Charting one possible path for improvements in Silicon Valley's working culture, the science of the LHC and France's focus on clean energy cars. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for July 6, 2017. 1. A community-sourced template for investor anti-harassment policy Silicon Valley has been rocked by a spate of sexual assault allegations involving prominent venture capitalists, and there are many calls to action circulating as a result. This template for a policy that can be adopted industry-wide is one such act. The template was co-created by a host of authors working in close collaboration, including Cheryl Yeoh, Niniane Wang and Susan Ho. It's designed to be something firms and VCs can build upon to create their own internal policies regarding this harmful behavior. 2. A look at the LHC 5 years post-discovery of the Higgs boson particle The Large Hadron Collider probably peaked in the news when headlines boasted of "god particle discovery" but the facility is still in its relative infancy in terms of the science it can do. Check out Devin's update on what the LHC has been up to, and what it could do next. 3. France could end fossil fuel vehicle sales by 2040 If this becomes more of a habit, gas guzzling cars could be nearly extinct by 2050. First London says it hopes to make transport emission free by 2050, and now France says the whole country hopes to end sales of fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2040. Meanwhile, Volvo is going to only be selling hybrids and electrics by 2019, so there's support on the industry side as well. 4. China's Ofo raises $700 million The war chests of Chinese dockless bike sharing startups are only growing. Ofo, the main rival of Mobike, has raised $700 million, from Alibaba and others. This sets up a clash between some of China's largest internet companies, too, who are each backing different rivals in the aggressive race. 5. SpaceX launches 3 Falcon 9 rockets in less than 2 weeks SpaceX has launched three rockets within a span of 12 days, which is great for its vision of high-volume, affordable launch capacity. This third launch took three tries, but nothing major went wrong, which is what's really important. 6. Check out The TechCrunch Podcast Oh boy e-bikes – are they disruptive? Personally, I hate them because I'm an actual cyclist and their owners tend to be assholes in designated bike lanes. Maybe they're a growth industry. Shrug emoji. They're the subject of episode 1 of the TechCrunch Podcast, however, and it's worth a listen. 7. Virgin Galactic will resume powered test flights Tragedy ended Virgin Galactic's powered flight tests of its superjet, designed to bring tourists to the edge of space. But now it's ready to resume powered flight tests, and founder Richard Branson hopes to visit space by the middle of next year, before offering commercial flights starting later in 2018. |