Feb 28, 2020 - What We're Reading

Sweat, Tears and Tijuana Doctors — What We’re Reading this Week

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To be honest, we’re still reading a lot about the coronavirus. We’re nervous. But we didn’t want to risk repeating ourselves, so here are a few stories that caught our eye this week.

Sweat, Tears & Saliva

Meaningful pieces of information and possibly very private information can be gathered from not only your DNA but also samples of your sweat, tears, saliva, and dental plaque. Genes “are blind to what you eat, how you exercise, how safe the place you live in is, how you unwind at the end of the day and which god you worship,” writes The Economist in a recent article.

Research is growing in the field of metabolites, or collections of molecules that you come into contact with as you go about your day. These molecules have a lot to say about your private life and behaviors. There are concerns about the lack of legal restrictions around the interpretation of metabolite patterns. These patterns could tell an employer, insurers, or the police specific details of your life, such as whether you go to church because of traces of incense on your clothes.

No Insurance, No Problem (Probably)

No health insurance means many people in the U.S. go without care. Some go south of the border to Mexico for medical treatment. Reading this guy’s $2,000 surgery experience offers a visceral testament that maybe the U.S. healthcare system still needs some fixing.

Glass Slippers

An analogy dictionary for technological terms called the Sideways Dictionary is our new obsession. Using Cinderella as a way to explain, Two-Factor Authentication answers the questions you might be embarrassed to ask your tech-savvy co-workers.

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