Biotech companies have not historically been thought of as “sexy,” but as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the world, that might be changing.As evidence of that, Boston-based Affinivax today announced it has closed on a $120 million Series B led by Viking Global Investors. Bain Capital Life Sciences and Ziff Capital Partners also participated in the financing.The round marks Affiniva...

Contrary to what their name might suggest, basketball, tennis and running shoes are in no way confined to courts and tracks these days. Athletic footwear, less formally known as sneakers, can be found anywhere from boardrooms to fashion runways and companies such as Nike and Adidas are making billions feeding the sneaker frenzy.With annual footwear sales of $24.2 billion, Nike is still number 1...

Air purification appliances have become essential for many consumers around the world seeking to enhance their living space, which is seeing designers create solutions with this in mind like the conceptual 'Air O' air purifier.Designed by Sheng-Wen Wang, the air purifier boasts a high-end design that almost looks like a premium smart speaker and is intended to blend in seamlessly with existing...

Consumer spending is one of the most important driving forces for global economic growth.Beyond impacting some of the factors that determine consumer spend—such as consumer confidence, unemployment levels, or the cost of living—the COVID-19 pandemic has also drastically altered how and where consumers choose to spend their hard-earned cash.Today’s graphic pulls data from a global survey by M...

The Apple Watch is already one of the best smartwatches out there, featuring all the health and safety-related features, including heart rate monitoring and irregular heart rate alerts, fall detection, and more. But Apple wants to do more, and one of its patents reveals that the company wants to detect when a user is drowning and alert authorities in such cases.Apple has filed a new patent with...

Mobile video streaming, gaming, and digital reality are top choices.​Younger consumers, committed to their mobile devices, are looking forward to using 5G technology mostly for streaming video, VR/AR entertainment, and multiplayer gaming with social features.Which applications will millennials and Gen Z use more with 5G?WHILE some people are looking forward to 5G so they can more easily stream...

A slew of fashion brands have pivoted their manufacturing to meet demand for fabric masks, which can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But one Japanese brand has adapted apparel that rarely sees the light of day under normal circumstances—and may have unwittingly brought back an ’80s trend in the process: underwear as outerwear.Atsumi Fashion, an intimate apparel company in Toyama, Japan,...

What does Johnson & Johnson own? Does Johnson & Johnson own Aveeno, Tylenol, Nicorette, Band-Aid, or Pepcid? What about the brand that produced the medical device in your knee or the prescription drug you’re taking? Chances are good that if you’ve gone to a drugstore in America, your eyes have landed on a few iconic Johnson & Johnson brands. There are more than 250 Johnson & J...

All the furniture you’ll ever need is a swarm of modular robots.A rendering shows how swarms of Roombots would be able to assemble tables and other pieces of furniture.For the last decade-ish, EPFL’s Roombots have been modularizing their way towards becoming the only piece of furniture you’ll ever need. These little squarish roundish robotics modules, which can move around and latch onto eac...