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Andrew Schwartz: Brain Control for Artificial Limbs

In this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek;

Until the 1980s, scientists believed the brain interacted with limbs in a fairly rote, mechanical way: Certain neurons lit up when corresponding muscles moved. Schwartz was part of a Johns Hopkins University research team that found the brain was actually expressing an intentional behavior, like turning a doorknob, that he could read in the neuron’s electrical signals. “When you watch someone dancing … there’s a sort of beautiful coordination and precision and athleticism incorporated in the movement,” he says. “Those are the kinds of things we could find in this cortical activity.”

via Andrew Schwartz: Brain Control for Artificial Limbs

A New Tanning Salon Lobby Asks: What Cancer Risk?

Enter a new trade group for salon operators, the American Suntanning Association, that wants to “combat myths” and counter “misinformation” about tanning risks, according to a news release introducing the group. … “It’s really been a subjective emotional process, in our opinion.”

via A New Tanning Salon Lobby Asks: What Cancer Risk?

How to Keep New Year’s Resolutions: Make Them in August

January is the worst month to try to change your life, according to data from StickK, one of several websites designed to help people achieve personal goals.

How to Keep New Year’s Resolutions: Make Them in August.

Making Money from the Weather; Curing Hospitals

Recently online: A look at Weather Underground’s offerings for businesses that want to target their ads based on the weather; and some IT nightmares from inside hospitals.

Venture Capital’s Dismal Batting Average

The Kauffman Foundation reports that very few VC firms deliver the outsized returns that investors expect from the asset class. Our chart from their data, in last week’s magazine, shows how dismal it is. The full report is here.

In other recent research, Kauffman shows that a widely cited number for how many jobs IPOs create is misleading.

Chinese Venture Firms Back Foreign Startups

Earlier this month in Bloomberg Businessweek, I wrote about venture capital firms from China that invest in American startups and help them do business on the mainland.

Health Care + Data Mining

In this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek: a look at how one electronic health records company is using its data to get a broader understanding of public health trends.

Also online: more questions about what happens if small businesses shift to self-insurance; freelancers want to get paid too; and how new laws might pave the way for local investing.

Solar Cells on Paper

This week in the magazine: how MIT engineers made solar cells out of paper, Saran wrap, and fabric.

Also online: a brief history of the home office tax deduction, a look at the SEC’s coming task in regulating crowdfunding, and a conversation with a food truck entrepreneur.

Skirting Authoritarian Censors

How one company’s software helps citizens get around censorship, in Iran and elsewhere, at least for now.

Health Care and Small Business

Some of my recent health care stories from Businessweek:

Health Reform’s Small Business Confusion: Many companies still don’t know how the law will affect them.

Getting a Grip on Medicine’s Slippery Price Tag: How the cost of basic tests can vary widely depending on what doctor you see.

Small Business Makes a Risky Bet on Health Care: Why more small companies are dropping traditional insurance to go it alone, and how that could threaten the effectiveness of health reform.