Plus: Fiscal Cliff Hinders Manufacturing, Athletes Improving Health Technology, Surprising Health Care Reform Facts, Entrepreneurial Guts, the College of the Future and Olympics Formulas.

Sometimes the Internet seems like it’s gotten too big. To help navigate this sea of information, Industry Market Trends’ weekly Worth a Look feature spotlights some of the more interesting, informative and amusing resources that might have slipped under your radar — all in bite-sized chunks.

• Political Paralysis Hindering Manufacturers’ Growth Plans | Concerns about a deadlock in Congress regarding the “fiscal cliff,” which could force hundreds of billions in tax increases and massive budget cuts if not resolved by January, are causing many manufacturers to cancel new investments and delay hiring additional workers. Industrial firms are scaling back equipment orders and factory upgrades over uncertainty regarding the political situation, which could result in a 1.3 percent contraction in the United States economy in the first half of 2013.
• U.S. Manufacturing Helps Curiosity Rover Succeed | Earlier this week, the Curiosity Rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars to begin its two-year mission exploring the planet. NASA’s efforts to safely deliver the one-ton, nuclear-powered, $2.5 billion machine succeeded thanks to the work of American manufacturers, such as Minneapolis-based aerospace and defense firm ATK, which provided many of the designs and components for the project.
• Olympians Aid in Health Engineering | Olympic athletes are at the peak of physical performance and adhere closely to their training routines, and now they’re providing valuable personal data to assist health technology companies with developing more advanced monitoring devices. Many of these new technologies will be made available to commercial markets. In exchange, the Olympians gain access to the latest gadgets that record sleep, diet and exercise patterns as they try to boost their performance.
• 10 Things You Don’t Know about the Health Care Law | It’s been two years since the Affordable Care Act was passed, but many people don’t know the specific ways health care reform will affect the economy, particularly small businesses. Inc.com offers a roundup of 10 surprising features of health care law, including: It won’t affect businesses with fewer than 50 employees; it might make it easier for employees to quit; it requires all health insurance premiums to be itemized on each worker’s W-2 form; and the enforcement mechanism for the individual mandate is surprisingly weak.
• Getting the Guts to Start a Company | As any entrepreneur knows, it takes a lot of courage and tolerance of risk – in other words, guts – to start your own business. But you don’t have to be born with guts to build a company, as the key qualities of entrepreneurship can be acquired through practice and discipline. Fast Company identifies the traits that define a successful business-builder, and explains how would-be entrepreneurs can train themselves to make the leap.
• What College Will Look Like in 2020 | Higher education is changing rapidly each year, as technological advances propel innovation in college-level learning. A new study from Pew Internet offers a projection of what education will be like in 2020, forecasting the mass adoption of teleconferencing and distance learning to leverage expert resources; a transition to “hybrid” classes that combine online learning with in-person class meetings; and a shift to individually tailored curricula and just-in-time learning approaches.
• Winning Formulas for the 2012 Olympics | Behind every Olympic athlete is a host of psychologists, physiologists, engineers, biologists and nutritionists working to maximize performance by harnessing the latest scientific findings. Although much of their work is a closely guarded secret, New Scientist offers a glimpse of some the popular (and strange) scientific trends shaping Olympics success, such as cryotherapy and “ischaemic preconditioning.”