Table of contents for November 22, 2021 in TIME Magazine

A polar bear nestles among the rocks of Bird Cove on the rugged coastline of Churchill, Manitoba, on Oct. 29. The Canadian town, situated in the south of the Arctic, has long billed itself as the polar-bear capital of the world. But warming temperatures have brought a sharp decline in bear numbers; without them, Carlene Spence, a cook at the Lazy Bear Lodge, told the New York Times, “We don’t make money.” For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox…

SHANNON BREWER’S EYES DART TO A grid of grainy images on a wide, black screen above her desk at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO). Live footage shows a large truck creeping into the clinic’s parking lot, its side emblazoned with a pair of blue, ghostly baby feet and the words WHERE ARE OUR CHILDREN? Brewer doesn’t recognize the driver. Her spine stiffens. As the director and de facto head of security at the last abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi, Brewer is not easily spooked. In her two decades there, she has seen bomb scares and stalking incidents, and protesters getting in fights with her staff. She keeps the number of an FBI contact amid a sea of sticky notes beside her desk. But this year, she says,…

The average health care worker spends more than five hours of their workday standing. The Clove sneaker ($129), created specifically for those who tend to patients, provides some much needed foot therapy for doctors, nurses and more. Thick EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) foam midsoles offer an extra layer of comfort and stability. The shoes are wrapped in Japanese Clarino artificial leather, making them easy to clean and fluid-resistant so they’re less susceptible to damage from exposure to hospital chemicals (or bodily fluids) that may deteriorate lesser sneakers. Thanks to high-rebound, supportive and machine-washable insoles, the sneakers fight odors and prevent bacteria buildup too. —Jenna Caldwell…

Sales of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which allow people to buy and sell the rights to unique pieces of digital art, topped $10 billion in the third quarter of 2021—and Infinite Objects lets you hang them on your real-life wall. Joe Saavedra, a Parsons School of Design grad, had the idea of embedding short video loops in Lucite-encased LCD screens when he launched Infinite Objects in 2018 (before NFTs went mainstream, the tech enabled artists to sell limited editions of digital works). Users can also upload their own video clips to “print” as moving wall art. “It brings back video collecting, which we haven’t really done since DVDs and VHS,” Saavedra says. —Don Steinberg…

Revolve Air Former Ferrari designer Andrea Mocellin knows how to make things move fast. Now he’s applying his skills to an even more gratifying project: building a better, more travel-friendly portable wheelchair. The Revolve Air’s hexagonally structured, puncture-proof wheels fold up, allowing the chair to take up 60% less space than a standard folding wheelchair, so it fits in an airplane’s overhead compartment. Mocellin’s next speed challenge: getting the Revolve Air (from $2,500) out by mid-2022 to the nearly 12,000 customers on his waiting list. “Basically, they’re telling me, ‘Do it as soon as possible, because we need it,’” Mocellin says. —Jesse Will…

Everything from houses to pharmaceuticals can now be 3-D-printed, but the inventors behind Illusory Material are aiming even higher—their goal is “to create things that were previously impossible to bring into the physical world,” says co-founder Honghao Deng. Illusory’s device prints colors and patterns beneath a layer of tiny digital lenses that cause a material’s appearance to change based on the viewing angle—think hard materials that appear soft, or “blank” packaging that only displays information about the contents when picked up. The tech, Deng says, could be used to create innovative apparel, medical braces and more. —Simmone Shah…

Nuro R2 Someday in the near future, your pizza order might arrive at your door courtesy of a robot—specifically, the R2 delivery system, an electric self-driving vehicle developed by San Francisco–based Nuro. About the size of a golf cart, the R2 is equipped with 360-degree cameras, short- and long-range radar and ultrasonic sensors, and is capable of speeds of up to 25 m.p.h. The vehicle is designed to solve a longtime problem for shippers: last-mile delivery—that is, the point at which goods are brought from distribution centers to their ultimate destination—which tends to be the most logistically tricky, because individual items need to go to different addresses, which can involve a lot of trucks, drivers and stops. Nuro has partnered with Domino’s, FedEx and Kroger in Houston to test…

When Mick Ebeling set out to tackle the food-insecurity crisis that affects 1 in 8 Americans, he envisioned something useful and convenient that could also protect users’ dignity. The answer: cell phones—more specifically, a text-messaging service called Bento that partners with local organizations and government agencies to enroll people in need of food assistance. Once signed up, users can text “hungry” to a number associated with the service. They can then select a no-cost meal from nearby participating restaurants, which process Bento orders as they would any other—allowing users to pick up their meals without drawing attention to their situation. Bento has provided 150,000 healthy meals since its launch in March 2020, Ebeling says. —Guadalupe Gonzalez…

