Posts tagged health
Wristband responds to UV levels to warn wearers against overexposure to the sun
Often the best ideas are the simplest, and this is certainly true when it comes to innovations in monitoring a person’s health. A new innovation from Scotland’s University of Strathclyde comes in the form of a paper wristband that monitors UV light levels, turning from yellow to pink when the levels have reached their safe limit and thereby alerting the wearer to the danger of sunburn. READ MORE…
A few days ago, the White House launched a promising new initiative on their website called We the People: Your Voice in Our Government. It works in 3 easy steps:
- Create or sign a petition.
- Gather signatures.
- The White House reviews and responds.
After digging deeper through the popular petitions, past all the ones related to marijuana, I came across one I fully endorse: Require all Genetically Modified Foods to be labeled as such.
Mobile app diagnoses malaria from a single drop of blood
The virtual ink had barely dried on our story about the Skin Scan app for diagnosing melanoma when we received word of another, equally compelling mobile diagnostic tool. Focusing this time on the millions of people at risk from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world, Lifelens is a project that has created a smartphone app to diagnose the insidious, mosquito-borne disease. READ MORE…
More mobile apps like this, please!
This is a great clip from The Joy of Stats, a documentary by Hans Rosling that aired on BBC Four earlier this month. You can also play with the data in an interactive Flash site on Gapminder.
IKEA also has a great-looking and entertaining iPhone app called Kondis. It tells you how long you have to exercise to burn off the Swedish cake you just ate. Or you can exercise while the cake is baking and then eat it guilt-free! Unfortunately, the app is not available in the US iTunes Store.
video of the making of the new IKEA cookbook, Homemade is Best
(from the agency Forsman & Bodenfors)
The Story of Cosmetics by The Story of Stuff Project, the same people who brought you The Story of Bottled Water that I posted about 5 months ago.
Goodlifer has a great article on this subject.
“ Scientists rated 500 sunscreens based on the safety of their ingredients and the effectiveness of the SPF. Of those, they will only recommend a measly 8 percent of them.”
Hot Pockets Ingredients, illlustrated by Justin Perricone.
That’s a hefty list of ingredients! Eating one of these Ham & Cheese Hot Pockets breaks several rules in Michael Pollan’s new book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. Rule #6 sums it up: “Avoid food products that contain more than 5 ingredients.”
“ It’s likely that hand-sanitizer users falsely believed they were protected from flu and thus deferred vaccination, which is by far the more effective way to prevent its spread. According to the Centers for Disease Control, only one in five Americans was vaccinated by early 2010—and just one in four health care workers and high-risk patients got the shot.”
“ For every study that turns up disconcerting vitamin side effects, there seem to be two more that conclude that we simply don’t know enough yet about supplements to make evidence-based recommendations. Until we do, we should stop treating supplements like health candy and more like prescription meds, to be used only when there’s a demonstrated need. Doctors should create individualized regimes, tailored to a particular patient’s deficiencies.”
