【推荐2】False medical news can lead to patients’ experiencing greater side effects through the “nocebo effect (反安慰剂效果)”. Sometimes patients benefit from an intervention simply because they believe they will- -that’s the placebo effect. The nocebo effect is the opposite: Patients can experience negative effects just because they expect them. This is very true of statins. In blinded trials, patients who get statins are no more likely to report feeling muscle aches than patients who get a placebo. Yet, in clinical practice, according to one study, almost a fifth of patients taking statins report side effects, leading many to discontinue the drugs.

What else is on the fake news hit list? As always, vaccines. False concerns that the vaccine for the virus called human papilloma virus causes seizures (癫痫) and other side effects reduced coverage rates in Japan from 10 percent to less than 1 percent in recent years.

Cancer is another big target for pushers of medical misinformation — many of whom are making money off alternative therapies. “Though most people think cancer tumors are bad, they’re actually the way your body attempts to contain the harmful cells,” one fake news story reads. It suggests that surgery increases the risk of spreading harmful cells.

Silicon Valley needs to own this problem. When human health is at risk, perhaps search engines, social media platforms and websites should be held responsible for promoting or hosting fake information. The scientific community needs to do its part to educate the public about key concepts in research, such as the difference between observational studies and higher quality randomized trials.

Finally, journalists can do a better job of spreading accurate information. News sites are more likely to cover catchy observational studies than randomized controlled trials, perhaps because the latter are less likely to produce surprising results. Such coverage can overstate benefits, claiming for example, that statins could cure cancer; it can unduly emphasize potential risks, such as suggesting a misleading connection with dementia, a serious mental disorder.

【推荐3】It shouldn’t come as news to anyone that the planet is moving quickly towards a climate emergency. And fast fashion certainly plays its part in this.

Fast fashion brands, which release hundreds of new styles every week, have caused trends cycles to speed up rapidly, leading to overproduction and overconsumption. British shoppers are buying twice as much as we did a decade ago and both brands and consumers are throwing away “unfashionable” clothing more often—over £300,000 of it ends up in landfill every year. How do we solve this issue?

One answer lies in the new generation of made-to-order brands making their way into the mainstream. These brands make clothes only as and when they’re ordered, and because there’s no overproduction, less unwanted stock ends up in landfills. They also promote a slower fashion model, with pieces taking between three weeks and three months to arrive once purchased. The focus is on creating special, well-made pieces for consumers to treasure for years to come.

Made-to-order fashion is nothing new. Until the mid-20th century, it was the norm. However, the 1960s brought about the dawn of fast fashion and a shift in our relationship with our clothes. The value once placed on craftsmanship and quality was replaced by the desire for low cost and volume, resulting in cut-cost production and the attitude that clothing should be cheap and disposable.

Of course, made-to-order fashion has continued to exist alongside this, though research clearly shows that fast fashion prevails (盛行). Cue a made-to-order brand bringing bespoke (定制) back to the mainstream. Spanish brand Alas features a slow business model. It takes orders each week which are then handmade and delivered in about three weeks. It also revolves around an on-demand production process that rewards consumers for “pre-planned responsible shopping.” Every week, they launch a new drop, available to pre-order for a discounted rate for a limited time. From pre-order, Alas determines how popular each new item is and calculates how many units should be produced to fulfill both pre-orders and future full-price orders, therefore reducing the overproduction of stock.

With made-to-order brands growing in popularity, it begs the question—could this be the dawn of a new, environmentally responsible era? The answer is self-evident.