Plenty of companies want to cut their carbon footprints, but it’s hard to know where to begin. Watershed can help. The company collects data from every corner of a client’s business that generates emissions—from supply chains to electricity usage to the commuting patterns of its workforce. The data is plugged into software that gives clients like Sweetgreen and Shopify a dashboard view of where the emissions are highest. Watershed’s climate-strategy team then helps create a comprehensive footprint-reduction plan. —Leslie Dickstein…

More backpackers, eager to shed weight from their gear, are opting to leave their tents and sleeping pads in the garage and pack a hammock and a tarp instead. Think of the Eno SkyLite, created by Eagles Nest Outfitters, as the five-star hotel of hammock camping. Unlike traditional hammocks that sag, the SkyLite features two removable, lightweight aluminum bars on either side that hold the hammock together like a bed frame, offering a flat and supportive sleeping platform. Other features include a mesh canopy and a built-in bug net; its attached compression sack doubles as an easily accessible pocket that’s big enough for a phone, a flashlight and more. —Jared Lindzon…

Watching a video demonstration of Synchron’s Stentrode in action feels like watching something out of a science-fiction movie. A man sits at his computer, writing emails, texting and searching the Internet—but he never touches a key. Instead, he operates the machine with only his thoughts. Intended for people with paralysis, the Stentrode system digitizes signals generated by the part of the brain that controls movement, translating them into commands that a computer (equipped with the right software) can execute. So far the device, which remains in the experimental stage, has proved successful for two people with ALS, and the Food and Drug Administration has given its sign-off for a larger study in the U.S., bringing the technology one step closer to widespread use. —Jamie Ducharme…

The process of dubbing a film into a foreign language hasn’t changed much over the past century. When a movie is dubbed, the dialogue often gets changed to fit an actor’s mouth movements, which leads to two big problems: first, the new dialogue never really fits; and second, even skillfully altering a script can wind up sacrificing a film’s meaning and nuance. To address those issues, Flawless AI, founded by former film director Scott Mann, has created software called TrueSync, which analyzes the entirety of an actor’s performance and then subtly alters the original footage of the actor’s face and mouth movements to fit any vocalization. So when you see A Few Good Men in, say, French, Jack Nicholson’s mouth really looks like it’s speaking the language. The end…

Practicing yoga usually requires you to look at your hands and feet, at a mirror or at your instructor to determine alignment on the mat. Now, after years of research and development, Lululemon has released the Take Form Mat (from $128), which gives the mat itself a role in the process. That’s because the Take Form is printed with three-dimensional visual and tactile cues that resemble water droplets—or, more helpfully, targets—to help yogis find the proper place for their feet and hands. Made from a cushiony and sustainable FSC rubber material, it’s designed to create a more focused yoga experience. “The critical interaction between the yogi and their mat has been unlocked,” says Chantelle Murnaghan, Lululemon’s VP of research and science of feel. —Mariah Espada…

For the past few years, manufacturers have been trying to merge the functionality of smartphones with the portability of a ’00s-era flip phone—with results that were middling at best. But with the Galaxy Z Flip3, Samsung finally seems to have nailed it. The Z Flip is as compact as devices from two decades ago, only instead of a tiny display and physical dial pad, you get a vibrant 6.7-in. display, with another screen on the front cover so you can easily read messages or screen calls when it’s closed. Even better: the $999 price tag, making it the first mainstream phone with a foldable display that’s priced below $1,000, putting it in direct competition with high-end iPhone models. —Jason Cipriani…

Research shows that the best remedy for reading disorders is early intervention. Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough teachers and tutors for one-on-one instruction. Amira and the StoryCraft was developed to help. Using speech-recognition software, the app ($7.99) listens to students read aloud, pausing when a child stalls or makes a mistake on a word. Then, the app teaches them how the word is pronounced. A Carnegie Mellon University study found that students using the software for 20 minutes posted twice the gains as those using traditional methods. —Chad de Guzman…

Since the early days of television, watching a sporting event or concert meant doing just that: watching. Kiswe—a cloud-based, interactive video-production platform—aims to change that by transforming live broadcasts into unique, personalized experiences. Rather than just turning on the tube, viewers using Kiswe’s tech can purchase tickets allowing them to select specific camera angles, buy merch, post comments, interact with other fans, upload selfies and more. The platform, which makes its money through licensing its software or taking a percentage of ticket sales, has inked partnerships with major broadcasters like ESPN, Globo and Turner Sports. Its most popular event so far: a record-breaking October 2020 BTS concert, livestreamed to 993,000 fans worldwide. —Jenna Caldwell…

