"His music is unmatched in terms of great songwriting, " said Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire.

BBC: Motown songwriter Nick Ashford dies at 70

Verdine had a high-tech way of reviving these old-fashioned methods.

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Verdine could turn waste into profits--if he was right.

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Chemist Gregory Verdine was a Harvard professor with a position at a venture fund, but neither job was helping get his new project--building a vast database of natural chemicals that might work as drugs--the money it needed to take off.

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