The Week Unwrapped: Clinical injustice, wireless power and pandas
Why do so many clinical trials exclude women? Will we soon be free of power cables? And is panda fertility finally on the rise?
Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters.
You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped wherever you get your podcasts:
In this week’s episode, we discuss:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Women and clinical trials
Experts are calling for research into tens of thousands of reported cases of menstrual changes in women who have had Covid vaccines. While there is no evidence of long-term effects to fertility, campaigners argue that ignoring the post-jab period problems risks fuelling vaccine hesitancy - and continues a long and damaging trend of excluding women from clinical studies.
Wireless power
More than a century ago Nikola Tesla spoke of creating a universal system of cable-free power, in which electricity would be as ubiquitous as radio waves now are. The vision to a step towards reality this week, when researchers at the University of Tokyo demonstrated a working prototype of a room that powers a lamp, a fan and a smartphone without using batteries or cables.
Panda breeding
There were two pieces of good news for pandas this week: they are no longer considered endangered (although they are still vulnerable) and new research suggests that far from needing pristine wilderness in order to reproduce, they actually benefit from living in some proximity to humans. The theory is that a small amount of intrusion into their habitat spurs pandas to travel more widely, making it more likely that they will happen across a genetically diverse mate.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 hilariously spirited cartoons about the spirit of Christmas
Cartoons Artists take on excuses, pardons, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Inside the house of Assad
The Explainer Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled Syria for more than half a century but how did one family achieve and maintain power?
By The Week UK Published
-
Sudoku medium: December 22, 2024
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Korean succession, terror by algorithm and German disquiet
podcast Could a 10-year-old girl rule North Korea? Will an Isis victim upend web law? And why is Germany upset with its Oscars contender?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Chinese chips, the Pope in Africa and podcasting
podcast Is China losing the microchip war? What is the Vatican doing in South Sudan? And has the podcast tide turned?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Sex and health, the Earth’s core and another new year
podcast Is the NHS failing British women? What’s going on at the centre of our planet? And what’s in a date?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Antisocial Saudis, hormone therapy and retro tech
podcast Why is Saudi Arabia investing in – and banning – social networks? Will new research make life easier for trans women? And is the future of technology dumb?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: AI in court, Germans in Taiwan and ghostwriters
podcast Could artificial intelligence replace lawyers? What does Taiwan want from Germany? And are ghostwriters becoming less ghostly?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Year Unwrapped: White refugees, Aegean islands and celebrity gossip
podcast Was 2022 the year of the white refugees? What’s really going on in the Aegean sea? And why are we so obsessed with showbiz scandals?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Tracking apps, BTS and stay-at-home girlfriends
podcast Does China’s U-turn mark the end of Covid-tracking apps? Has South Korean pop passed its peak? And are we really seeing the rise of the stay-at-home girlfriend?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Africa alert, ticket touts and the words of the year
podcast Is South Africa at risk of terrorist attacks? Why are ticket touts in such high demand? And are we really in a ‘permacrisis’?
By The Week Staff Published