If you consider treadmill workouts not quite tough enough, then hop on the BodyEnergy ($3,999). The motor-free, self-propelled treadmill works both your upper and lower halves, integrating elliptical-machine-like resistance arms to enable high-intensity, full-body workouts. Manual treadmills can be tough to control, but BodyEnergy’s addition of an arm-drive system makes it simple to modulate speeds up to 12 m.p.h. And while motorized treadmills may take several seconds to power down, this stops instantly once you stop running, lessening your chance of taking one of the approximately 22,500 treadmill-caused trips to the ER per year. —J.W.…

Just like fingerprints, everyone’s hearing is different. Yet most earbuds, even the priciest and most sophisticated, treat us all the same. Nuratrue ($199.99) takes a different approach—gauging the quirks of your hearing by playing about a minute’s worth of various tones and measuring the sounds that your cochleas produce in response, tones that are inaudible to humans. Nuratrue then applies a custom aural profile to anything you listen to, augmenting specific auditory ranges to create a richer, more detailed experience. Originally launched as over-the-ear headphones that earned innovation awards from Red Dot, CES and SXSW, these new true-wireless buds open a hidden door to all the detail you never even knew you were missing in your favorite music. —A.V.H.…

After making a name for itself creating simple yet elegant sustainable women’s footwear that you’ve almost definitely seen all over Instagram, San Francisco–based fashion startup Rothy’s dipped a toe into the men’s market this year with its driving loafer, a classic silhouette made from natural and recycled materials. It’s an ideal shoe for the late-pandemic era, as the world’s professional class seeks out clothing that’s not too schlubby but not too flashy. Rothy’s co-founder and president Roth Martin sees the loafer—made using a high-tech knitting process that dramatically reduces waste—as a major technological evolution in a much-loved but little-changed design. “Here’s a silhouette that’s steeped in history, a classic style, yet no one’s done anything with it in years,” he says. —Alex Fitzpatrick…

The COVID-19 pandemic saw students around the world struggle as schools shut down and home school was hindered by slow or—in many places—nonexistent Internet service. The Learning Passport’s solution: give students app- or browser-based classes that do not require a consistent web connection. Instead students access the platform when they can, downloading their lessons to complete later, offline. Developed jointly by UNICEF and Microsoft, the Learning Passport allows educators to upload local curricula—meaning it works across multiple languages, subjects and age groups. First deployed in Timor-Leste in 2020, the Learning Passport now has some 1.6 million users in 13 countries. —Chad de Guzman…

AS NEGOTIATIONS AMONG WORLD leaders continued at COP26, the 2021 U.N. climate-change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, TIME convened its own solution-focused roundtable. On Nov. 2, TIME hosted an event for more than 100 conference attendees. The evening included a keynote panel moderated by TIME co-owner and Salesforce chair and CEO Marc Benioff and featured U.S. special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry; former Vice President Al Gore, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work on climate change; Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, founder of the Rise Up movement; and designer Stella McCartney, a sustainable fashion pioneer. The event, part of TIME’s decade-long 2030 initiative focused on how to build a healthier, more resilient planet, was held in partnership with SOMPO Holdings and BCG. As oceanographer Sylvia Earle—whom TIME named…

Hindu devotees bathe among clumps of toxic foam in the Yamuna River in New Delhi on Nov. 10, as part of rituals during the four-day Chhath Puja festival. During Chhath Puja celebrations, which are dedicated to the sun god Lord Surya, it is traditional to bathe and pray in holy waters. The foam, which has been appearing more regularly on the river, is formed by sewage and pollution containing phosphates. —Jennifer Duggan…

IN NOVEMBER, TWO NEARLY ALL-WHITE juries were seated in two high-profile trials: that of Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin and that involving the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. The judge in the latter noted that jury selection seemed to have involved “intentional discrimination.” Samuel Sommers, chair of the psychology department at Tufts University, studies racial inequities in institutions such as the criminal-justice system. He explained to TIME why the racial composition of the jury matters. TIME: When you heard a nearly all-white jury had been seated in the Ahmaud Arbery case, what immediately came to mind? SOMMERS: What comes to mind immediately? “This happens a lot.” It is not unusual, unfortunately, that juries do not feel like they’re particularly representative of the communities from which they are drawn. And…

EIGHT PEOPLE DIED AND HUNDREDS MORE WERE INJURED AT the Astroworld Festival in Houston on Nov. 5, when a crowd of some 50,000 people, eager to see the rapper Travis Scott, pressed relentlessly toward the main stage. Scott prides himself on the ferocity of his live shows, and has been arrested twice for encouraging his fans to storm his stages. On Nov. 5, many in the audience surged violently upon his arrival, causing some people to fall. This in turn resulted in additional panic; people began passing out in the middle of the scrum, where it was hard for them to escape or receive aid. Concert medics have also said they were dangerously understaffed. The show continued for at least half an hour after officials declared a “mass-casualty event.”…

