The new fiber was created by placing hundreds of square silicon microscale digital chips into a preform that was then used to create a polymer fiber. By precisely controlling the polymer flow, the researchers were able to create a fiber with continuous electrical connection between the chips over a length of tens of meters.
https://news.mit.edu/2021/programmable-fiber-0603
Category Archives: health
Bumble acquires Official, an app that helps couples strengthen their relationship
“When you say something as simple as, the world is facing a loneliness crisis . . . and we are in a really toxic state as humans, I just feel like we have such an interesting business to try and heal some of that through better relationships,” she says.
Official will remain as a standalone app for the time being, though Herd says there are opportunities for Official and Bumble to collaborate. If a person finds a partner through Bumble, they can switch to the company’s relationship-centric app rather than leave the system entirely. Couples who met on another app or in person could also sign up for the app and join the Bumble network.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90897985/bumble-acquires-official-an-app-that-helps-couples-strengthen-their-relationship
JIZAI ARMS Turns Humans Into ‘Cyborgs’ With 6 Robotic Arms
Gender Inequality (United Nations Global Issue)
Despite the progress made on closing gender gaps in work and education, gender inequality remains the norm around the world. Violence against women has yet to be properly addressed in any country, and social, cultural, political, and economic barriers continue to hinder women’s participation in labour forces, politics, and humanitarian action – while stunting their presence in leadership roles. Assessments conducted by UN Women in dozens of countries confirm that COVID-19 has widened existing gaps, resulting in a disproportionate loss of work and deepening poverty for women and girls, while increasing both gender-based violence and women’s unpaid domestic workloads. Change, in the form of equality, can no longer wait.
https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1Gb00000015Hi2EAE?tab=publications
Emotional Clothing
Two polysensory silhouettes using the phenomenon of biofeedback, psycho-physiological changes taking place in the user’s body. The intelligent materials used stimulate cognitive involvement through interaction.
_The first silhouette uses two type of smart materials: it reacts on a body temperature by changing its color from solid black to translucent nude, and it reacts on a heart rate measuring the BPM and signaling the changes using blinking speed and changing light color from cold to warm.
_The second silhouette uses passive & active smart materials: it reacts on a GSR of its wearer signaling the stress level and communicate it by changing color of lights on a chest area from warm to cold. It reacts on a gesture, giving the possibility to control the movement of the light set in the arm area. The whole system is connected using conductive thread and conductive fabric.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7054120867013750784?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
DIY Blood Draw – Could Patients Collect Blood At Home?
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) testing is booming since the pandemic. What started as a necessity, quickly turned into real market demand. The reasons are manifold.
The number of health-conscious consumers is on the rise: they want a more active role and more control in managing their health, thus they are happy to initiate and pay for specific tests that have been formerly only possible through a doctor’s order.
https://medicalfuturist.com/diy-blood-draw-could-patients-collect-blood-at-home/
Pokémon Sleep, which you play by sleeping, is out this year
The Pokémon Company has finally revealed some details on its most anticipated product: Pokémon Sleep. The mobile app was first announced in 2019, and today, during a livestream, the company revealed a pair of trailers that show off the actual experience.
Essentially, the game is a sleep tracker, where you interact with the pokémon in the app by, well, sleeping. Depending how you snooze — sleep is divided into three types: dozing, snoozing, and slumbering — you’ll attract different kinds of creatures.
https://www.theverge.com/23616586/pokemon-sleep-trailer-release-mobile-game
South Korea to give $490 allowance to reclusive youths to help them leave the house
South Korea is to offer reclusive youths a monthly living allowance of 650,000 won ($490) in order to encourage them out of their homes, as part of a new measure passed by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The measure also offers education, job and health support.
The condition is known as “hikikomori”, a Japanese term that roughly translated means, “to pull back”. The government wants to try to make it easier for those experiencing it to leave the house to go to school, university or work.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/13/south-korea-to-give-490-allowance-to-reclusive-youths-to-help-them-leave-the-house
They left social media for good. Are they happier?
Plenty of Americans claim social media is a scourge, but few cut the cord. Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults say social media has a mostly negative impact on life in this country, but 72 percent maintain at least one social media account, according to data from Pew Research Center. Headlines point at social apps to explain upward trends in anxiety, depression and loneliness among Americans, but people of all ages continue turning to social media to build communities. Amid our gripes and widespread distrust, social media serves as a new public square, where news develops, leaders debate and users form potentially lifesaving connections.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/11/social-media-quit-loneliness/
‘The Era of Urban Supremacy Is Over’
From July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021, “New census data shows a huge spike in movement out of big metro areas during the pandemic,” Frey wrote in an April 2022 paper, including “an absolute decline in the aggregate size of the nation’s 56 major metropolitan areas (those with populations exceeding 1 million).”
This is the first time, Frey continued, “that the nation’s major metro areas registered an annual negative growth rate since at least 1990.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/opinion/post-pandemic-cities-suburbs-future.html?utm_source=Blueprint&utm_campaign=3a02128ede-Newsletter_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b0b9cbf437-3a02128ede-231014502
Analyzing Trends with Tim Stock 