2019-20 school year, even as enrollment has slumped nationwide.

☆ Self-driving startup Venti raises $28.8 mln to speed up growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Nick Carey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Self-driving startup Venti Technologies said on Tuesday it has raised $28.8 million in Series A funding to speed up the growth of its autonomous vehicle (AV) business for customers the logistics and supply chain industry. Investors in the funding round included LG Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of LG Corp (003550.KS) unit LG Group, and UOB Venture Management, the venture capital arm of Singapore's United Overseas Bank. Venti has been developing its self-driving for vehicles for the last three years at one of the world's largest container ports in Singapore and is already generating revenue. This year the company will deploy dozens of entirely self-driving vehicles, CEO Heidi Wyle told Reuters. Developing fully self-driving vehicles that can go everywhere has proven harder and more expensive than expected, but investors are continuing to fund startups that target simpler self-driving vehicle solutions far removed from pedestrians and other vehicles operated by humans.

☆ Computing networking pioneer Metcalfe wins top industry prize
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 21 (Reuters) - Computing networking pioneer Bob Metcalfe on Wednesday won the industry's most prestigious prize for the invention of the Ethernet, a technology that half a century after its creation remains the foundation of the internet. The Association for Computing Machinery credited Metcalfe, 76, with the Ethernet's "invention, standardization, and commercialization" in conferring its 2022 Turing Award, known as the Nobel prize of computing. The Ethernet got its start when Metcalfe, who later went on to co-found computing network equipment maker 3Com, was asked to hook up the office printer. Metcalfe said previous generations of AI "died on the vine because of a lack of data." And the brain teaches us that connecting them is where it's at," Metcalfe said.

☆ Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +32 min

Insider spoke with more than 30 current or former Deel workers about the HR company's extraordinary rise, and the unconventional tactics that made it possible. "I think if you talk to anyone, they would say that Alex is the face but all decisions run through Phillipe," one former Deel worker told Insider. "They lose every employment and labor protection," Valerio De Stefano, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, said of independent contractors. Alex Bouaziz, Deel on Centre Stage during day two of Collision 2022 at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada. The company didn't have an internal human-resources team until sometime in 2021, by which point it had grown to hundreds of people.

☆ College hopefuls have a new ultimate dream school — and it's not Harvard, Princeton or Yale
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Most of the colleges at the very top of students' wish lists are "perennial favorites," according to Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief. They are also among the most competitive: Stanford's acceptance rate is also just below 4%; at Harvard, it's about 3%. The report found application volume jumped 30% since the 2019-20 school year, even as enrollment has slumped nationwide. At that point, they must pay a non-refundable deposit to secure their seat at the school of their choice. Tuition and fees plus room and board for a four-year private college averaged $53,430 in the 2022-2023 school year; at four-year, in-state public colleges, it was $23,250, according to the College Board.

The court also allowed testimony from an expert who said Meta owes Neural Magic as much as $766 million in royalties. Representatives for Meta and Neural Magic did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision. Meta asked the court to throw out the case last year, arguing Neural Magic had failed to identify any protectable trade secrets and that Zlateski had not acquired the information improperly. But the court on Monday allowed Neural Magic's case to continue for all but one of the 41 secrets it accused Meta of misappropriating. The case is Neural Magic Inc v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No.

☆ Low-Wage Workers Climb the Earnings Ladder
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Justin Lahart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Competition for low-wage workers will become more intense, a new paper says. With the broad job losses the pandemic set off concentrated in low-wage industries, the earnings gap between the rich and the poor seemed likely to only widen. It has narrowed instead, with wage growth among lower-paid and less-educated workers outstripping wage growth among the better-paid and more highly educated. Their findings suggest that even as the pandemic fades, competition for low-wage workers will be more intense than before the pandemic. That could lead to further reductions in income inequality, raise labor costs at firms that employ low-wage workers, and reshape the U.S. business landscape.

☆ Want Better Customer Service? Join the (Membership) Club
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Others such as online travel agent Booking.com and Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation provide priority customer service for high-ranking members of their loyalty programs. Other companies that offer premium customer support also say the perk is often a small part of more comprehensive packages, and that its introduction doesn’t mean their standard customer service is lacking. “We’ve always provided fantastic customer service, but what we added was another layer on top of that,” said Genaro Perez, senior vice president of marketing for P.F. Other companies offer priority customer service to customers who have ascended to the upper tiers of loyalty programs that do not cost extra to join. The strategy may help profits, but could create the perception that “free” customer service is low-quality and amplify inequality by deprioritizing lower-income customers, she said.

