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Engineers build a small home using disposable diapers in Indonesia
It was an idea born of equal parts inspiration and desperation. Indonesia, facing a steadily rising urban population and high building material costs, was falling farther into a deficit of affordable living space. At the same time, the urban population growth was spurring a massive increase in the use of non-recyclable waste products, including tons […]
From space taxis to Mars missions, five space industry insiders discuss the biggest extra-terrestrial opportunities
Seemingly dormant for decades, space activity over the past several years has ramped up to unprecedented levels. The year 2022 saw a record 186 successful rocket launches, as private companies, led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, continued to press into an industry that once was associated mostly with government entities and competing nations. The relationship is […]
E-bike injuries: ‘We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg,’ trauma experts warn
The irony for Meghan Glaser was that she was already checking for a bicyclist–the one to her right, stationary at a stop sign in the coastal La Jolla neighborhood near San Diego. She never saw the two cyclists on her left, high-school students who’d blown through their own stop and were trying to beat her […]
The next wave of virus detection: A good boy
On some level, Carol Glaser thought, the idea was almost too obvious not to work. For decades, localities and governments around the world had employed dogs to sniff for illicit drugs, explosives, landmines, and missing people–even for disease. Why not COVID? After all, with as many as 300 million olfactory receptors, a dog’s ability to scent or […]
Climate change is making the skies less friendly. Prepare for a future where you always have your seatbelt on
In his early days in the business, aviation expert John Nance used to make “Tornado Alley runs,” as he and other pilots with Braniff Airlines called them. They involved multiple takeoffs and landings in places like Kansas City and Wichita on the way to Minneapolis and back, traversing a Midwest corridor in which weather conditions […]
Tranq, the new ‘zombie’ drug that causes skin rotting, is fueling overdoses across the U.S.
James Sherman sees the telltale signs every day in his job as the director of men’s programs at Savage Sisters Recovery center, in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Some of the drug users arrive there in a stupor, some unable to stay awake, some with open sores or wounds on their hands, arms, legs, heads. Xylazine, the […]
3D-printed organs may soon be a reality. ‘Looking ahead, we’ll not need donor hearts’
Last year, in San Antonio, Texas, Dr. Arturo Bonilla carefully implanted an outer ear on a 20-year-old woman born without one. The ear on the woman’s right side, had been constructed in the size and shape of her left. For Bonilla, a pediatric microtia surgeon (a doctor who treats birth defects of the ear) for […]
Leading COVID expert says not enough is being done to help long haulers: “There’s no excuse for this”
Long COVID is no longer a theory. An estimated 65 million people worldwide, including millions in the U.S., have had the condition or have it now, according to a new review article published in Nature Reviews Microbiology. Researchers, meanwhile have identified more than 200 different symptoms, spanning multiple organ systems. Fatigue, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, new-onset conditions like heart […]
The business of renting wombs is thriving–and surrogates don’t always understand the risks. Here’s the reproductive ethics debate America should be having
By the time Ceara Lewis considered becoming a surrogate, she’d already had two children of her own. Each of those pregnancies, she told me, was “perfect.” She delivered her babies so quickly that no epidural was administered either time. Lewis also worked at the San Diego Perinatal Center, where in her capacity as a supervisor, […]
Strokes, heart attacks, sudden deaths: Does America understand the long-term risks of catching COVID?
A 35-year-old acquaintance drops dead from a hemorrhagic stroke. A friend in her 40s, and another in his 70s, experience recurrent spells of extreme dizziness, their hearts pounding in their chests when they stand. A 21-year-old student with no prior medical history is admitted to the ICU with heart failure, while a 48-year-old avid tennis […]
