Articulatory Loop

New technologies and advances almost always seem like a good idea at the time. Starting from the premise that bacterial infection causes illness, it's easy to see why people started putting antibacterials in everything, particularly in soaps. Well, a new study has found that triclosan, one of the most common topical antimicrobials, which is probably in every antibacterial soap on the market in the US, reacts with the chorine in our water supply - also put there to kill bacteria - resulting in chloroform. Which, among other things, is a carcinogen. Oops!

On the other end, a group of recent college grads in the US are developing an EEG alarm clock, which will monitor your sleep cycle and wake you at the ideal phase (light sleep) before your wake-up deadline. This is a really cool idea. I did this the old-fashioned way in college - after determining that my sleep cycle was about 83.5 minutes, I would set my alarm for an interval of that time to wake up the most refreshed - but having a computer do all that for me, since your sleep cycle length changes slightly from night to night based on various factors, would be great. As long as the 'headband' doesn't make me uncomfortable!!
What will the side-effects be???