☆ ArcBest Rolls Out Technology to Speed Up Freight Loading
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

The freight-management system, called Vaux, is a steel-and-aluminum racking system that sits underneath and around cargo inside trailer beds. Warehouse workers can latch a forklift onto the Vaux platform to push freight into a trailer or pull freight out in one move, instead of having to handle pallets individually. ArcBest says loading or unloading a truck using Vaux takes less than five minutes, compared with the traditional process the company says can take 45 minutes. “What our customers have been telling us is that they are really under pressure,” ArcBest Chief Executive Judy McReynolds said. Rival trucking company TFI International Inc. recently disclosed it had taken a 4% stake in ArcBest, prompting speculation TFI is looking to buy ArcBest.

☆ Reflecting sunlight to cool the Earth must be studied before climate change gets much worse, urges group of 60 scientists
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Greenhouse gas emissions must be immediately and urgently reduced, as that's the only permanent way to limit global warming. "Even with aggressive action to reduce GHG emissions it is increasingly unlikely that climate warming will remain below 1.5-2°C in the near term," the scientists wrote. "Aerosols from human activities are currently estimated to be offsetting about a third of greenhouse gas climate warming," the scientists wrote. Cirrus cloud thinning, CCT, which involves putting aerosols into cirrus clouds to reduce the amount of infrared radiation that the Earth retains. In some cases, they might be less harmful if used in some combination, the scientists wrote.

☆ U.S. manufacturers see big boost from government subsidies and tax breaks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Timothy Aeppel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

While the Biden administration push, described by economists as an industrial policy, has opened opportunities for some companies, significant hurdles remain. Eight out of 12 Republican representatives in Ohio’s congressional delegation voted in favor of federal subsidies for semiconductor production, including the funds that will go to Intel. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provides $52.7 billion in federal subsidies for semiconductor production and research. Scott Lincicome, director of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, said industrial policy tends to crumble into failed projects and cost overruns. "There's all sorts of more market-oriented reforms that could achieve the type of objectives our political class wants, without the unintended consequences of industrial policy," he said.

While the Biden administration push, described by economists as an industrial policy, has opened opportunities for some companies, significant hurdles remain. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provides $52.7 billion in federal subsidies for semiconductor production and research. Industrial policy still has critics. Scott Lincicome, director of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, said industrial policy tends to crumble into failed projects and cost overruns. "There's all sorts of more market-oriented reforms that could achieve the type of objectives our political class wants, without the unintended consequences of industrial policy," he said.

☆ Just How Good for the Planet Is That Big Electric Pickup Truck?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Elena Shao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

But as electric vehicles have bulked up, they have also faced new questions over their environmental and safety impacts. Less emissions per mile More emissions per mile Electric vehicles Vehicle SIZE, BY WEIGHT: Heavier vehicles tend to have higher emissions. Take the Ford F-150 pickup truck compared with the electric F-150 Lighting. The same beeswarm chart as in the previous graphic, but Ford F-150 Lightning and Ford F-150 gas-powered models are highlighted. Larger batteries have also added significant weight to many big electric vehicles, anywhere from hundreds to thousands of pounds.

Kazuo Ueda, a 71-year-old university professor who has kept a low profile despite strong credentials as a monetary policy expert, ticked some important boxes. While he was not even on the list of dark horse candidates floated by the media, Ueda was well known in global central bank circles. The bank's preferred choices were incumbent deputy governor Amamiya, as well as former deputies Hiroshi Nakaso and Hirohide Yamaguchi, given their deep knowledge on monetary policy. Matsuno said he hoped the BOJ works closely with the government and guides monetary policy flexibly, when asked whether Ueda's appointment could lead to a retreat from Abenomics. While he warned of the rising cost of the BOJ's yield control policy, Ueda has called for the need to keep monetary policy loose to ensure Japan stably achieves the bank's 2% inflation target.

☆ At BOJ's helm, MIT-educated Ueda to put theory into practice
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Leika Kihara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

At MIT, he studied economics under Stanley Fischer, whose students include former U.S. Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke and former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. He is a good listener and a consensus-builder, rather than a leader with a strong view on the direction of monetary policy, they say. "His style is to discuss monetary policy based on facts and evidence," said Tetsuya Inoue, who was Ueda's staff secretary when he was a central bank board member. In a column published in July, Ueda warned against raising rates prematurely in response to cost-push inflation - a sign he would be in no rush to tighten monetary policy. Upon approval by parliament, Ueda will assume the top BOJ post on April 9 and chair his first policy-setting meeting on April 27-28.

☆ Factbox: Some potential successors to Brainard at the Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Meanwhile, analysts and Fed observers are already swapping notes on potential replacements for Brainard at the Fed from a bench of economists aligned with Biden's Democrats, who control the U.S. Senate. MARY DALYDaly is president of the San Francisco Fed, ascending to that position in 2018 after 22 years at the regional Fed bank, including a stint as its director of research. Furman has been a prominent, Twitter-savvy commentator on macroeconomic and Fed policy. He has a PhD from the University of Virginia and served as a Fed economist for a little over a year in the mid-1990s. With a PhD from Stanford University, he's held staff positions at the Fed board and the San Francisco Fed, where he also served as president before moving to the New York Fed role in 2018.

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