BMW 328i is all about performance

A sports sedan traditionally includes a manual gearbox and rear-wheel-drive that provide drivers with a more intimate connection with the road, but the BMW 328i challenges that with an eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive — features that will give a sports sedan purist pause.

My first impression as I slid into the driver's seat of our 328i tester was that the sedan was more about performance driving than luxury and comfort. That's not to say that the 328i lacks a well-appointed cabin. It's extremely comfortable with eight-way adjustable firm leather seats with the right amount of padding on the doors and center console to keep a driver comfortable yet alert and awake.

Our test BMW had a turbocharged in-line four-cylinder engine that put out 240 horsepower. BMW brands its all-wheel-drive feature as xDrive, in which power is distributed with a rear-wheel drive bias — a hard-to-live-without ­option for year-round New England driving.

The 328i's modest turbo provided plenty of might for around town and back-road driving. The extra gears from the eight-speed automatic transmission provided smooth and instantaneous power for passing on the highway. The sedan also has an auto start-stop function that turns the engine off when the car stops to conserve fuel. The feature can be deactivated if it becomes annoying.

The sedan has three driving modes — a fuel-sipping eco pro, comfort and sport. Switching to sport mode distinctively increased engine RPMs and acceleration. Toggling between the modes also changed the feel of the electronic-controlled steering. Four-wheel independent suspension allowed for spirited cornering with the ability to smooth out bridge expansion joints and other road bumps. Ventilated brakes, stability and traction controls provided peace of mind.

BMW takes safety technology to another level with its lane departure warning function. The feature not only uses warning lights to alert drivers if they unintentionally exit their lane but also sends an additional alert by vibrating the steering wheel.

Our test model, which topped out at just over $52,000, returned 33 mpg highway and 22 mpg city. While those gas mileage numbers are respectable, they are offset by the ­sedan's premium fuel require­ment.

The 328i has four optional equipment lines — luxury, modern, sport and M sport. Our tester equipped with the modern package was elegantly styled. Under­stated aluminum trim on the grille, intakes, and front and rear bumpers played well against the mineral gray metallic ex­terior paint. And the 18-inch turbine-style alloy wheels served as a re­minder of the sedan's performance abilities.

A 6.5-inch flat screen display in the center of the dashboard highlights the 328i's cockpit. Navigation and radio functions were easily accessed via a large dial located beside the shift lever. I found the 328i had good front and rear legroom and a spacious trunk. A split folding rear seat-back helps to create more trunk capacity. However, I found the sedan had limited storage along the doors and the center console cup holders­ were on the small side and too close together.

The 328i's all-wheel-drive option is a must-have for Northeast driving,­ and I personally liked the eight-speed automatic trans­mission. Sports ­sedan purists can drop the xDrive feature and go with a six-speed manual. Not enough power? More power can be found with the BMW 335i turbocharged six-cylinder.

There are plenty of other­ sports sedans worthy of consideration, but few can match the resale value of the BMW.

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New Zealand botulism scare triggers global recall

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand authorities have triggered a global recall of up to 1,000 tons of dairy products across seven countries after dairy giant Fonterra announced tests had turned up a type of bacteria that could cause botulism.

New Zealand's Ministry of Primary Industries said Saturday that the tainted products include infant formula, sports drinks, protein drinks and other beverages. It said countries affected beside New Zealand include China, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

Fonterra said its customers were urgently checking their supply chains.

One New Zealand company has locked down five batches of infant formula and China is asking importers to immediately recall products.

Fonterra is the world's fourth-largest dairy company, with annual revenues of about $16 billion.

The news comes as a blow to New Zealand's dairy industry, which powers the country's economy. New Zealand exports about 95 percent of its milk.

Consumers in China and elsewhere are willing to pay a big premium for New Zealand infant formula because the country has a clean and healthy reputation. Chinese consumers have a special interest after tainted local milk formula killed six babies in 2008.

The Centers for Disease Control describes botulism as a rare but sometimes fatal paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin.

Fonterra said it has told eight of its customers of the problem, which dates back more than a year, and they were investigating whether any of the affected product is in their supply chains. Fonterra said those companies will initiate any consumer product recalls.

At a news conference Saturday, Fonterra repeatedly refused to divulge the companies, countries or specific products affected. Gary Romano, the managing director of Fonterra's New Zealand milk products, said his company supplies raw materials to the eight companies and it is up to them to inform their consumers of what products might be tainted.

