public health
Chris Perani: The Art of Delicate Beauty
Chris Perani is a photographer who specializes in seeing the unseen. Known for his extreme macro photography, he captures butterfly wings and other minute natural subjects at a level of detail invisible to the naked eye. His images reveal dazzling mosaics of iridescent scales and textures that appear more like stained glass, sequins, or cosmic landscapes than fragments of an insect’s anatomy.
To overcome the razor-thin depth of field inherent in microscope lenses, Perani employs a meticulous stacking process. Using a 10× microscope objective mounted on a 200 mm lens, he shifts his camera forward in microscopic increments—sometimes as little as 3 microns per exposure. Each section of a wing might require 350 individual images, and a complete final work can demand more than 2,000 separate shots. These frames are then digitally merged into a seamless whole, revealing a complexity that even scientists rarely view in such clarity.
Leishmaniasis – Plain and Simple
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that few people have heard of, but one you definitely don’t want to catch. Caused by Leishmania parasites and spread by the bite of female sand flies, it can silently linger in the body for years or surface in devastating ways, from painful skin sores to organ damage that can be fatal. The disease affects both humans and dogs, with our canine companions often acting as unwitting reservoirs that keep the infection circulating.
As climate change expands the habitat of sand flies into new regions, the threat of leishmaniasis continues to grow. With no reliable cure and limited vaccine options, prevention is key. Protecting yourself and your pets with repellents, protective gear, and vigilance is the most effective way to guard against this serious but often overlooked disease.
Sand Flies: The Silent Biters Spreading A Deadly Disease
Phlebotomine sand flies are notorious biters. They not only cause great irritation but are also capable of spreading a deadly disease – visceral leishmaniasis.
While the World Health Organization states that currently 1 billion people live in areas endemic for leishmaniasis and at risk of contracting the disease, a recent study using a statistical model, predicted that visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is undergoing geographic expansion and 5.3 billion people could be at risk of acquiring the disease in the future.
Leishmaniasis currently occurs in approximately 90 countries. These countries are located in the warmer climates where sand flies thrive: in the tropics, subtropics, and in Southern Europe. Climate change and other variations in the environment have the potential to expand the geographical range of where sand flies can live and therefore where the disease can infiltrate the human population.
Epidemiology of Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease spread by the bite of infected female sandflies. It can affect the skin, mucous membranes, or internal organs. The most serious form, visceral leishmaniasis (VL), damages the liver, spleen, bone marrow, and kidneys, and is caused mainly by Leishmania donovani and Leishmania infantum.
Every year, 1–2 million people are affected, with over 90% of cases concentrated in just 13 countries. While many infections show no symptoms, untreated VL is usually fatal. Malnutrition, HIV co-infection, genetics, and young age (especially under 5) increase the risk of severe disease.
Malik Afegbua: Storytelling at the Speed of Code
Malik Afegbua, born in Nigeria, considers himself a filmmaker, a visual artist, and a creative technologist. Afegbua is globally recognized for his ground-breaking use of artificial intelligence in storytelling.
A business-school graduate from the University of Surrey, he turned his focus to the creative realm in 2011 after receiving a Canon camera. This gift was the beginning of his career in photography, filmmaking and virtual storytelling. Today, he is the CEO of Slickcity Media, a Lagos‑based studio producing commercials, documentaries, VR experiences, and AI‑driven art for clients like Meta, Marvel Studios, IBM, American Express, and Cadbury.
His breakout project, The Elder Series, also known as “Fashion Show for Seniors”, emerged in early 2023 when he used technology to depict elegantly dressed older adults walking a runway – imagining aging as stylish, powerful, and full of color. This collection went viral worldwide, earning praise from the World Health Organization during its Decade of Healthy Aging initiative.
Six Ways AI is Transforming Healthcare
With 4.5 billion people currently without access to essential healthcare services and a health worker shortage of 11 million expected by 2030, AI has the potential to help bridge that gap and revolutionize global healthcare.
It could even get us back on track to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of achieving universal health coverage by 2030.
But while the technology is rapidly developing, healthcare is “below average” in its adoption of AI compared to other industries, according to the World Economic Forum’s white paper, The Future of AI-Enabled Health: Leading the Way.
AI in Telehealth: The New Game Changers
AI transforms health-seeking from an ordeal to a convenience for a busy city-dweller and a boon for those with mobility issues or living in remote areas. A few taps of a finger can schedule a consultation, and visiting a physician becomes as effortless as sitting before a TV. Around 75% of healthcare organizations have found that integrating AI into their operations improved their ability to treat diseases effectively while reducing staff burnout.
Since physical examinations contribute to only 11% of the diagnostic process, with the patient’s history making up 76%, AI has become a valuable tool for helping medical professionals assess and interpret patient data more efficiently. AI algorithms can rapidly process large datasets, allowing medical professionals to identify potential health risks early – often before they are detectable by traditional methods.
Telehealth and telemedicine is a booming market, projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.2% between 2023 and 2028 as technology advances, regulations evolve, and patients and healthcare professionals accept telemedicine as a safe, economical and viable choice. AI is dramatically re-drawing the telehealth landscape in the areas of prediction, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of diseases like heart disease, cancer, respiratory disorders and diabetes, which account for nearly 75% of deaths worldwide each year.
Health care technology trends 2025
What is the future of AI in health care? What is the future of RPM? Is telehealth increasing or decreasing? How can AI reduce physician burnout?
This video from the American Medical Association, featuring a discussion between Margaret Lozovatsky, MD, vice president of Digital Health Innovations, and Todd Unger, CXO, answers all of these questions.
Bryan David Griffith: Art Born from Fire, Fueled by Purpose
Bryan David Griffith tackles big questions with simple materials. His art examines the tension between nature and culture, chaos and control, and life and loss. His engineering background brings a problem-solver’s mindset to his creative process, often inventing new techniques to serve each concept.
Griffith didn’t take a typical path into the art world. While studying at the University of Michigan, he found a beat-up photo manual, built a darkroom, and started experimenting. Later, disillusioned with a consulting job and its environmental impact, he quit, bought a van, and hit the road to become an artist.
A New Kind of Urban Firestorm
Everything around Walker Savage was smoke. Smoke and embers and broken tree limbs and the relentless roar of the wind. Wearing a respirator and goggles from his woodworking studio, he sprayed his garden hose into the gale, hoping to wet the walls and porch of his 99-year-old adobe house enough to keep them from igniting.
But then he saw the flames come surging down the mountain above his home in east Altadena, California: “It was like an avalanche,” Savage said. “But not of snow — it was of fire.”
More than a week later, Savage is still trying to wrap his mind around the Eaton Fire, which killed at least 16 people, destroyed an estimated 7,000 structures and is still only 45 percent contained. The flames moved faster than firefighters could fight them, reaching deep into the suburb to scorch houses well outside the state-designated risk zone.