With the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine newly given emergency-use authorization for children 5 to 11, many parents are asking the question: Should we vaccinate our kids? Many of them may have already made up their mind. Some of those arguing against vaccinating kids make the case that COVID-19 typically does not cause severe illness among children with healthy immune systems. Thankfully, purely as a percentage of total cases, it does hold true. To date, around 6 million children in the U.S. have contracted this coronavirus, which has led to more than 65,000 hospitalizations and 897 deaths. These numbers pale in comparison to the over 3 million hospitalizations among U.S. adults, and a staggering 754,000 deaths. The low rates of complications and severe illness from COVID-19 in children are the exact data…

IT'S A SUNNY OCTOBER DAY, AND DOUG EMHOFF IS BACK in his native New Jersey for the first time as Second Gentleman of the United States. “It looks surprisingly the same, except this beautiful city walk we’re on, which is incredible,” he says, gesturing to a riverside pathway, which sits across from a set of dumpsters, a pile of old mattresses and an ambulance parking lot. “It really feels like home.” Emhoff has just finished a long day of asking people how it’s going. First, he was at a Newark high school, asking students, “How’s it going? Going back to school?” He told the principal that they’ve “got it going on” with their high student vaccination rate. Then, after eating lunch at a picnic table outside a diner, he had come…

Dr. Robb Akridge, who invented the Clarisonic face-cleansing brush 17 years ago, found inspiration for his latest beauty creation in a chocolate shop in Paris. “Most of the chocolates were individual morsels,” he says, “and each created an experience that could only be achieved at the time you bit into them.” Why couldn’t skin care be the same, he wondered. Now it is. Think of the Opulus Beauty Labs Treatment System ($395) as a Nespresso machine for skin care—minus the plastic waste. Customers place a small paper pod, which includes two formulations, into the water-bottle-size device, which heats up to mix the formula and deliver a single-use dose of skin-care product, to be applied immediately when it is warm and more easily absorbed by the skin. Opulus currently offers…

What if notoriously noisy drum kits could be rendered neighbor-friendly without compromising sound quality? Electronic-musical-instrument manufacturer Roland finally achieves its long-held goal with its latest offering, the VAD706 V-Drums. By encasing ultra-sensitive digital drum pads in full-size wooden and metal shells, Roland has created the first electronic kit with the look, tone, feel and response of an acoustic set—even if you’re playing with headphones on. Released last summer, it’s a premium product with a premium price tag ($7,999), but already has some high-profile converts, including Journey and Duran Duran. —Eloise Barry…

When your environment makes listening challenging, mobiWAN helps you communicate—by directing voice calls through your head. The headset speaker and microphone, created by Mobilus Labs, works through bone-conduction technology, transmitting sound as vibrations in the wearer’s skull. This allows workers to remain in communication with one another in conditions that are too noisy or chaotic to allow speaking over a phone or radio—think construction sites or a ship in a howling storm. “You can still hear someone talking clear as day,” says Jordan McRae, founder of Mobilus Labs. The headset ($490 per year for hardware and software license) launched in October, though the company has been testing it with the British Army and National Health Service. —Alejandro de la Garza…

When an 8-year-old pneumonia patient at a clinic in Armenia had barely eaten for two days, the medical staff brought a new face into her room: Robin the Robot. After about 20 minutes of discussing favorite animals and playing a game of I Spy, Robin said goodbye, vowing to return only if the patient promised to eat. Sure enough, she dug in. With big, googly eyes and a cheerful personality, Robin is an AI-based companion designed to ease anxiety and loneliness among children in hospitals and clinics. “The goal was to create a technology that’s not just a device—but a peer and friend,” says entrepreneur Karen Khachikyan, Robin’s proud parent. The robot is like a real-life Pixar character that can recognize a child’s emotions and respond based on stored…

As climate change disrupts the global water supply, every industry needs to reduce consumption. For hair salons, which use thousands of gallons a day, one solution is L’Oréal’s Water Saver, which was unveiled in January and is now being rolled out to salons in free pilots. The system, which attaches to sinks, has three slots for normal shampoos, conditioners, and treatment, which are distributed directly into the water stream. The Water Saver then creates micro-ionized droplets by colliding them together in a highly pressurized stream, creating water particles that are 10 times smaller and reducing overall consumption by as much as 80%. —Ciara Nugent…

