Clean Lives, Cured Wounds & Buying a Dream ➕

When you get a cut or scrape, your body usually does a great job of healing itself. But for people with diabetes, wounds can become chronic and infected, leading to a host of complications. Not only is this painful and debilitating, but it also puts a huge strain on healthcare systems, costing billions of dollars each year.

Luckily, researchers at Caltech have developed a smart bandage that could revolutionize the way we treat chronic wounds. These high-tech bandages contain embedded electronics and medication that can monitor wound conditions, deliver medication, and stimulate tissue growth.

Here's how it works:

• The bandage's sensors detects molecules like uric acid or lactate, as well as pH levels and temperature, which can indicate inflammation or infection.
• Then, the bandage will do one of three things. It will wirelessly transmit the data to a computer or mobile device for review by medical professionals; deliver medication directly to the wound; or apply a low-level electrical field to stimulate tissue growth and speed up healing.

In lab tests on animals, the smart bandages have already shown impressive results, healing chronic infected wounds and providing real-time updates to researchers. The next step is to improve the technology and test it on human patients in collaboration with the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

With this exciting breakthrough, chronic wounds could soon be a thing of the past.

Job search firms like Dice and Hired gather data annually on tech professionals, with a focus on software engineers, tracking their salaries, skills, and the overall job market. The much-awaited 2022 numbers from these firms have just been released, and they come on the heels of a tumultuous year that saw over 140,000 tech layoffs.

Here are two of the most interesting findings by the firms. 

It looks like Generation Z is giving their livers a break and not drinking and smoking like their parents did. Smoking rates have tumbled across the age spectrum in the last decade, but Gen Z are stubbing out the habit most. 

No group has seen a bigger decline than the youngest. Just 13% of 18 to 24-year-olds said they smoke cigarettes in 2021, compared to 26% a decade earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But this healthy habit is causing a big problem for the UK. The government is losing out on £14 billion ($17.1 billion) due to lower "sin taxes" on tobacco and alcohol.Now, the government has to raise other taxes to make up for this loss, which isn't great news for anyone paying income or corporation tax. In fact, stats show that the UK is now facing the highest tax burden since World War II. 

Clearly, quitting smoking and drinking isn’t helping the Gen X and Millennial tax payer. But it could definitely increase the life-span of GenZ.