Best in Sustainability

Wash (way) up. COURTESY OF P&G
Tide Infinity. Washing clothing on a spacecraft is near impossible. Astronauts on the International Space Station have to re-wear clothes over and over again until new ones arrive in supply shipments, a process which renders their clothing so irredeemable that the apparel is burned up in our atmosphere, never to be worn again. That’s a problem Tide is aiming to solve. In collaboration with NASA, the brand just sent a prototype detergent called Tide Infinity up into orbit. The unscented, fully degradable formula is safe for a closed-loop water system like the one used on the ISS. Over the next few months, experiments will test the efficacy of key dirt- and odor-fighting ingredients in space. Future studies will take place to test stain removal, delivery methods, and potential laundry solutions for deep-space missions. Tide says it hopes to apply findings from its experiments to products to make our Earthbound laundry processes more sustainable. Perhaps we’ll be able to wash clothes in water-scarce locales or more efficiently reuse gray water. Or perhaps we’ll all be able to just do our laundry on our way to some distant exoplanet. While these studies are still in the very early stages, I’m excited at the prospect of making even the most mundane tasks better—both on and off the ground. —Louryn Strampe

Best in Health Tech

Wrapped up. 
Movano Ring. Move over, Oura. The Movano Ring is coming for you—potentially with clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration. It’s one of the only companies (along with Withings) that has applied for FDA clearance for its tracker, which would make it a certified medical device. This health-monitoring ring is expected to launch in the second half of 2022. Not only is Movano’s device smaller than the Oura, but the company also expects to make it more affordable and more widely accessible. The Movano can monitor common health problems like hypertension, and considering how nearly half of all adults in the US deal with high blood pressure, having a sleek and medically certified ring that can monitor it will be immensely more useful than standard-fare fitness trackers. —Julian Chokkattu

Best in Pet Tech

Po-tweet! PHOTOGRAPH: BIRD BUDDY
Bird Buddy. The world doesn’t appreciate birds enough. That’s why, after stalking its Kickstarter campaign for the last year, I’m excited for Bird Buddy to finally become available. This camera-laden bird feeder allows you to not only see the cute little birds flying around your home, but it offers a chance to actually learn more about them by identifying bird species, noting foods they like, and sampling their bird songs all within its connected app. From there you can go off into the woods and try to spot them on your own, or just keep a log of your new buddies and learn to feed them what they really want. The company told me it’s hoping the data collected by its users can lead to meaningful change in conservation efforts by tracking bird migrations and populations around the globe. If I’m going to continue staring at a screen, it might as well be helping the birds. (And yes, this counts as pet tech; birds are everyone’s pets.) Bird Buddy feeders ship this spring for $235

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