In college and pro football, offensive and defensive linemen crash helmets when the ball is snapped, resulting in more than twice as many head impacts during games as other players sustain. The Zero2 Trench from VICIS is the first position-specific helmet approved for in-game use in the pros. Engineers added an extra layer of protection, a force-absorbing outer shell made of deformable plastic, to the front of the helmet, where linemen are more likely to get hit. In its annual ratings of a football helmet’s ability to reduce concussion risk, Virginia Tech gave the Zero2 Trench ($799–$999) its top score. VICIS says some 50 to 60 top college programs, and 30 out of 32 NFL teams, have put in orders for the helmet. —Sean Gregory…

The bulky designs and battery packs of most breast pumps seriously curtail a nursing mother’s mobility. Not so with the Elvie Stride ($210), a pump that can be worn under clothing with integrated cups that fit into a bra. “We found that most pumps on the market had bad architecture and big motors,” says Tania Boler, inventor of the Stride. The device pairs with an app that can remind users which side they’ve recently pumped. Covered by many insurance providers, the Stride also offers a higher level of suction (270 mm of mercury, a measurement of vacuum pressure) than other wearable pumps. —Jesse Will…

Chatty colleagues and social media disrupting your workflow? Sean Greenhalgh faced the same problem at his previous job as a product manager in Sydney. “I did my best work after everybody left, and that was utterly unsustainable,” he says. The experience prompted him to dig into a time-management method he had read about and combine it with his expertise in technology. The result: TimeChi. With the click of a button, this mouse-size desk gadget ($129) enables a do-not-disturb feature on your devices and apps. Should a colleague wander over to visit you at your desk, the TimeChi displays a light to let them know, politely, that you are trying to focus. “It acts like a traffic light,” says Greenhalgh, whose goal is to help people increase their productivity and…

Audio eyewear—that is, specs equipped with speakers—is undeniably useful for glasses wearers. The problem: most options require you to commit to a single pair of readers that can cost as much as $250. JBuds Frames ($49) are an affordable alternative—a pair of wireless attachments that slide onto the arms of almost any pair of glasses, transforming them into a set of open-ear headphones. They’re easily swapped if your lenses become scratched or if you simply want to change up your look. Whatever the case, they direct sound into your ear without masking your surroundings or annoying your neighbors (unless you really crank it up). —Alison Van Houten…

Supersonic air travel once was considered the transportation of the future. But the Concorde—the supersonic jet that flew at speeds of over 1,300 m.p.h. from 1969 to 2003—was grounded in part because of noise and environmental issues. Now, supersonic travel may be back, thanks to the XB-1 supersonic demonstrator, a 71-ft.-long, faster-than-sound jet developed by Denver-based Boom Supersonic. The jet, which tackles the Concorde’s problems with cleaner-burning fuel and noise-mitigation technology, can achieve speeds of Mach 1.7—allowing it to cover the distance from New York to London in 3.5 hours instead of six. What’s more, it can make that journey relying on 100% sustainable aviation fuel—an alternative to fossil-based fuels developed to be net-zero carbon. The company hopes to be flying full-size planes that can carry up to 88…

The panoramic views offered by 360-degree photos and videos are a blast to share. But the cameras you need to capture them haven’t always been so easy to use. Designed specifically for social media, the minimalist IQUI ($299) makes 360-degree photography simpler than ever. Created by Vecnos—led by Shu Ubukata, creator of the first compact 360-degree camera—the IQUI is equipped with four lenses on a sleek, slender 5.5-in. stick, three shooting horizontally and one pointed straight up. A stand lets you effortlessly capture an entire scene—even if it’s placed, say, at the center of a dinner party—and a companion app easily converts photos into swooping, special-effect-laden MP4 video clips, perfect to wow your pals on Instagram and Twitter. —Alison Van Houten…

Virtual worlds are for more than just gaming—they’re useful for planning infrastructure like roads and buildings, and they can also be used to test autonomous vehicles. NVIDIA’s Omniverse project is making it easier to create ultra-realistic virtual spaces for those real-world purposes. The platform combines the real-time ray-tracing technology of the brand’s latest graphics processing units with an array of open-source tools for collaborating live in photorealistic 3-D worlds. Architects like Foster + Partners are using the tech to visualize building details earlier in the design process, and BMW has built a “digital twin” of one of its factories, enabling the company to test more efficient assembly-line possibilities. —Jesse Will…

Rangers across Africa’s national parks and wildlife reserves are in a constant battle to protect endangered species from poachers. But those rangers are at a disadvantage: their loud gasoline-powered motorbikes alert poachers to their presence. Swedish electric-bike company CAKE worked with the Southern African Wildlife College to adapt their Kalk bike, giving it a super-quiet electric motor and a portable solar-panel charger. For $25,000, consumers can buy their own solar-powered bike—which will also pay for another to be sent to the anti-poaching fight. —Ciara Nugent…