The company did acknowledge its chief executive, Theo Spierings, planned to fly to China Saturday, in part to deal with the fallout from the botulism scare.

New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries said Saturday that New Zealand company Nutricia had used some of the tainted product in its Karicare line of formula for infants aged over 6 months. Nutricia had locked down all five batches of infant formula it believed contained the tainted product, the ministry said. But it advised that parents should buy different Nutricia products or alternative brands until it verified the location of all tainted Nutricia products.

China's product quality watchdog issued a statement urging importers of Fonterra dairy products to immediately start recalling the products.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also told quality agencies around China to step up inspections of milk products from New Zealand.

Romano said the problem was caused by unsterilized pipes at a Waikato factory. He said three batches of whey protein weighing about 42 tons were tainted in May 2012, adding that Fonterra has since cleaned the pipes.

The New Zealand ministry says the tainted product has been mixed with other ingredients to form about 1,000 tons of consumer products worldwide.

The company said in a release it identified a potential quality problem in March when a product tested positive for the bacteria Clostridium. Many strains of the bacteria are harmless, the company said, and product samples were put through intensive testing over the following months. It said that on July 31 it discovered the presence of a strain of the bacteria that can cause botulism.

Romano said Fonterra hasn't received reports of anybody getting sick and added that the problem hasn't affected any fresh milk, yoghurt, cheese or long-lasting heat-treated milk.

New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries said it was working with the company to investigate.

Spierings, the chief executive, said in the release that food safety was the company's top priority.

"We are acting quickly," he said. "Our focus is to get information out about potentially affected product as fast as possible so that it can be taken off supermarket shelves and, where it has already been purchased, can be returned."

Earlier this year, Fonterra announced it had discovered trace amounts of the agricultural chemical dicyandiamide in some of its products, prompting a ban on the chemical's use on New Zealand farms.

Rabobank's 2012 Global Dairy Top 20 report ranked Fonterra as the world's fourth-largest dairy company by revenue behind Nestlé, Danone and Lactalis. The company is a cooperative, partially owned by thousands of farmers.

In 2011 the company collected 15.4 billion liters (4.1 billion gallons) of milk in New Zealand, representing about 90 percent of the country's total.

In 2008, six babies in China died and another 300,000 were sickened by infant formula that was tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical added to watered-down milk to fool tests for protein levels. Fonterra at the time owned a minority stake in Sanlu, the now-bankrupt Chinese company at the center of the scandal.

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Red Sox owner enters $70M deal for Boston Globe

BOSTON — Businessman John Henry, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, has entered into an agreement to buy The Boston Globe for $70 million, a massive drop from its record $1.1 billion price two decades ago.

The impending purchase from The New York Times Co. marks Henry's "first foray into the financially unsettled world of the news media," the Globe said Saturday. The deal will give Henry the 141-year-old newspaper, its websites and affiliated companies, it said.

The Times announced in February it was putting the Globe and related assets up for sale four years after calling off a previous attempt to sell it. The company's CEO said at the time selling the Globe would help the company focus attention on The New York Times brand.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy confirmed the planned sale of the Globe and other media properties to Henry. The Times said the all-cash sale, expected to close in 30 to 60 days, includes BostonGlobe.com, Boston.com, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Telegram.com, the direct mail marketing company Globe Direct and the company's 49 percent interest in Metro Boston, a free daily newspaper for commuters.

Henry, in a statement published by the Globe, cited the "essential role that its journalists and employees play in Boston, throughout New England, and beyond."

"The Boston Globe's award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well respected media companies in the country," Henry said.

Henry, who also owns the English Premier League soccer club Liverpool F.C., said he would reveal details about his plans for the Globe in the next few days.

The Times bought the Globe from the family of former Globe executive Stephen Taylor in 1993 for what it said was the highest price paid for an American newspaper. The price Henry is paying is less than 7 percent of the 1993 price.

The Globe and other newspapers have faced difficulties in recent years as readers have fled to the Internet and advertisers have cut spending on newspapers and moved more ads online. Still, the Globe is a journalistic institution in New England and was lauded for its coverage of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings in April.

A 2009 round of cost-cutting, involving pay cuts, helped put the Globe on better financial footing and prompted the Times to call off a planned sale. In late 2011, the Globe started charging for access to its online version at BostonGlobe.com, which helped to boost circulation revenues.

