12 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Health

If you’re diabetic, don’t wait for your smartwatch to replace your needles

Between small signals, regulatory hurdles, skin color, and battery life, there’s a hell of a lot of ground to cover before a smartwatch can measure blood sugar levels.

Victoria Song
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Elon Musk said Neuralink was about ‘six months’ away from its first human trial, but that seems doubtful.

Musk’s latest claim was said about three months ago, but this Reuters report about the FDA rejecting Neuralink’s application has skepticism the issues can be worked out in another 90 days.

The agency’s major safety concerns involved the device’s lithium battery; the potential for the implant’s tiny wires to migrate to other areas of the brain; and questions over whether and how the device can be removed without damaging brain tissue, the employees said.

And that’s aside from the federal probe over allegedly transporting contaminated devices removed from monkey brains.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Eli Lilly says it will cap its out-of-pocket insulin prices at $35 per month.

In November, a fake (but Twitter Blue verified) account said Eli Lilly would make its insulin free, highlighting a situation Cory Zapatka explained in 2019 about the rising prices for something many people need to stay alive.

Now NBC News and the New York Times confirm the drugmaker has actually announced a 70 percent price cut on “its most commonly prescribed insulins,” and an expanded program to cap out-of-pocket patient costs.

Mitchell Clark
Mitchell Clark
Cerebral’s laying off even more staff.

After cutting 20 percent of its workforce in October, the telehealth company is now reportedly laying off another 15 percent. The company is under investigation for how it perscribed controlled drugs like Adderall or Xanax.

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Apple is reportedly making strides in noninvasive blood glucose tracking.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says the company’s hit some “major milestones” with noninvasive blood glucose monitoring for the Apple Watch. Namely, that it’s reached the “proof of concept” stage with an iPhone-sized prototype in the works.

But don’t get too excited yet. It’ll be years before this ever reaches consumers — if it ever does. (Apple’s already been working on it for over 12 years.) Still, progress is progress.

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Researchers say they’ve figured out how to 3D print AR contact lenses.

Smart contacts are a cool idea but a big technical challenge is combining low-power displays with a high-contrast color material to see information. South Korean researchers say their solution is to 3D print micropatterns without needing any kind of voltage, making it ideal for smart contacts.

The researchers say they expect AR navigation to be the main application for this tech, where directions unfold right on your eyeball. Playing Pokemon Go was also cited as one potential use case. Even so, smart contacts still need to be deemed safe before any of this becomes a reality.

Nowatch review: a chic stress tracker for the Goop faithful

It’s an elegant device, but the ‘awareable’ may not appeal if cultivating mindfulness isn’t your main priority.

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Digital birth control is catching on.

It’s been six months since Natural Cycles began letting users import Oura Ring temperature data for its FDA-cleared digital birth control feature. There are a ton of privacy concerns with fertility tracking in the post-Roe era, but it appears the partnership is going well. The companies say 200,000 cycles and 6 million temperatures have been logged, with 98 percent of surveyed users saying they’ll continue using the integration to track their cycles.

Mitchell Clark
Mitchell Clark
This probably isn’t what the AGs wanted.

After receiving complaints from state attorneys general that it was “discriminating against pro-life pregnancy resource centers,” Yelp is changing its notification about Crisis Pregnancy Centers, according to Axios.

Instead of saying that the facilities “provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite,” it’ll now bluntly say they “do not offer abortions or referrals to abortion providers.”

Mitchell Clark
Mitchell Clark
Apple’s rolling back some covid policies.

According to Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer, the company’s employees won’t have to test before coming into the office starting in February, and will be getting less sick leave for covid. Apple implemented its office hybrid schedule last September.

Mitchell Clark
Mitchell Clark
The FTC wants Martin Shkreli held in contempt.

According to the regulator, the so-called “Pharma Bro” hasn’t been complying with its investigation into whether his new company, Druglike, Inc, violates his ban from working in the pharmaceutical industry. A press release calls Druglike “a Web3 drug discovery software platform,” which definitely seems like something the world needs.

Apollo Neuro review: a case study in the wellness Wild West

I can’t prove or disprove whether this wearable impacted my stress levels, but wellness gadgets need to be better about using science in marketing.

Victoria Song