No one wants to eat a mushy meal—and with the SAVRpak, they won’t have to. It’s a peel-and-stick patch placed inside standard plastic takeout containers, clamshells, pizza boxes and paper bags to keep food fresh while in transit. “Nothing tastes better when it’s soaked with water,” says Greg Maselli, SAVRpak’s co-founder and co-CEO. “You have chefs perfecting recipes and throwing them in a box only for them to become a steaming, soggy sop.” SAVRpak solves the sogginess dilemma by extracting moisture from the air inside food containers before it turns into condensation on the surface of food. It’s also designed to minimize waste, as fewer mushy fries end up in the trash. The product is being used in more than 20 countries and has been sold to more than…

After buying an expensive crib and organic mattress as an expecting parent, Amazon employee Herman Chan was bummed to learn that what he really needed—for the first few months, at least—was a small bedside bassinet so that he and the baby could sleep in the same room. But “everything we looked at was made with a lot of plastic and smelled horribly,” says Chan. So along with another now former Amazon colleague, he decided to build something better. Made of sustainably sourced corrugated paperboard, the minimalist Juno Bassinet ($148) is coated with a biodegradable water-repellent coating and paired with an organic cotton zippered sheet. When not in use, the Juno can be folded and tucked away for storage or travel. And when baby is ready to move to the…

Search engines like Google and Bing claim to be free, but users pay by surrendering their data—surely you’ve noticed that ads for a product you recently researched magically begin appearing on every website you subsequently visit. Neeva wants to change that, offering a totally ad-free and private search experience starting at $4.95 a month (the first three months are free). Developed by a team of former Google employees, Neeva offers apps for Android, iPhone and iPad, and extensions for browsers. Since launching in June, it has garnered loads of positive reviews. —Jason Cipriani…

£155 million Donation made by Vietnamese billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao to Oxford University’s Linacre College, which will now be named Thao College, the college announced Nov. 1 ‘ALL I AM DOING IS THINKING ABOUT MY CHILD.’SURAYA, mother of a baby handed to U.S. soldiers during chaotic evacuations at the airport in Kabul, on Aug. 19; months later, the baby is still unaccounted for, Reuters reported on Nov. 5 24 Number of U.S. state legislatures that have introduced bills aiming to restrict teaching and training—primarily related to race, racism and gender—in schools and workplaces in 2021, according to a PEN America report published on Nov. 8 ‘My wing is feeling a little sore.’BIG BIRD, the Sesame Street Muppet, sharing his COVID-19 vaccination status—and its aftereffects—in a Nov. 6 tweet ‘They…

MOST HIGH SCHOOL HOOPS PLAYERS ACROSS America—if they’re lucky—travel to their games in a yellow school bus. They might compete in front of the local junior-college scout. But members of Overtime Elite (OTE), the new professional basketball league for top 16-to-19-year-olds, arrive in style, to play before a far more influential audience. On a crisp autumn morning in Atlanta, more than two dozen OTE pros stepped off a stretch-limo bus, one by one. The players entered the brand-new 103,000-sq.-ft. facility constructed by Overtime, a five-year-old digital sports-media startup that built a huge following posting Zion Williamson’s high school dunks on Instagram. Waiting for them at OTE’s inaugural “pro day”: some 60 pro scouts, including reps from 29 out of 30 NBA teams. As the league’s coaching staff led players through…

IN HUMAN YEARS, RYAN KAJI IS 10. IN YOUTUBE views, he’s 48,597,844,873. If, in our digital age, a person’s life can be measured by their online footprint, Ryan’s is the size of a brachiosaur’s, which, as a lot of Ryan’s fans know, is gargantuan. Another way of putting it is that even if every one of Ryan’s YouTube views were just 30 seconds, he has been watched 4,500 times longer than he has been alive. There’s a sacred text that talks about an era of peace and harmony, where lions lie down with lambs. The kicker is that a child is in charge of it all. Except for the part about peace and harmony, we are in an age where a child does indeed rule a significant subsection of the…

Malaria has long been a global scourge, killing some 500,000 people a year, more than half of them children under 5. But that may be about to change, thanks to the introduction of a malaria vaccine—the first vaccine ever against a parasitic infection. The shot has been in the works since 1987, at a cost of more than $750 million, mostly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and GlaxoSmithKline. Dubbed Mosquirix, it was recommended for approval by the World Health Organization in October, after a field trial involving 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The four-dose regimen was found to cut the risk of infection by 40% and the risk of severe infection by 30%. —Jeffrey Kluger…

