Facemask: How condom, car seatbelts and tuberculosis experience eased the stigma
Early in the HIV-Aids epidemic in the 1980s, public-health officials faced a major challenge in trying to slow the spread of the virus. The problem wasn’t necessarily convincing people that a physical barrier – in this case, a condom – could prevent infection. “I don’t think the issue was so...
Risks of remote presence: Your online content can be screenshot, misused
Remote attendance of events, including work, has its own challenges: you leave a lot in your trail that can work against you. Recording of such events has its own social and professional risks that you need to be aware of and give informed consent or decline where appropriate. This may...
Remote sensing: Gear up for virtual weddings, dowry deals and memorials
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work and remote work will continue for the foreseeable future, according to media research. Forbes magazine predicts that by 2025, an estimated 70 per cent of the workforce will be toiling at home at least part-time. Also, here to stay – in...
When cool old-school computers prove too good to die, in-demand and impractical to retire
Sometimes cool old-school IT refuses to die, in demand and impractical to retire Some 22,000 miles above Earth’s surface, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory – a solar-monitoring satellite launched in 2010 – bristles with high-tech sensors. Yet one of the Earth-bound systems that supports those sensors was, until 2015, decidedly old-school....
Digital blackout: Internet access determines access to Covid vaccine in India
India’s deadly coronavirus second wave has underscored a stark digital divide determining who has better access to vaccines and healthcare, as surging caseloads expose shortfalls and overwhelm hospitals. Onerous online procedures have turned vaccine access into an exclusionary, often lottery-like process in a country where about half the population lacks...
