Today in Globe Business

Convention center looks to expand

State and city leaders today will unveil a blueprint for dramatically expanding the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, part of an effort to make the city one of the nation’s premier meeting destinations and spur private investment on the South Boston Waterfront, two officials briefed on the matter said.

James Rooney, head of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, will outline plans for adding exhibit space, an auditorium for special events, and at least one more hotel with hundreds of rooms, said the officials, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly before the plan’s release.

They said the expansion plan is preliminary and will not move forward until the public has a chance to weigh in. A committee of public officials and private individuals will be appointed to consider the plan and to recommend whether to move forward with an expansion.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------
Shedding light on how the brain works

More than two centuries ago, the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani found that electricity could make a dead frog’s leg kick, as if it were alive. Today, using the same basic principle but new tools, scientists are employing light to trigger brain cells - looking not for a kick, but for the origins of emotions, behaviors, and diseases in the brain.

Advanced imaging technologies have given neuroscientists new ways to peer into the working mind, but a precise understanding of how 100 billion brain cells create everything from memories to mental illness has remained elusive.

Now, by using gene therapy to insert light-sensitive proteins from algae and other organisms into brain cells, scientists are able to control specific brain circuits with light, and then watch what happens.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------
Abiomed's pumps help hearts go on

DANVERS - The cardiac device company Abiomed Inc. captured attention in June when its AbioCor self-contained artificial heart was implanted in a patient for the first time outside of a clinical trial.

Despite that high-profile success, which showcased its technology, the Danvers company has been refocusing on a less flashy though potentially more durable product: cardiac-assist devices, known as recovery pumps, which are used in hospital settings to help critically ill patients’ hearts recover, rather than having to be replaced.

“No one can make a product that’s as good as the heart,’’ said Michael R. Minogue, Abiomed’s chief executive. “If you can help protect the heart during a heart procedure, it can allow the heart to recover. This is now the major part of our business.’’

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------
INNOVATION ECONOMY: Sparks fly over Silicon Valley vs. Bay State

Highlights from Scott Kirsner’s Innovation Economy blog. For the full blog, visit www.boston.com/innovation.

Seeing Boston from Silicon Valley. Via e-mail and Twitter, I keep receiving links to the recent TechCrunch article “Why Silicon Valley Left Route 128 in the Dust.’’

It’s a pretty worthless piece. Entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa concludes that Silicon Valley is a more dynamic, vibrant, and supportive ecosystem for start-ups because this past Columbus Day he was invited to three tech-related events. Yes, that’s the only piece of data in a 1,100-word essay.

About this deep primary research, Wadhwa writes: “It was a really hard decision which one to pick. And I found myself wondering, where else in the world would I have to face such a decision? The answer is nowhere. Silicon Valley, which has expanded to embrace the entire Bay Area as an engine of entrepreneurship and innovation, is a unique place of powerful and concurrent overlapping networks.’’

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------