The Times company doesn't separate Globe revenue from The New York Times revenue in its financial statements. But the Globe had an average weekday circulation of 230,351 in the six months through September, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. The newspaper's increase in digital subscriptions more than offset declines in print. But the total is still down significantly from the nearly 413,000 it boasted in September 2002.

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Low jobless claims send markets soaring

Initial unemployment claims last week fell to a 51⁄2 year low, just one in a series of encouraging economic reports yesterday that sent the markets soaring to record highs.

Applications for unemployment benefits fell 19,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, the fewest since January 2008, the Department of Labor said yesterday.

The Standard & Poor's 500, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Russell 2000 index responded by setting all-time highs. And the S&P broke through 1,700 points for the first time.

"It looks like we're strengthening a little bit," said Christine Armstrong, senior vice president at Morgan Stanley. "We're cautiously optimistic. We see things improving, but we're not off to the races right now."

Also helping to send markets higher was a positive read on China's manufacturing that helped shore up Asian markets. A trade group yesterday said U.S. factories had revved up production last month.

The Department of Labor will release July unemployment numbers this morning. The numbers could affect the markets, but Armstrong cautioned against reading too much into one set of numbers and one day of trading.

"It can be a coin toss from one day to another," she said. Still, she was hoping for positive figures today. "What I'm hearing are good numbers."

Elliot Winer, chief economist at Northeast Economic Analysis Group, said he expected the unemployment rate to go down, but was worried about the lack of progress Massachusetts has made. "We really seem to be treading water this year," he said.

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The Boston Globe drags down Times

Falling revenue at the Boston Globe's media group only heightens the urgency for The New York Times to finally unload the newspaper — even at a disappointingly low sales price — before it can drain any more of the company's attention and resources, newspaper experts told the Herald.

"That paper's still struggling," said Ed Atorino, a media analyst for The Benchmark Co. "They can't wait to get rid of it, so I see them giving it away to somebody. It's been going downhill, taking up a lot of management time. It's really been a disappointing asset. I think they wanted to sell it a long time ago and couldn't."

Revenue at the New England Media Group, which owns the Globe, boston.com and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, fell 7 percent last quarter compared to a year ago. Advertising numbers fell 10 percent. Circulation revenue — even with a May spike in home delivery prices — fell 2 percent. Other revenues dropped 14 percent.

"We expect that a sale will help the company's overall operating and (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margins," said Times CFO Jim Follo in the company's second-quarter earnings conference call yesterday.

Bidders for the Globe reportedly include Red Sox owner John Henry, Tampa-based Revolution Capital and a group consisting of the Taylor family and former Time CEO Jack Griffin.

Ken Doctor of Newsonomics said the Globe's 10 percent ad plunge is higher than most metro papers, and he called the circulation revenue drop problematic. Newspapers with a digital paywall, like the Globe, have typically seen circulation revenue climb about 10 percent in the first 12 to 18 months.

"To go negative when you put it in shows a structural problem," said Doctor, who blamed it on either the paper's quality or cost. "As buyers have looked at the books, they realize that's a big problem."

As a result, it's stunting the Times' growth, Doctor said. He crunched the numbers and found the Times' circulation revenue would have actually been up 7.4 percent in the first half of the year — instead of just 5.1 percent — without the Globe group in its portfolio.

Times execs also said yesterday it would be "unlikely" employee pension obligations would be included in the Globe sale.

"It's not the pension obligations that are weighing down the price of the Globe," said Doctor, "it's the overall financials of the Globe itself."

Times stock fell 3.28 percent yesterday to close at $11.78 per share.

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Low home inventory causes prices to leap

Inventory is slipping and prices are ­rising. It's the perfect storm for a seller's market in the Hub.

Second-quarter statistics were 
released last week by the LINK 
Property Network and with the lack 
of inventory here in Boston, prices have continued to creep upward as demand outpaces supply.

Here are some of the neighborhood statistics from around the city of 
Boston as of June:

Back Bay

• 63 units — down from 115 this time last year.

• $1,100,000 average price of a two-bedroom condo — up from $997,918 last year.

• $600,971 average price of a one-bedroom condo — up from $589,302 last year.

Beacon Hill

• 23 units — down from 37 this time last year and 66 the year before.

• $760,820 average price of a two-bedroom condo — up from $735,230 last year.

