Editor’s Picks: Xconomy Boston’s Top 20 Stories of Q1 2013

The first quarter’s in the books, the birds are singing, and this is no April Fool’s story, I assure you.

As is my quarterly tradition, I am posting a list of the top 20 stories in Xconomy Boston from January through March 2013. These are the stories that I think best exemplify the kind of reporting, writing, and editing that we do every day. They help distinguish our brand of journalism, and they remind us of what we need to do more of on a regular basis.

My first-quarter picks span a range of topics and themes, from the rise of hardware and education tech to gaming and e-commerce; from genomics and cancer to crowdfunding; from the VC community (Third Rock, Polaris) to entrepreneurs (Stephane Bancel, Niraj Shah) to big companies (EMC, Lenovo, Vertex); from big industry deals (Moderna) to acquisitions and local expansions (Twitter).

And then there are important macro trends, like U.S. manufacturing, FDA regulatory issues, Boston vs. San Francisco, and companies not to watch.

Without further ado…

Top 10 Tech Stories of Q1:

How Zynga Boston’s Shutdown Birthed Proletariat, a New Mobile Studio

Got Hardware? Dragon Innovation Helps Big Names Get Built

MIT Report: U.S. Manufacturing Hits a Wall When It’s Time to Scale

Twitter’s Boston Acquisitions: Crashlytics Tops $100M, Bluefin Labs Close Behind

New Accelerator LearnLaunchX Looks to Make Boston Ed-Tech Capital of the World

Lenovo-EMC Spinoff Opens in Boston Area, Finds Niche in Networked Storage

The Problem With Kickstarter

Microsoft Roots, Social Media Chops: Spindle’s Take on Local Search

Polaris’s Dogpatch Labs Evolving in Boston, Dublin, Closing in NY, Palo Alto

Wayfair and the Future of E-Retail: CEO Niraj Shah Talks Transition Strategy

5 Boston Tech Companies Not to Watch in 2013

 

Top 10 Life Sciences and Energy Stories of Q1:

Foundation-Backed Dart Revs Up, Seeks Venture Funds

AstraZeneca Shells Out $240M Upfront For Moderna mRNA Drugs

Blueprint Medicines Combs Through Genome for the Next Gleevec(s)

TeloMe Turns to Crowdfunding to Promote Telomere Testing

Third Rock’s Bet on Lotus Tissue Repair Generates Big Return

With Fluorine Tech, SciFluor Aims to Vindicate “Me-Too” Drugs

Ironwood Bucks the Trends, Makes Big Bet on Drug For Millions

1366 Shakes Off Solar Industry Woes, Opens New Wafer Plant

Boston’s Got Big Mo in Biotech, but SF Is Pushing Back

If You’ve Got a Real Breakthrough, the FDA Wants To Talk

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.