The fact that this man was saving the lives and upholding the autonomy of thousands of women despite multiple attempts on his life since 1973…Absolute Hero
A 17-year-old in Iowa boiled beets in her chemistry class and turned them into stitches that change color when your wound gets infected. Her name is Dasia Taylor. It started as a science fair project.
She wanted a low-tech version of the "smart stitches" Tufts researchers built in 2016. Those used thread wired up with sensors and a tiny chip that pinged your phone if something went wrong. Cool, but useless without a phone or a hospital that can afford it.
Her version doesn't need any of that. Healthy skin is slightly acidic, like lemon juice but much milder. When bacteria grow in a wound, the chemistry flips and turns more like soap or baking soda.
Beet juice has a quirk. The same red pigment that stains your fingers when you cook it shifts color based on what it touches. Bright red on healthy skin. Dark purple on infected skin. The switch lines up with infection almost exactly.
She tested ten threads before finding a cotton-polyester blend that soaked up the dye and changed color within five minutes. That was the prototype.
Around 1 in 40 American surgeries end in an infection at the cut, costing hospitals more than $3 billion a year. In poorer countries the rate is closer to 1 in 9. In parts of Africa it's 1 in 6. In some Ethiopian hospitals, up to a quarter of surgery patients leave with an infection.
The whole game is catching it early. Spot it in time and antibiotics handle it. Miss the window and the patient is back on the operating table.
Dasia filed a patent in 2021 and started a medical device company called VariegateHealth in 2022. The stitches haven't been tested on real patients yet. New medical device patents can take a decade. She's also looking into a side benefit: the beet pigment kills bugs like E. coli and Klebsiella in lab tests.
Smart stitches need a phone to read them. Hers just need eyes.
I remember reading a story that 9/11 caused a divorce. A woman’s husband worked in the twin towers, and he was having an affair. He took that day off and spent it with his affair partner in a hotel. He didn’t know what happened yet, so when his wife called him freaking out asking if he’s okay and asking where he is, he casually just told her “yeah, I’m just heading into a meeting right now.” 💀
“Don’t drink out of the colored fountain” - Cranston says his mom warned him as a kid before a trip to Texas. So he lived through the Jim Crow era. Because — as so many of us keep saying — it wasn’t that long ago!!!!!
Jeffery Epstein’s butler was caught in an FBI sting in 2009 trying to sell the client & victim list.
He told them the entire operation, 17 years ago.
And the FBI did NOTHING.
do men—while raping women, laughing or remaining silent at rape jokes, perpetuating and turning a blind eye to femicide, pedophilia, misogyny, maternal mortality etc—forget they were birthed by a woman? hmmmmm
Everyone felt sad for the penguin walking alone and the monkey rejected by his mother. But this video is far more heartbreaking, yet it didn’t receive the same attention.
A guy I know lost both parents to a drunk driver. He got custody of his 3 siblings and had to drop out of uni to work and take care of them.
He used to joke a lot, always outside, always laughing. After it happened, he barely talked. Just always looked tired.
If this law had been in place it would have eased his burden a bit.