• $446,461 average price of a one-bedroom condo — up from $427,606 last year.

South End

• 54 units — down from 102 this time last year and 154 the year before.

• $784,865 average price of a two-bedroom condo — up from $716,135 last year.

• $488,320 average price of a one-bedroom condo — up from $441,903 last year.

The net take-away continues to be that Boston is in a very short supply of inventory. It continues to be a Catch-22 in that sellers would like to sell but they in turn have no place to go.

With very little new construction over the past few years as a result of the recession, builders are working feverishly to catch up to the levels needed to keep in line with demand.

This isn't to say that by simply putting your property on the market in any of these neighborhoods that it will simply sell for a higher price than you may have purchased it for.

You still have to abide by the same market conditions that have always applied: such as how renovated your property is, how well maintained is the building in general, how healthy is the association, are there any property assessments due to be completed in the near future, etc.

All of these conditions would obviously affect your home's value. However, in general the market is good for sellers.

Charlie Abrahams is a licensed real estate agent 
in Boston who works 
with buyers and sellers 
and can be reached at: 
Bostonrealestate@
charlieabrahams.com.

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US to auction wind energy leases off RI, Mass.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The federal government will for the first time sell competitive leases for wind energy on the outer continental shelf as it holds an auction for leases for wind farms off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The auction will be held Wednesday, although the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it could stretch into Thursday.

The area will be auctioned as two leases. It is 9 nautical miles off the coast of Rhode Island, sitting between and to the south of Block Island and Martha's Vineyard.

The Department of Energy estimates that the area could support enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes.

There are currently no offshore wind farms in the United States, though several are being developed in state and federal waters.

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Delta CEO calls for open skies in Japan

TOKYO — The CEO of Delta Air Lines is urging the Japanese government to open the country's skies to greater competition from foreign airlines.

Richard Anderson said Wednesday that protection of domestic carriers is holding back foreign airlines such as Delta. Japan is a key Asian market for the U.S. airline.

He told a press conference he wants to move Delta's Tokyo base to Haneda Airport from Narita International Airport because Haneda is closer to downtown Tokyo, but the government is creating obstacles.

He cited plane slot restrictions at Haneda and said the government is prioritizing domestic carriers such as All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines.

"I think their measured approach is that they'd like to leave us at the less preferable airport outside of town to advantage the two incumbent flag carriers," said Anderson.

But Hirokazu Kaneko from the Aviation Industries division of the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau said Haneda is at full capacity based on the bureau's calculations.

"We're reaching a point where adding more slots would become an issue of safety," said Kaneko.

Anderson said Delta moved its Tokyo hub to Narita in 1976 at the government's request. Now Delta wants to be based in Haneda again because it is closer to central Tokyo and draws more business. Narita is 68 kilometers (42 miles) from central Tokyo, about three times further away than Haneda.

Anderson said Delta needs 25 additional plane slots to move back.

Haneda will be adding 42 daytime slots for long distance flights in the Spring of 2014.

"Slots in Haneda are extremely valuable because it draws so many travelers so naturally, it's very competitive," said Yoshihisa Akai, head of research at Japan Aviation Management Research. "With so much competition as is, it's unlikely Delta will be able to get all the slots it wants."

Anderson said he will keep voicing his concerns.

"We look forward to the Japanese government opening up the skies, because we do not have open skies in Japan right now," he said.

At the press conference, Anderson also said Delta is open to forming an alliance with a Japanese carrier in the future. In 2010, Japan Airlines spurned Delta's promises of cash and a broad global network to stay in its alliance with American Airlines.

___

Follow Azusa Uchikura on Twitter at www.twitter.com/auchikura

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Global stock markets drift ahead of Fed statement

BANGKOK — Global stock markets drifted Wednesday as investors waited for the Federal Reserve's latest assessment of the U.S. economy.

The Fed is not expected to announce any big changes when it releases an updated policy statement Wednesday at the end of a two-day meeting. However, investors are anxious for clues about when the Fed might start scaling back its monetary stimulus.

"We're unlikely to get anything new, but obviously everyone is cautious just in case we get anything new," said Andrew Sullivan of Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong.

The Fed is buying $85 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds every month to spur growth and lending. While long-term interest rates have been held near record lows, the program has also drawn investors away from bonds and into higher yielding investments like stocks and commodities. Recent hints that the Fed might start scaling back its stimulus program have sent stocks reeling.

