More Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed

The Wall Street Journal: These Sensor-Studded Smart Clothes Just Might Save Your Life
Startups are developing clothing to take the place of tests typically performed at a doctor’s office, from taking blood pressure and body temperature to listening to the heart and lungs, and running an electrocardiogram, or ECG, to monitor the heart’s electrical activity. New York-based Nanowear has spent about $12 million to develop SimpleSense, a sash lined with billions of nanosensors that is worn close to the chest and over the right shoulder. The sensors double as tiny microphones and capture data for 85 medical signs, including heart rate and blood pressure, which are measured by “listening” to the heart and its electric signals, the company says. A smartphone app is used to start and stop the data recording and transmit it to a physician via an online portal. (Morenne, 9/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Tech Advances Put The Annual Doctor Visit On The Critical List 
Shortly after his office closed in the early months of the pandemic, Paul Hyman, a primary care physician in Brunswick, Maine, scanned a printout of patients who were scheduled to see him in the next 30 days. Many were due for an annual physical exam, which by definition seems to require an in-person visit.“You had to decide for every single patient how you’re going to provide care for them in a way you never had before,” he recalls. That prompted him to ponder the role of the physical itself: “What would happen if I delayed it three months, or didn’t do it at all?” For Dr. Hyman and many other physicians and their patients, the pandemic triggered a disruption in one of medicine’s most common encounters—and, through virtual visits, provided an early glimpse of the physical of the future. (Winslow, 9/6)

The New York Times: Why Lawsuits Over 'Misleading' Food Labels Are Surging 
Shoppers drawn to sustainable, humanely raised meat and dairy products could be forgiven for thinking the nation’s big food companies have turned away from the industrial farming practices that have long dominated American agriculture. Consider the package labels and marketing claims for some of the country’s best known brands: Cargill turkeys are sourced from “independent family farmers,” Sargento cheeses contain “no antibiotics” and Tyson uses “humane and environmentally responsible production” to raise its chickens while providing workers “a safe work environment.” (Jacobs, 9/7)

The Washington Post: Adult Vaccinations Such As Tetanus, Shingles, Pneumonia Are Often Forgotten 
As children grow up, pediatricians routinely remind their parents when vaccinations are due. But there are few regular notices that nudge adults into getting vaccinations — except for annual flu shots and, more recently, public discussions about coronavirus vaccinations and boosters. Yet, vaccines aren’t just for kids. Adults and older adolescents need them, too. There are numerous recommended vaccines, including for shingles, pneumonia, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough, and others targeted to specific age or risk groups, such as hepatitis B, meningitis and human papillomavirus. (Cimons, 9/6)

The Wall Street Journal: With Fertility Needs In Flux, Men Eye Freezing Their Sperm 
Saad Alam, a 39-year-old founder of a biotech startup and self-described fitness fanatic from Jersey City, N.J., started experiencing fatigue and low sex drive when he was 35. After a series of tests, he found that he had “the testosterone levels of an 80-year-old man,” he says, a revelation that sent his girlfriend into a panic. Now, he says, he has frozen sperm samples with five different companies as a way of making sure his genetics remain viable in multiple locations. Mr. Alam believes that his generation could live to be 110 or 120 years old, which he says “fundamentally changes how you think about the arc of your life,” and when to have children. (Whelan, 9/8)

The Washington Post: Why Pregnant People Are More Vulnerable During Natural Disasters Like Hurricane Ida
The night Hurricane Jeanne hit in September 2004, Kisha Hartman stayed up all night, staring anxiously out her window at the ominous green lights bursting over the highway — transformers exploding in the distance. It was the third major storm to hit her Lakeland, Fla., home in six weeks. Eight months pregnant, she had already experienced weeks of power outages after Hurricanes Charley and Frances hit in close succession. The night “Mean Jeanne” came to town, Hartman looked out at the dark, rubbing her belly and listening on her shower radio to the local weatherman who had for weeks been her only lifeline. Throughout the night she heard loud thuds. Hartman, now 49, assumed they were branches tumbling down. In the morning, she discovered they were actually whole trees. But the worst was yet to come. Hartman and her husband were uninsured — not so poor that they qualified for assistance, she said, but they didn’t make enough to stock up on supplies and leave town. (Branigin, 9/2)