Laptops make it possible to work from anywhere, but the small screens can be a pain for those who need to hop between multiple applications or are used to having more than one monitor on their desks. “There’s only so much you can do on a 13-in. screen,” says Will Scuderi, co-founder of Espresso, maker of the Espresso Display (from $329). Made from aeronautical-grade aluminum and just 0.2 in. thick, the monitor easily slides into most any backpack and can turn a laptop, or even a smartphone, into a robust workstation. —Alison Van Houten…

Growing crops in drought-impacted areas means striking a tricky balance between conserving water and ensuring crop yields. Israeli agritech company SupPlant has created an AI-enabled sensor, placed in the soil and on the plants themselves, that informs farmers exactly when and how much to water, based on an algorithm that calculates plant needs, soil moisture, climate conditions and weather forecasts. It is currently used by farmers in 14 countries, and tests in Mexico found it reduced water consumption for a mango crop by 15% while increasing yields by 20%, according to company data. —Aryn Baker…

The 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, the deadliest in the state’s history, was caused by a worn hook on a transmission tower—a faulty part that might have been caught had there been more frequent inspections. To prevent similar occurrences, the robotics manufacturer Percepto developed AIM, a software program that uses drones and robots to inspect and monitor infrastructure like power lines, industrial sites, power plants, refineries, and mines more efficiently and safely—and importantly, more frequently. The software automates a fleet of drones and robots on a routine, then takes the data and makes sense of it. “With better foresight, we might be able to prevent these environmental tragedies that seem to be happening on a monthly basis,” says Percepto CEO Dor Abuhasira. —Jesse Will…

If you want to know what the best of the best of the best feels like, sit in front of an LG C1 for an hour. The 4K OLED television’s display ditches LCD TVs’ traditional backlit design, opting instead for pixels that create their own light, resulting in gorgeous colors, crisp images and striking contrasts, even in low-light scenes. The C1 series (from $1,099) also offers a high-speed 120 Hz refresh rate and support for gamer-friendly features like AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-SYNC, making it one of the best options for pairing with the new Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 consoles. No wonder it was the year’s best-selling premium TV—the C1 series even won a Technical and Engineering Emmy in January, as they’re often used as reference monitors…

Jeans are a perennial fashion favorite, with more than 4.5 billion pairs sold every year. But their synthetic indigo dye takes a toll on the environment, contaminating water with toxic chemical runoff. Biotechnology company Huue has specially engineered bacteria that turns natural sugars into indigo-identical dye—without the environmental impact—by mimicking how enzymes in plants create colors. In September, the company partnered with the cell-programming platform Ginkgo Bioworks to scale up production, and plans to start shipping to denim designers by the end of the year. —Aryn Baker…

With tech companies like Meta—previously known as Facebook—going full steam ahead on augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), or what some call the Metaverse, the need for high-speed mobile processors capable of running AR/VR applications is obvious. Enter Qualcomm’s XR2 processor, the first mobile AR/VR chip with 5G broadband connectivity, which enables high-speed AR/VR processing even on the go. Already being used in AR/VR headsets from Meta, HTC and others, the XR2 is not just fast—tracking technology lets users move freely around a space, meaning headsets using the chip don’t need cumbersome wires that can interrupt the experience. If the Metaverse is indeed our future, tech like the XR2 will help get us there. —Patrick Lucas Austin…

Online videoconferencing can make it easy to connect with people all over the world—provided, of course, that everyone speaks the same language. Kudo Marketplace, a scheduling tool tied to a Zoom-like platform, takes care of that. The system, launched in January, lets meeting hosts book skilled human interpreters, fluent in more than 90 spoken and 147 sign languages. Once the meeting begins, attendees simply go to a pull-down menu and select their preferred language. Clients include Microsoft, Etsy and U.S. government agencies. Booking time isn’t cheap, though: 30 hours of interpretation runs about $3,000. —Alejandro de la Garza…

What if electric vehicles (EVs) could be charged by the very streets upon which they drive? That’s the idea behind ElectReon, an Israeli firm developing an in-road inductive charging system that powers EVs via electrical fields generated by coils under the asphalt, similar to how a wireless charger juices your phone. In part, the company’s goal is to allow EVs to carry smaller batteries—or, perhaps, none at all—thereby making them lighter and more efficient, as well as reducing the environmental costs of battery production. “Everyone is trying to improve the battery; we started to think about removing the problem,” says co-founder and CEO Oren Ezer. The company is conducting tests in Germany, Italy and Sweden, and in October inked a $9.4 million deal to charge electric buses in Tel…

