Ecouterre

Photo by Shutterstock

Flip-flops may be your go-to footwear this summer, but experts warn that they could cause a world of pain if you wear them for long periods of time, while walking on concrete, or when playing sports. Flip-flops don’t just offer limited arch support and shock absorption for our feet, they also change they way we walk. Because we tend to grip the flimsy shoe bed with our toes to keep them in place, we can cause undue strain to calf muscles or pinch a nerve in our hips and back, according to orthopedic doctors at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Read More >

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this

Read More >

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this

Photo by Shutterstock

A $2.99 tube of moisturizer from your neighborhood drugstore could soon deliver gene-regulation technology for treating skin cancer and other ailments, according to a team of researchers from Northwestern University. Because the skin’s formidable defenses make it difficult for drugs to penetrate deep into cells below, scientists enlisted a nanostructure with the unique ability to break past those barriers. Normal, linear nucleic acids cannot get into cells, but the nanoparticle’s unique spherical shape and densely packed orientation of nucleotides can. At one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, the structure is able to permeate through several layers of skin, allowing small interfering RNA molecules on its periphery to target and “switch off” disease-causing genes.

Read More >

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this

Read More >

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this

Talk about a sugar rush. For Twelv’s inaugural issue, fashion stylists Hissa Igarashi and Sayuri Marakumi created a dress from 50,000 gummy bears. A homage to one of Alexander McQueen’s flamboyant technicolor gowns, the candied confection took three weeks to complete, weighing in at a hefty 220 pounds and requiring the strength of three adults to move. Staff members manually glued each gummy bear to a steel-wire frame draped in a sheet of vinyl. The result: a chevron- rainbowed number that’s almost good enough to eat.

+ Gummy Bear Dress

+ Twelv

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this

Katie Holmes may have put the kibosh on her marriage with Tom Cruise, but the world-famous hostage actress is sticking with the apparel label she founded with her friend and stylist, Jeanne Yang. A spokesman for Holmes & Yang, which manufactures exclusively in New York City, told WWD that Holmes’s “personal matters” won’t be affecting the line. In fact, the duo is preparing to show its spring collection at New York Fashion Week in September.

Read More >

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this

Photo by Shutterstock

That Hanes Beefy-T you’re wearing could someday power your mobile device—that is, if researchers at the University of South Carolina have anything to do with it. Xiaodong Li, a professor of mechanical engineering, and Lihong Bao, a postdoctoral associate, transformed an ordinary cotton tee into a supercapacitor by soaking it in fluoride solution and baking it at high temperatures. The process didn’t just convert the cellulose fibers into activated carbon, however; it also allowed the material to flex without breaking.

Read More >

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this

Made Collection isn’t just another flash-sale shopping site. It’s the world’s first members-only storefront devoted to premium American-made products. Founded by a marketing agency based in Boulder, CO, Made throws open its virtual doors as a nation prepares to toast its independence from a foreign power. Two centuries on, a patriot’s duty is far less tricky. “More than 5.5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost or outsourced since 2001,” the company says. “Yet if the average American spent 1 percent more on American-made goods and services, it would create 200,000 new jobs.”

Read More >

0

email thisemail this

digg thisdigg this