Technology and Computing
GENERALLY SPEAKING, humans will try to eat anything at least once. Some anthropologists theorize that prehistoric people sussed out what was edible by trial and error, but we haven’t stopped pushing our palates in new, sometimes dangerous directions. The risk of illness and even death is often baked into our favorite flavors and fares. Here are some beloved bites that can kill—if things go awry. Fugu A dash of danger is part of the appeal of this lean and mild whitefish,…
Drinking a moderate amount of coffee or tea may lower your risk of stroke or dementia, according to a new study. Researchers surveyed 365,682 adults between the ages of 50 and 74, asking how much tea or coffee they drank each day. The team then tracked each participant’s health outcomes for more than a decade. At the end of the study period there were 5,079 cases of dementia and 10,053 cases of stroke, based on hospital records. Those who drank…
Google’s fitness tracking app for Android, Google Fit, isn’t exactly the best known health service out there. But its newest features may help elevate its profile. In a post on its Android blog Thursday, Google announced a handful of new features and integrations for Google Fit designed to make the app’s offering more comprehensive. Google Fit now integrates with more external apps, and adds new exercise tracking features to Android Wear devices. For runners and cyclists, Google Fit now displays…
We’ve already heard about a biosensor developed in Brazil for detecting pesticide content in food. Now at CE Week, a Seoul-based company called BioSensor Laboratories has presented Penguin, a home-use sensor that detects the presence of antibiotics in animal products. The system, described as a lab-on-a-chip solution, detects traces of electrons produced by chemical reactions of enzymes and antibiotics using signal-to-noise technology commonly used in medical devices. Biosensor Solutions says it can detect all antibiotics with an accuracy of 10 ppb (parts…