A novel technique can discover new allergens
Oct 13th 2021FOR MANY, eating out is a pleasure. For the 5% or so of people who suffer from food allergies, though, it is anything but. Mostly, such allergies cause mild rashes and minor digestive trouble, but they have the potential to trigger anaphylactic shock, a potentially lethal inflammatory response. The resulting swelling can block…
How to think about the unstoppable rise of index funds
Oct 16th 2021THE HISTORY of modern finance is littered with ideas that worked well enough at small scale—railway bonds, Japanese skyscrapers, sliced-and-diced mortgage securities—but morphed into monstrosities once too many punters piled in. When it comes to sheer size, no mania can compare with that for passive investing. Funds that track the entire market by…
A new study finds that dirty money remains easy to hide
Oct 16th 2021A BOOK PUBLISHED in 2014 shook the world of offshore finance. “Global Shell Games” exposed the ease with which ne’er-do-wells could launder money or dodge tax using bank accounts held by anonymous shell companies. The book, NGO activism and numerous leaks—the latest, earlier this month, being the Pandora Papers—have since pushed governments to…
Ariana Grande Gives Away $5M Worth of Free Therapy, Here’s How You Can Sign Up
Published on Oct 11, 2021 by AnneIn line with this year’s #WorldMentalHealthDay, Ariana Grande announced on her Twitter page that she will be giving away $5M worth of free therapy sessions in collaboration with Better Help, an online counseling facility. In her post, she also said that she “acknowledge that there are very real barriers”…
Would You Give Up Social Media for 25 Days for $2,500?
Published on Oct 8, 2021 by AnneZero Social Media. 25 Days. $2,500 Cash Prize. Up for Grabs for One Lucky Competitor!Social media challenges are not a new thing. But, a social media challenge WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA? Now, that’s new! The mechanics are simple, $2,500 for 25 days of living WITHOUT social media. A piece of…
An exploration of Earth’s defences will launch next month
Oct 13th 2021THE DEPARTURE of Lucy is not the only forthcoming mission with asteroids as its destination. On November 24th DART should follow. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, though, has a more practical purpose than Lucy. It will assess the feasibility of changing an asteroid’s path, should one be discovered that threatens to collide with…
How to tell biological from non-biological molecules
Oct 13th 2021Portland, OregonWOULD YOU like the vanilla in your custard to come from a field of lovely orchids or a barrel of wood pulp? The second option may not seem as appetising, but synthetic vanillin, as vanilla’s flavour-inducing compound (C8H8O3) is called, has a hundredth of the cost. Which warrants suspicion. When you pay…
Wages are surging across the rich world
Oct 13th 2021SAN FRANCISCONOT LONG ago pundits obsessively checked the latest statistics on covid-19 cases. Now they are doing the same with the inflation numbers. American consumer prices rose by 5.4% in the year to September, according to figures published on October 13th, exceeding economists’ forecasts. A survey from the New York Fed released the…