For the past 18 months, millions of Americans have spent their workdays staring at screens featuring grids of their colleagues’ faces. Teamflow offers an alternative. Though the remote-work platform was conceived before the pandemic, it offers a much needed antidote to Zoom fatigue. Teamflow allows companies to create virtual offices—replete with desks, meeting rooms and whiteboards. Users’ faces appear as bubbles that can be moved around the virtual office, similar to a video game. When you want to talk to a colleague, simply drag your bubble to theirs—a kind of virtual approximation of the much missed spontaneous work conversation. The application ($15 per employee per month) has been embraced by companies like Netflix and Shopify. —Abhishyant Kidangoor…

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among firefighters, in large part because of their extended exposure to high-heat situations, a problem that also affects industrial workers and members of the military. SlateSafety aims to solve this problem with the BioTrac Band ($495), a wearable tracking device that watches for signs of heat stress. Worn on the arm, the device measures each user’s heart rate, core body temperature and exertion, pinging a cloud-based platform to alert commanders and colleagues when those measures hit unsafe levels. Since its inception, the company has been awarded $1 million by the National Science Foundation and has received three contracts from the Department of Defense; the device is now used by 35 fire departments and the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. —A.K.…

During the pandemic, countless children have been isolated at home and distressed as their lives and routines were abruptly disrupted. For some, Purrble ($49.99) came to the rescue. An interactive plush toy equipped with seven sensors that respond to touch, Purrble’s haptic heartbeat speeds up to 135 b.p.m. when it senses somebody’s playing with it. Kids can then comfort their companion with gentle petting, slowing Purrble’s vibrational heartbeat to a purr—calming themselves as well in the process. Developed using research from the Committee for Children, a nonprofit and global leader on social-emotional learning, the device aims to help children learn to regulate their emotions. Preliminary research shows that Purrble is doing just that: in a study with 20 families, 19 parents reported that the toy helped their kids calm…

Bombas, which made our socks notably more comfy and durable, has set its sights on underwear. Just as with their footwear, Bombas designers attacked the challenge of creating comfortable, high-quality undergarments by paying close attention to every detail—the waistband, cotton blend, seam placement, breathability, moisture wicking, the fly. And just as with its socks, for every pair sold, the company donates another to organizations serving the unhoused—especially important since underwear, like socks, are “wear-through” items that cannot be donated once they’ve been worn. “Socks and underwear, it’s like peanut butter and jelly, Hall and Oates—it’s the natural next step,” says company co-founder and chief brand officer Randy Goldberg. The company has sold nearly 250,000 pairs of undies, which range in price from $18 to $28, since sales began in…

Big trucks love to flaunt their capabilities. But the new Ford F-150 makes a claim you don’t hear too often: it will power your house. Beyond its payload and towing capabilities, the truck’s hybrid and electric models feature an optional Pro Power Onboard system that transforms the vehicle into a full-on generator able to supply up to 9.6 kilowatts of power—enough juice to run a typical home for three days, according to Ford. The system came in handy for F-150 owners when millions of people were left without heat and electricity following the major storm in Texas last winter and Hurricane Ida earlier this year. “Entire cities were going dark, and our customers could turn their trucks into generators,” says Michael Levine, Ford’s director of North America product communications.…

Reading can be a serious challenge for tens of millions of people, whether they struggle with comprehension difficulties, poor vision, dyslexia or other issues. But using computer vision and artificial intelligence, the OrCam Read ($1,990) can read any piece of text aloud. Users target the device’s laser frame at a page of a book, a menu, an advertisement or a screen displaying text, press a button, and the device instantly vocalizes it, in a voice that sounds remarkably natural; it also can read text in multiple languages. And since the device is able to respond to voice commands, you can ask it to read, say, a phone number from an ad, the operating hours of a business—or your favorite story again, starting from “Once upon a time.” —Jesse Will…

The runaway success of the Nintendo Switch proved there’s a huge market for hybrid gaming consoles that owners can use at home or on the go—but the Switch doesn’t get all the latest and greatest games. Enter the Steam Deck, Valve Corporation’s Switch-style system, built to play most of the 50,000 games available on the company’s Steam platform. “Whatever you’re in the mood for, Steam Deck can do all those things,” says Valve product designer Greg Coomer. — Peter Allen Clark…

Urban bike-sharing programs are more popular than ever, and on-demand transportation firm Lyft is building on that momentum with its latest shareable two-wheeler. An electrified pedal-assist bike offering up to 60 miles of range (double that of older shareable bikes), Lyft’s new model—which can be charged at docking stations—was developed to withstand more journeys with fewer battery swaps, meaning lower operating costs and reduced environmental impact. Lyft’s team put safety top of mind too, with features like retroreflective paint to keep riders visible at night. The new bike will roll out across Lyft’s markets in the coming months, starting in Chicago. —Alex Fitzpatrick…