Tag: Jan2019

There is much more to the expanding cannabis industry than just smoke. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol) can be ingested into the human body in a wide variety of ways to achieve the desired result whether it be “getting high” or relieving a specific medical condition. They are called alternative consumption options and include eating...

The number of Americans who approve of sex between unmarried adults is at an all time high. The HIV virus is at an all time low. Birth control is readily available; the morning after pill doesn’t require a prescription. Hook up sex is a computer click away on Tinder, Grindr, and dozens of others. So...

After announcing last April that it will virtually abandon production of cars in North America by 2020, the Ford Motor Co. has spent $100 million to buy Spin, an electric scooter-sharing company. Spin operates in 13 U.S. cities and on several college campuses. Its scooters rent for $1 a trip plus 13 cents a minute....

A December 2018 Wall Street Journal article accused Millennials of killing off the canned tuna industry. Sales are down, the paper claimed, because Millennials “can’t be bothered to open and drain the cans or fetch utensils and dishes to eat the tuna.” Actually, Millennials are still fetching dishes and using utensils. They’re just not using...

Avita Medical, a California biotech firm, has developed a spray-on skin to treat burns. Making the spray takes only 30 minutes, the company says. Technicians take a skin sample from the patient and turn it into a liquid suspension that can be sprayed over an area 80 times the size of the sample. Trial outcomes...

For the first time, scientists have been able to transform ordinary skin cells into stem cells that could be used to repair or regrow any part of the body. At the University of Helsinki and the Karolinska Institute, researchers found a way to simplify the process of using CRISPR gene-editing technology to harvest the skin...

Swallow the smart capsule just developed by an MIT-led coalition of bioengineers and it can stay in your stomach for weeks, delivering drugs, diagnosing conditions, or monitoring treatment of infections, among other tasks. The device responds to commands from a smartphone app and reports its readings back to you or to your doctor’s computer. The...

More and more US companies see the changing climate as a threat to their brand images and bottom lines, according to a December 2018 report from CDP Worldwide. Formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP gathers environmental impact reports from businesses around the world. While some companies are explicitly highlighting the business risks that a shifting...

Sometimes wounds don’t heal – a particular risk for people with diabetes – risking infection, scarring, and protracted pain. Physicians have been using electric currents to speed the knitting of broken bones and the closing of wounds, but the required gear has been bulky and sometimes forced patients to be hospitalized to use it. But...

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have created a powder that plucks carbon gas out of waste streams from factories and power plants. The powder does the job far cheaper and twice as efficiently than any other method, the developers say. The scientists devised a process that uses salt and heat to reduce plant matter...