1 of 8 Human Beings That Have Ever Lived Are Alive Today

billions-of-people

There are about 7 billion human beings on the planet.

Earth is in the middle of a population crisis.  While countless species have seen their numbers plummet in recent decades, with more than a few going extinct entirely, humans have seen theirs grow and grow — and the two trends are hardly unrelated. But incredibly, when considering the indelible impact we’ve had on the planet and the creatures we share it with in our brief time here, everyone alive today accounts for a whopping 12 percent of all the humans that have lived, ever.

Drinking Up to Five Cups of Coffee a Day Lowers Breast Cancer Risk

drinking coffee

Women can drink up to five cups of coffee daily to stave off the disease

Drinking up to five cups of coffee daily can protect women from developing oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer.  This type of breast cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of the disease, says a new study.

 

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Spoonful of Sugar Can Help the Medicine Go Down – Sugar Improves Effectiveness of Antibiotics

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Antibiotics made more effective with sugar.

A spoonful of sugar, it seems, can do more than help the medicine go down – it can also help make it work.  Sugar can improve the effectiveness of antibiotics against infections, according to researchers.

 

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Predictions for money, currencies and payments

paper money

In the future, paper money may be displaced with digital points of a vendor.

Karl Dakin:  The subject of how we will be paid and make payments in the future was presented at the DaVinci Institute’s Night with a Futurist on Monday night. The presentations covered potentially major changes in the way we conduct business and interact as a society as technological advances in mobile computing enable new ways of exchanging things of value.

 

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Babies to be Given Anti-obesity Drugs in the Womb

baby

Doctors hope it will prevent the birth of oversized babies.

In a trial described as ‘disturbing’ by weight loss groups, babies will be given a diet drug in the womb to stop them being born overweight.  One hundred obese moms-to-be will be given Metformin as part of a three-year study to tackle obesity rates and reduce the number of difficult births.

Visa Plans to Launch Digital Wallet for Banks in the U.S.

 

visa wallet

 The “digital wallet” will store the banks’ customers’ credit and debit card account information, both for Visa cards and other cards.

The world’s largest credit and debit card processing network, Visa Inc, is building a digital wallet that people can use to pay for things online or with their phones instead of with traditional cards.

 

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Power of 10 Interface

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Information at the speed of need

Futurist Thomas Frey:  The distance between information and our brain is getting shorter.

Twenty years ago if you had access to a large information base, such as the Library of Congress, and someone asked you a series of questions, your task would have been to pour through the racks of books to come up with the answers. The time involved could have easily have been 10 hours per question.

 

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