The Unmoveable Movement

Many people had never seen a medical illustration of a Black pregnant woman and fetus until Nigerian medical student and illustrator Chidiebere Ibe created one in 2021. The illustration quickly went viral, sparking a global conversation about representation and how rarely Black bodies have been depicted in the images used to teach medicine.

There are fewer than 2,000 trained medical illustrators worldwide, and the field has historically lacked racial diversity. As a result, the bodies depicted in medical education have often reflected a narrow standard. Less than 5% of skin tones depicted in widely used medical textbooks are dark, and just 8% of medical illustrators identify as people of color.

Medical illustrations help train future clinicians, shape how diseases and conditions are recognized, and influence how patients are cared for. The images used in medical education should reflect the diversity of the patients those clinicians will treat.

Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin have created a wearable fabric that can collect drinking water directly from the air. Inspired by the fictional Dune stillsuit, the jacket uses advanced textile fibers to capture moisture from the atmosphere without requiring electricity, pumps, or filters.

The jacket contains a special gel-based material that absorbs humidity, even in relatively dry environments. After collecting moisture, the detachable harvesting units are placed in a foldable collector, where natural sunlight provides enough heat to release and condense the water into clean drinking water.

During outdoor tests, the wearable system produced between 400 and 900 milliliters (14–30 ounces) of drinking water per day, depending on humidity levels. While this is not enough to replace carrying water, it could provide a valuable emergency water source in survival situations.

Unlike the fictional stillsuits in Dune, this technology does not recycle sweat or urine. Instead, it extracts water directly from the surrounding air, making it useful for hikers, campers, farmers, emergency responders, soldiers, and people living in regions with limited access to safe drinking water.

The researchers say the new material is far more efficient and durable than previous atmospheric water-harvesting fabrics, producing several times more water while maintaining stable performance over extended use. In the future, the same technology could be scaled beyond wearable jackets into larger systems capable of supplying clean water to entire communities facing water shortages.

Sources:
University of Texas
Nature Water
SciTechDaily
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

THIS Barbie started her own holiday 💖 99-year-old Opal Lee — aka “the Grandmother of Juneteenth” — has her own doll!

Opal was born in Marshall, Texas in 1926. On June 19, 1939, white rioters set her family’s home on fire. That started HER fire: She was determined to make Juneteenth a federal holiday 💪🏾

For those unfamiliar, Juneteenth refers to the day the last slaves were freed. The news took two and a half YEARS to reach the final enslaved people in Texas.

In 2021, President Biden made Opal’s dream a reality — declaring Juneteenth America’s 11th federal holiday.

Even at 99, Opal still makes a symbolic two-and-a-half mile walk each year on Juneteenth!

In May 2024, Biden presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian honor 🏅

And now, she’s earned the second-highest: her own Barbie!

📸: People

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore approximately $127 million in USDA grant funding that had been canceled earlier this year, ruling that the organizations challenging the cuts were likely to succeed in court.

The grants support 24 organizations participating in the USDA’s Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program, which helps Black farmers and other historically underserved producers gain access to farmland, financing, technical assistance, and new markets.

The Trump administration canceled the grants in March, arguing they were tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that no longer aligned with administration priorities. The affected organizations sued, claiming the terminations were unlawful and jeopardized projects already serving farmers across the country.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued a preliminary injunction requiring the funding to be restored while the lawsuit moves forward. The ruling is temporary—not a final decision—and the Trump administration has already appealed the order.