The gist: As AI makes polished images easier to produce, some fashion brands are making a point of showing work that looks unmistakably human.

A brand consultant interviewed by Vogue Business has a name for it: “effort signaling.” The idea is that visible time, skill and craftsmanship can become part of what makes something feel valuable. Korean artist Min Kyung-jin, for example, turns food into elaborate miniature sculptures. An Abercrombie & Fitch video featuring her tiny jeans made from pasta has been viewed more than five million times.

And it's not just pasta pants. Hermès has commissioned hand-drawn animation, Chanel worked with an illustrator on an animated couture teaser, and other brands are increasingly highlighting the artists and physical processes behind their campaigns. Some have even posted behind-the-scenes footage after viewers assumed unusual imagery was AI-generated.

Why it matters: When almost anything can be generated quickly, showing that something took real human effort may become a way to make it feel more distinctive. It's an interesting reversal: technology spent years making speed and convenience valuable. Now, in some corners of fashion, taking the long way may be part of the appeal.

Go deeper: Vogue Business: How ‘Effort Signaling’ Became Fashion’s Antithesis to AI

The gist: Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a three-dimensional fabric that drapes over strawberry plants and, in tunnel field trials, helped covered plants produce as much as 3.56 times the harvestable fruit of uncovered plants.

It's called Plant Armor. Its layered structure creates a physical barrier against insects while still allowing sunlight, rain and airflow to reach the plants. The researchers also found that the cover consistently increased temperature around the plants, helping them reach the fruiting stage earlier, without reducing light access or significantly changing relative humidity.

And the technology has a surprisingly different origin. Plant Armor grew out of research aimed at making military clothing more resistant to mosquito bites and more comfortable to wear underneath body armor.

Why it matters: Instead of relying only on chemicals to keep insects away from crops, researchers are exploring whether the fabric itself can do some of the protecting. Plant Armor could potentially reduce pesticide use, but this isn't ready to triple strawberry production everywhere just yet. The researchers say on-farm testing across different crops and locations is still needed.

Go deeper: NC State: How a new textile fabric could triple production in strawberry plants

The gist: Scientists have long known that spending time in microgravity causes astronauts to lose bone and muscle. New research suggests some of the consequences may show up much later.

Researchers examined fracture data collected during annual clinical exams of U.S.-based astronauts. They found that astronauts who had completed spaceflights lasting more than 90 days had a higher rate of hip fractures after returning to Earth than after shorter missions or among astronauts with no spaceflight exposure. The hip fractures also occurred at younger ages than expected in the general population.

Interestingly, the researchers didn't find a higher rate of fractures overall. The signal appeared specifically in hip fractures following longer-duration missions.

Why it matters: Future missions are expected to keep humans away from Earth for increasingly long stretches. NASA is planning missions lasting more than six months as it develops sustained lunar exploration and prepares for eventual human missions to Mars. Understanding what happens to bones years after astronauts return could therefore matter just as much as keeping them healthy while they're in space.

There's an important caveat: astronauts are a very small study population and long spaceflights are rare, something the accompanying editorial specifically highlights as a limitation. Researchers say better long-term monitoring is needed to understand fracture risk and determine which combinations of exercise, diet or medication might best protect astronauts.

Go deeper: Elsevier: Study links 90+-day spaceflights to higher rates of hip fractures in astronauts

Protracted proh-TRAK-tid | adjective

Definition: Continuing for longer than expected or necessary.

In a sentence: What was supposed to be a quick meeting turned into a protracted discussion about the budget.

Why it’s worth knowing: You could say something “dragged on,” but protracted does the same job more precisely. It's especially useful for negotiations, conversations, projects, disputes or anything else that refuses to end when it should.

The best gift ideas usually come up when nobody is talking about gifts.

Your friend mentions a perfume she loves. Your mom points out a cookbook she'd like. Someone tells you about a restaurant they've been dying to try.

Instead of trusting yourself to remember six months later, put it in the Notes section of their contact right then.

Loves Diptyque Baies.
Wants to try pottery.
Favorite wine is Sancerre.
Mentioned the Assouline Capri book.

Then when a birthday, Christmas or celebration rolls around, you already have a list of things they genuinely wanted, rather than things you're guessing they might like.

The trick isn't being better at buying gifts. It's remembering what people told you when there was no reason for them to be hinting.

COPY AND PASTE:

I'm coordinating [a trip/meeting/event] across these locations: [list cities], on these dates: [dates]. My home time zone is [city].

Create a table showing every event in both the local time and my home time. Clearly flag anything that falls on a different calendar date because of the time difference.

Account for daylight-saving time on the specific dates provided. Before giving me the final schedule, identify the UTC offset you're using for each city and flag anything you are not confident about so I know what to verify.

One thing you didn’t know you wanted to know.

Before standardized time zones, “What time is it?” had a surprisingly local answer.

Towns commonly set their clocks according to the sun, meaning noon in one place could differ from noon somewhere else. That wasn't a huge problem when travel was slow.

Then came the railroads.

Suddenly, coordinating trains across dozens of different local times became both impractical and potentially dangerous. By the early 1880s, North American railroads were operating with roughly 50 regional times. On November 18, 1883, most U.S. and Canadian railroads adopted a standardized system of zones.

And here's my favourite part:

When standardized railway time arrived, some places effectively experienced two noons: one according to the sun and another according to the new standard clock. Some people resisted the change because they saw standardized time as a loss of local autonomy or an artificial replacement for nature's rhythms.

Eventually, the clock won.

So the time displayed in the corner of your laptop feels completely objective.

But the system behind it?

We had to agree on that.

Go deeper: Smithsonian: Synchronizing Time