Investors are also waiting for the U.S. government to Wednesday report its first estimate of economic growth for the second quarter. DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore said analysts are expecting a drop in GDP growth to 1 percent from 1.8 percent. Most economists blame tax increases and government spending cuts for the sluggish second quarter.

Investors are also focusing on U.S. employment figures for July, due out Friday. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the central bank could begin to scale back its bond purchases later this year if the economy strengthens, but Fed officials typically put greater weight on employment and inflation data than the GDP figures.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent to 6,607.08. Germany's DAX was nearly unchanged at 8,271.51. France's CAC-40 rose 0.1 percent to 3,989.25.

Wall Street looked set for another lackluster day, with Dow Jones industrial futures nearly flat at 15,494. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent to 1,685.90.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.5 percent to close at 13,668.32. The Tokyo benchmark closed down 3.3 percent on Monday and then recovered about halfway Tuesday.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent to 21,883.66. South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.2 percent to 1,914.03. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.1 percent to 5,052. Shares in Sydney jumped in the aftermath of comments by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens, who on Tuesday suggested there was more room for interest rate cuts if needed.

Benchmarks in mainland China rose while Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan fell.

Chinese property stocks were among the big gainers. Shanghai-listed Poly Real Estate Group advanced 3.2 percent while China Resources Land rose 3.4 percent in Hong Kong.

Benchmark crude for August delivery was up 52 cents to $103.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.47 to close at $103.08 on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3289 from $1.3259 late Tuesday. The dollar fell to 97.68 yen from 98.06 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

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New growth proposed for site in Forest Hills

Developers of a proposed 280-unit apartment complex near the Forest Hills MBTA station in Jamaica Plain will put their plans to the public at a community meeting next month.

Forest Hills Arborway, LLC has filed plans to build The Commons at Forest Hills Station, featuring four apartment buildings and approximately 8,000 square feet of "commercial/retail/amenity space."

The Washington Street site near Roslindale was formerly a petroleum product distribution depot.

The meeting is slated for Aug. 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Curtis Hall in Jamaica Plain.

Forest Hills Arborway, which consists of John M. Corcoran & Co. and The Brennan Group, formally filed the plans with the Boston Redevelopment Authority last week.

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Panel backs lung cancer screening for some smokers

UNDATED — The government says more cancer deaths could be prevented if certain current and former heavy smokers get annual CT scans, a type of X-ray.

It's the first time the government has gotten behind lung cancer screening for heavy smokers.

Monday's advice by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is a draft recommendation. If it becomes final as expected, it would clear the way for insurers to cover the scans. The panel recommends them for people ages 55 through 79 who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years or the equivalent, such as two packs a day for 15 years.

Whether screening would help younger or lighter smokers is not known, so scans aren't advised for them. Scans also aren't advised for people who quit at least 15 years ago or people too sick or frail to undergo cancer treatment.

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Time Warner drops CBS, then halts decision

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The fee dispute between Time Warner Cable and CBS Corp. took an odd turn Monday night when the cable giant announced it was turning off the broadcaster in three major cities, then quickly reversed the decision.

The two sides negotiated through the day to avoid a programming blackout and kept extending the deadline.

Around 9 p.m., Time Warner Cable said about 3 million customers in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas would lose the network and four CBS cable stations because of "outrageous demands for fees" by CBS.

"We offered to pay reasonable increases, but CBS's demands are out of line and unfair — and they want Time Warner Cable to pay more than others pay for the same programming," Time Warner Cable said in a statement.

CBS countered, saying that it remained firm in getting fair compensation for its programming. It accused Time Warner Cable of having a "short-sighted, anti-consumer strategy."

Not long after the two sides traded barbs, Time Warner Cable said it halted its plans to drop CBS at the broadcaster's request. CBS said both sides have agreed to continue negotiations.

The disagreement centers mainly on how much Time Warner Cable pays for the right to retransmit signals from the CBS-owned stations.

"As we've said, we feel like we should be paid for our programming," CBS chief executive Les Moonves told the Television Critics Association earlier Monday.

Dozens of blackouts have occurred nationwide in fee fights over the years, but many get resolved at the last minute.

Selling retransmission rights has become a big business for broadcasters such as CBS. Research firm SNL Kagan estimates retransmission fees will reach $3 billion industrywide this year and double to $6 billion by 2018.

