Health

A new app aims to tell you everything you want to know about bell peppers and other food. Photo by buzz.bishop

An award winning app may soon be the ticket to a healthier lifestyle, or at least healthier choices at the supermarket. The Augmented Living mobile app or AUG works by allowing users to scan the barcodes of grocery store items with a smartphone camera.

Scan a cucumber and you can find out how many beneficial vitamins it has on the display screen of your phone. Scan a parcel of salami to uncover how many calories it has. In addition to nutritional facts, the app can also provide data about pricing and even where the product was grown.
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Family photos and family discussions are both nice to have, but researchers say the latter can help fight disease. Photo by Jeff Howard

When the H1N1 virus struck schools in New York City last April, researchers studying the outbreak found that having a family discussion about how to avoid the disease significantly reduced the risk of an infected student passing swine flu along to a family member.

A recent study shows those findings, suggesting that ample preparation and education are the best tools to stave off an infection, especially during the early stages of flu season before vaccines are available. Learn more about the findings at the Science Blog.