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What can your microwave tell you about your health?
An MIT system uses wireless signals to measure in-home appliance usage to better understand health tendencies.
For many of us, our microwaves and dishwashers aren't the first thing that come to mind when trying to glean health information, beyond that we should (maybe) lay off the Hot Pockets and empty the dishes in a timely way.
Higher ed isn’t immune to COVID-19, but the crisis will make it stronger
The pandemic reminds us that our higher education system, with all its flaws, remains a key part of our strategic reserve.
- America's higher education system is under great scrutiny as it adapts to a remote-learning world. These criticisms will only make higher ed more innovative.
- While there are flaws in the system and great challenges ahead, higher education has adapted quickly to allow students to continue learning. John Katzman, CEO of online learning organization Noodle Partners, believes this is cause for optimism not negativity.
- Universities are pillars of scientific research on the COVID-19 frontlines, they bring facts in times of uncertainty and fake news, and, in a bad economy, education is a personal floatation device.
How swipe-based dating apps are impacting your mental health
Online dating has evolved, but at what cost?
The evolution of online dating has led us to swipe-based dating apps, but are they too damaging to our mental health?
- Some dating apps allow individuals to interact and form romantic/sexual connections before meeting face to face with the ability to "swipe" on the screen to either accept or reject another user's profile. Popular swipe-based apps include Tinder, Bumble, and OkCupid.
- Research by Western Sydney University and the University of Sydney has linked the experience of swipe-based dating apps to higher rates of psychological distress and/or depression.
- Not all time spent on these apps is damaging, however. Up to 40 percent of current users say they previously entered a serious relationship with someone they met through one of these apps.
Online symptom-checkers are wrong two-thirds of the time
Google is probably wrong about your health condition.
- Thirty-six different international mobile and internet-based symptom checkers gave a correct diagnosis as the top result only 36 percent of the time.
- Web advice on when and where to seek healthcare treatment was correct 49 percent of the time.
- It's been estimated that Google's health related searches approximate to 70,000 every minute.
Foresight is 2020. Let’s talk about the future of learning.
When the COVID-19 crisis is over, how will education have changed? Will we have made the most of this moment?
- Today is the launch of The Future of Learning, a series by Z-17 Collective in collaboration with Big Think.
- Over the next several weeks, we will be releasing interviews and articles with education thought leaders, examining how the coronavirus era will forever change the way we teach and learn.
- How can we future-proof our schools so that they better serve our children and our communities?
Now you can track vitamin C intake on your skin
A new wearable patch has been created at the University of California San Diego.
68 year-old citrus grower Peter Spyke cuts a tangerine at Arapaho Citrus Management grove in Fort Pierce, Florida on November 21, 2019.
- A team at the University of California San Diego has developed a non-invasive skin patch that measures your vitamin C levels.
- An electrode sensor measures vitamin C in your sweat.
- The researchers hope this leads to the development of multivitamin patches that track nutritional deficiencies.
American education: It’s colleges, not college students, that are failing
Who is to blame for the U.S.'s dismal college graduation rate? "Radical" educator Dennis Littky has a hunch.
Percentage of college student dropouts by age at enrollment: 2-year and 4-year institutions
- COVID-19 has magnified the challenges that underserved communities face with regard to higher education, such as widening social inequality and sky-high tuition.
- At College Unbound, where I am president, we get to know students individually to understand what motivates them, so they can build a curriculum based on goals they want to achieve.
- My teaching mantra: Everything is permitted during COVID-19. Everything is permitted during COVID-19. Everything is permitted during COVID-19.