Time Warner Cable has said it's resisting a fee hike demand by CBS so prices don't go up for customers. CBS said Time Warner Cable isn't agreeing to terms that its competitors have accepted.

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Ford recalls some 2013 C-Max hybrids over roofs

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is recalling 33,021 C-Max hybrid cars because they may not adequately protect occupants' heads in a crash.

Vehicles involved were made between Jan. 19, 2012, and June 25, 2013 and don't have panoramic roofs. C-Max hybrids with panoramic glass roofs aren't involved in the recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discovered during vehicle testing that the car failed to conform to safety standards pertaining to head injury risk. Ford says there have been no reported injuries related to the issue.

Ford will notify owners of the recall next month. Dealers will install additional energy absorbing material between the car's headliner and the roof.

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

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Translating the tech

When Joe Morone, Jon Warman and Diana Brazzell were dorm mates at Brown University, they shared a vision of the importance of higher education and academic research, but they also knew that research, detailed in academic journals, could often be long, dense and inaccessible to the general public.

So in the fall of 2011, years after their graduation, they founded Footnote, a startup that collaborates with scholars to translate the most technical language into layman's terms — a CliffsNotes, if you will, for academic journals.

"Every year, 1.6 million articles are published in academic journals, but once the research is published, very few people end up seeing it because it's written for an audience of peers," Morone said.

"Our goal is to be a conduit between academic research and intellectually curious readers, policymakers, entrepreneurs and educators."

To do that, Footnote's editorial team works with researchers from Harvard, MIT, Yale and some of the nation's other top universities to craft articles based on those found in academic journals.

Subjects range broadly, from what happens to children when a parent goes to prison, to whether government should intervene to make people healthier.

"We look for issues we think are important and that can be impacted by the latest research," said Morone, whose company was named one of 128 MassChallenge finalists earlier this year.

"The challenge is how do we make better use of this information? We want to deliver brilliant research and expertise on issues that matter in a way that people can use."

Jesse Lyons, a postdoctoral researcher in systems biology at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital, has written Footnote articles on multiple subjects, including how light affects the brain, whether stem cells offer a cure for deafness, and whether a drug that decreases sperm count in mice could lead to a birth control pill for men.

"The goal is to make specialized academic research accessible and engaging without losing the complexity," Lyons explained.

"We want to make it understandable without dumbing it down."

Footnote is partnering with the College and University Research Collaborative in Providence, where top policymakers in Rhode Island have gone with questions about economic development.

The collaborative takes their questions to researchers, whose answers Footnote then translates.

"It's absolutely so important to the work we're doing," said Amber Gilfert, the collaborative's program director.

"We see Footnote providing that key piece, taking research and putting it into a format that our policy leaders and community can easily understand," Gilfert said.

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Student entrepreneurs venture into business

Fresh-roasted coffee, artisan mango liqueur and glow-in-the-dark ultimate frisbee gear — those are some of the products ready to launch out of a Babson College summer crash course for young entrepreneurs.

The 10-week summer venture program featured 14 proposals from undergraduate and MBA students, hand-picked from more than 100 applications. The students presented their products last week to an auditorium packed with potential investors and mentors at the Wellesley school.

"It's a 10-week summer camp for our best and brightest young entrepreneurs," program director Steve Gold said.

Many of the companies were the result of years of planning and experience, but were jump-started by the program.

Hans Homberger, an MBA student from Costa Rica, unveiled a plan to sell the coffee beans his family has grown for four generations directly to consumers under the family name for the first time.

"I grew up looking at my grandpa and my dad going every week to the farms. It's not just the business, it's something I feel passionate about," Homberger said.

Homberger presented Fourth Wheel Coffee, his business that will ship Central American coffee directly to customers' front doors within 15 days of roasting instead of the months that commercial coffee can spend in a warehouse, 
he said.

"I've been working on this concept for over a year. In these past 10 weeks, I feel like I was really pushed to question everything I had learned already," said MBA student Emily Lagasse. "Because of that, I have a final product that I am 100 percent confident in and ready to move forward with."

Her gourmet dog food business, Fedwell, was inspired by the near-death experience of her dog. Lagasse said her high-end dog food is made without chemicals or preservatives and is more nutritious than conventional dog food.

Because of the presentations, many of the students made connections with key investors and industry insiders, Gold said.

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