Scientific American: Misophonia Might Not Be About Hating Sounds After All 
To a chef, the sounds of lip smacking, slurping and swallowing are the highest form of flattery. But to someone with a certain type of misophonia, these same sounds can be torturous. Brain scans are now helping scientists start to understand why. People with misophonia experience strong discomfort, annoyance or disgust when they hear particular triggers. These can include chewing, swallowing, slurping, throat clearing, coughing and even audible breathing. Researchers previously thought this reaction might be caused by the brain overactively processing certain sounds. Now, however, a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience has linked some forms of misophonia to heightened “mirroring” behavior in the brain: those affected feel distress while their brains act as if they are mimicking the triggering mouth movements. (Gelitz and Bender, 9/1)

The Washington Post: That Time America Almost Had A 30-Hour Workweek
The nature of work has undergone a lot of changes during the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of office workers began working from home; the service industry has struggled to get workers to come back, and some businesses, like Kickstarter, are now experimenting with four-day workweeks — without reducing salaries. In Congress, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation to make a 32-hour workweek standard. This “great reassessment” of labor feels revolutionary. But we have been here before. In 1933, the Senate passed, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported, a bill to reduce the standard workweek to only 30 hours. (Brockell, 9/6)

The Washington Post: Paralympians Who Made History In Tokyo, Including The First Nonbinary Medalist And More 
When the postponed 2020 Paralympic Games wrap up Sunday in Tokyo, many “firsts” will have been accomplished by women — several of whom are bringing home medals to their countries for the first time. This Paralympic Games, which started on Aug. 23 after a year-long delay for the 4,405 competitors due to the coronavirus pandemic, has already made history. For the first time since the debut of the Paralympics in 1960, Paralympians will be paid the same for their medal wins as their Olympic peers. Because the U.S. government doesn’t financially support its Olympic or Paralympic athletes, the winnings are especially dear to these athletes who often need expensive and custom gear. (Youn, 9/2)

Also —

The Washington Post: Inside The Wuhan Lab: French Engineering, Deadly Viruses, And A Big Mystery 
One chilly morning in February 2017, a tall Chinese scientist in his 50s named Yuan Zhiming showed Bernard Cazeneuve, then the French prime minister, around Wuhan’s new high-security pathogen lab. Built with French engineering, it was China’s first P4 lab, one of several dozen in the world with that highest security designation. Yuan, the director of the lab, had worked more than a decade to make it a reality. (Dou, Wu, Aries and Tan, 9/7)

The Atlantic: The Plan to Stop Every Respiratory Virus at Once
A virus that lingers in the air is an uncomfortable and inconvenient revelation. Scientists who had pushed the WHO to recognize airborne transmission of COVID-19 last year told me they were baffled by the resistance they encountered, but they could see why their ideas were unwelcome. In those early days when masks were scarce, admitting that a virus was airborne meant admitting that our antivirus measures were not very effective. “We want to feel we’re in control. If something is transmitted through your contaminated hands touching your face, you control that,” Noakes said. “But if something’s transmitted through breathing the same air, that is very, very hard for an individual to manage.” (Zhang, 9/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Toss The Clorox Wipes, Stock Up On Masks To Be Safe At Work 
What can you do to protect yourself and others in the workplace? First, get the vaccine, doctors and researchers say. Then block the virus particles with a well-fitting, leakproof mask and do whatever you can to ventilate or filter the air around your desk. ... Be ready to adjust how you get to work. If you can, aerosol scientists say, avoid taking trains or buses at peak times. In a car, taxi or ride-hailing vehicle, crack the windows by about an inch. (Morris, 9/7)