Welcome to Fitmodo, your regular weekly round up of the news you need to know to keep your earthly form in top shape — from fitness advice to breakthroughs in medical research.
This week:
Meet Yono, The In-Ear Fertility Wearable
A new wearable is on the market which aims to help women understand their ovulation cycles and predict their fertility window, by tracking your Basal Body Temperature (BBT) continuously, then transferring the data to your smartphone apps.
Yono is a silicone earpiece, worn during the night that measures and records continuous body temperature data every five minutes (compared to a traditional thermometer, which collects only one data point). Since BBT typically increases during ovulation, the recorded data is able to help you forecast the best time to concieve. Over longer periods of time, the system increases in accuracy by adjusting the temperature range it associates with ovulation for individual women.
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Australian Scientists Find A Key Process In The Formation Of Life
A research project led by The Australian National University (ANU) has closed an important gap in the understanding of a fundamental process of life — the creation of proteins based on recipes called RNA.
RNAs are short-lived copies of genetic information stored in DNA. They are read by cellular ribosomes, which translate the recipes into proteins to become the main building blocks of life.
Lead researcher Professor Thomas Preiss from The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at ANU, said the new understanding would open up avenues for treatment of a wide range of diseases including cancer, heart disease and a spectrum of rarer genetic diseases.
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Samsung’s Gear IconX Fitness Tracker Earbuds Are Now Available In Australia
Okay, so Gear IconX looks pretty snazzy. The wireless earbuds are designed to track heart rate, distance, speed, and duration, while also calculating calories burned based on activity levels — then send it all to the S-Health app via bluetooth.
Activated by simply placing them in-ear, the Gear IconX earbuds are designed to track fitness data automatically, meaning you can just put them in and go. Thanks to seamless integration with S Health — Samsung’s health and fitness app — progress can be easily monitored long-term by transferring and managing recorded data via a compatible Samsung smartphone between workouts.
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We Finally Know Why Jet Lag Is Much Worse Flying East
Jet lag is objectively terrible. It grants no immunity and bends to no form of treatment, unless “consuming an entire bottle of liquor and popping a few Stilnox” is considered treatment. (It’s not.) But according to conventional wisdom, some kinds of jet lag are worse than others — travelling east, for example, is harder on the sleep cycle than travelling west. As it turns out, conventional wisdom is largely correct.
According to a new study published in the journal Chaos from researchers at the University of Maryland, our natural circadian rhythm actually clocks in around 24.5 hours — a little more than a day. This extra slice of time makes it easier to travel in a direction that lengthens the day — west — than to travel in a direction that shortens the day — east.
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Also catching our eye:
- Aussielent is a locally produced take on “Soylent”: a liquid substance that contains all the nutrients and minerals needed to sustain life. Lifehacker Australia has the details.
- Winter has arrived and with it comes an increased risk of dry, cracked and irritated skin. But have you ever wondered exactly why this happens? Business Insider has the answer.
- If an entire day of living healthy sounds too hard, Popsugar Australia has some basic healthy fixes even the laziest among us can master.