Saliva Testing Offers Easier and Earlier Detection of COVID-19

Saliva Testing Offers Easier and Earlier Detection of COVID-19

Dr. Andrew Brooks of RUCDR Infinite Biologics holds up a saliva sample.

(Photo credit: Nick Romanenko/Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)


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Judah Freed
Judah Ken Freed is an award-winning author, seasoned journalist and book publishing consultant based in Denver. His two thousand published articles and essays have run in local and global publications from Westword to Huffington Post to The Sun. A futurist at heart, he pioneered coverage of the internet and interactive TV for the top media industry trade magazines in the USA and Europe (Multichannel News, TV Technology, Euromedia, Inter@ctive Week, others). His interviews with media visionaries, and his writings on the social effects of new media, drew calls to speak on four continents. His writings on global thinking, featured on BookTV, won 2007 and 2012 Nautilus Awards for best social change books. Inspired by being a Stage IV cancer survivor, and informed by his work as the Director of Publishing for RIP Medical Debt, he is keen to write about innovations in the life sciences for leapsmag. Follow him at JudahFreed.com or @judahfreed.
Some hospitals are pioneers in ditching plastic, turning green

In the U.S., hospitals generate an estimated 6,000 tons of waste per day. A few clinics are leading the way in transitioning to clean energy sources.

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This is part 2 of a three part series on a new generation of doctors leading the charge to make the health care industry more sustainable - for the benefit of their patients and the planet. Read part 1 here and part 3 here.

After graduating from her studies as an engineer, Nora Stroetzel ticked off the top item on her bucket list and traveled the world for a year. She loved remote places like the Indonesian rain forest she reached only by hiking for several days on foot, mountain villages in the Himalayas, and diving at reefs that were only accessible by local fishing boats.

“But no matter how far from civilization I ventured, one thing was already there: plastic,” Stroetzel says. “Plastic that would stay there for centuries, on 12,000 foot peaks and on beaches several hundred miles from the nearest city.” She saw “wild orangutans that could be lured by rustling plastic and hermit crabs that used plastic lids as dwellings instead of shells.”

While traveling she started volunteering for beach cleanups and helped build a recycling station in Indonesia. But the pivotal moment for her came after she returned to her hometown Kiel in Germany. “At the dentist, they gave me a plastic cup to rinse my mouth. I used it for maybe ten seconds before it was tossed out,” Stroetzel says. “That made me really angry.”

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Michaela Haas
Michaela Haas, PhD, is an award-winning reporter and author, most recently of Bouncing Forward: The Art and Science of Cultivating Resilience (Atria). Her work has been published in the New York Times, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post, and numerous other media. Find her at www.MichaelaHaas.com and Twitter @MichaelaHaas!
The Friday Five: A surprising health benefit for people who have kids

In this week's Friday Five, your kids may be stressing you out, but research suggests they're actually protecting a key aspect of your health. Plus, a new device unlocks the heart's secrets, super-ager gene transplants and more.

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The Friday Five covers five stories in research that you may have missed this week. There are plenty of controversies and troubling ethical issues in science – and we get into many of them in our online magazine – but this news roundup focuses on scientific creativity and progress to give you a therapeutic dose of inspiration headed into the weekend.

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Matt Fuchs
Matt Fuchs is the host of the Making Sense of Science podcast and served previously as the editor-in-chief of Leaps.org. He writes as a contributor to the Washington Post, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, WIRED, Nautilus Magazine, Fortune Magazine and TIME Magazine. Follow him @fuchswriter.