FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SCIENCE TODAY

1 GET SMART!

A new Levi’s Trucker Jacket, made in collaboration with Google, will vibrate when an iphone contact texts, have Spotify skip to the next song with a swipe on the inside of a cuff, and can order a phone to take group pics remotely. It costs US$198, and can also save a location on Google Maps.

2 CALIFORNIA CHLORPYRIFOS BAN

A widely used agricultural pesticide that California environmental officials say is linked to brain damage in children will be banned after next year. All California sales of chlorpyrifos will end in February, and farmers will have until the end of 2020 to exhaust their supplies. Canada has also proposed banning the pesticide.

3 HELP WITH OVARIAN CANCER

A new Canadian study suggests a common medication to treat people with Type 2 diabetes could help prevent development of ovarian cancer. The study shows that scarring of the ovaries occurs with age and the drug metformin may halt that process. Lead author Curtis Mccloskey says most of the ovaries studied from post-menopausal women were fibrotic, but one — from a 69-year-old woman who had been taking metformin — appeared pre-menopausal.

4 STOP THE POP

After accounting for how much people weighed and their overall eating patterns, researchers found that those who increased their total consumption of sugary drinks by a half serving a day over four years were 16 per cent more likely to develop diabetes over the next four-year period. With the same daily half-serving increase in artificially sweetened drinks, the odds went up 18 per cent.

5 DEPRESSION AND DIETS

In a randomized trial, men and women aged 17 to 35 in Australia who switched to a healthier diet had fewer symptoms of depression after three weeks. Those who kept up the healthy eating for three months continued to feel better than at the start.