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Here's a condom that will show your partner's true colors.

Three students took home first prize in the health category at the U.K.'s TeenTech Awards on Tuesday for inventing a condom that changes colors if it comes into contact with a sexually transmitted infection. A layer of molecules in the condom, dubbed the S.T.Eye, attach to bacteria and viruses associated with common STIs and the reaction then causes the condom to emit one of four colors, MTV reported.



The condom can only detect certain strains of infections, according to Buzz60. For example, it turns green if it detects chlamydia and purple for HPV.

More than 100 innovators presented their ideas at the event in London, which aims to uncover "real opportunities" in the current STEM workplace.

The three students from Isaac Newton Academy won about $1,500 and a trip to meet Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace, according to The Washington Post.

"We wanted to make something that made detecting harmful STIs safer than ever before, so that people can take immediate action in the privacy of their own homes without the often-scary procedures at the doctors," Daanyaal Ali, 14, one of the inventors, said in a statement. "We've made sure we're able to give peace of mind to users and let people act even more responsibly than ever before."

Ellie Davies grew up in an ancient forest in England -- the sort of place where fairy tales, both dark and whimsical, are set. So she understands firsthand that woodlands can exude a magical aura difficult to capture with the stark reality of a photograph.

"We enter the forest laden with cultural reference points from fairy tales, history, myth and folklore," she told The Huffington Post. Which is why she graces her images with starry skies captured by NASA. The result? A glistening, fantastical-looking scene composed entirely of natural elements.

"I think some images in the series are [...] brooding and dark, some are uplifting or unnerving," Davies said. A brief chat with the artist revealed more:



What inspired your "Stars" series?
I grew up in the New Forest, an ancient forest in the south of England. It was originally seized by William I in about 1079 in order to create a deer hunting forest and it is now preserved as a National Park. I spent a huge amount of my childhood playing in the forest with my twin sister, building dens and making dams in the forest streams, learning to forage for wild mushrooms and plants, cycling and walking with our parents. The forest was a very important part of my life, but I live in London and it is so easy to become caught up in an urban environment, losing your connection with wild places and finding them alien when you return. I use the woods like a studio space. They provide a scene, or a backdrop into which I carry out small interventions which lead the viewer inside. The process of making, constructing or inscribing within the forest space allows me to mediate my own relationship to the woods.

The "Stars" series is inspired by looking at the balance between how our ideas of landscape are constructed by the culture we live in and by our own experiences of these natural spaces. We enter the forest laden with cultural reference points from fairy tales, history, myth and folklore. Our ideas about the forest are overlaid with received knowledge, especially for those of us living in urban spaces where we are so far removed from the natural world.

This series combines vast starscapes taken by the Hubble Space Telescope with forest landscapes shot in the New Forest. It considers the fragile nature of our relationship with the natural world by interposing images of the intangible and unknown universe with these ancient forests. It creates a new experience of the woodland, one which draws the viewer into a mystery at the heart of the forest, and offers the potential for discovery and exploration. My work allows us to find our own place within this process; to make even fleetingly a space of our own and a way to exist within it.



The star photos are of course from NASA -- from where did you get the forest images?
I made the forest images in the New Forest in Hampshire and in Puddletown Forest in Dorset. I have just been working on some new images for the series in Fontainebleau in France, but have not released these images into the series yet.

The images make something as large as a galaxy appear as local and intimate as a clearing in a forest. Why did you hope to create this effect?
I wanted to bring these remote and unreachable starscapes into the forest spaces as a way to explore how I experience the forest, how it can feel distant, disconnected and vast but at the same time shimmering with possibility and tantalizing allure, familiar yet unfamiliar.

What was one of the biggest challenges in creating these images?
Most of my work involves a lot of walking with my kit on my back, often in the rain. It doesn't sound that fun, but I absolutely love it. I like to work in gloomy conditions because it gives an amazing richness to the colors and I love the quiet that comes when I am the only person in the woods, standing still and just listening. So the most challenging part of this series was probably those days spent shooting in the rain, clad head to toe in waterproofs with an umbrella sheltering my camera from the elements.

What mood did you hope to invoke with these images?
This series of images explores our different cultural perceptions of the forest and how this plays into our experience of these spaces. These constructs come to us through media, history, psychology, conservation, and so on, and range from framing the forest as a benign leisure facility all the way through to a place of danger, unknown horrors and as a metaphor for the unconscious mind. My images explore these layers of meaning, encouraging the viewer to make their own interpretations.

I think some images in the series are fantastical, others brooding and dark, some are uplifting or unnerving. I feel that my photographs hold elements of dark and light, mystery, narrative and intrigue. I try not to impose a narrative on the viewer and I love that different people find such different things in my work.

Are there artists creating similar work -- in any medium -- who you enjoy?
I love and have been influenced by everything by Nicholas Hughes, Jem Southam's "Pond" and "Rockfall" work, Ori Gersht's "Rear Window" series, Martina Lindqvist's "Ragskar Island," Jitka Hanzlova's "Quiet Forests" and Jo Metson Scott's "Ethereal Forest" installations. I'm not sure exactly how this work has influenced me, but I know it is inscribed on my brain and it filters into my work, the way that I look at the landscape and the possibilities of photography.

One day I want to make some work in the mountains and combine my two passions in life: climbing and the landscape. Probably the most precious photo book I own is Boomoon's Stargazing at Sokcho –- the eerie, cold, quiet mountains transport you to another world.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Warnings are appearing on Instagram accounts in North Korea that say access to the popular photo-sharing app is being denied and that the site is blacklisted for harmful content.

Opening the app with mobile devices on the North Korean carrier Koryolink has resulted in a notification in English saying: "Warning! You can't connect to this website because it's in blacklist site." A similar notice in Korean says the site contains harmful content, though that is not mentioned in the English version.

Such warnings have also appeared when websites that link to Instagram are accessed through desktops or laptops using LAN cables on the North Korean Internet provider. The warnings have been appearing on and off for at least five days.

The Internet and any kind of social media remain off-limits to virtually all North Koreans, but North Korea decided in 2013 to allow foreigners in the country to use 3G on their mobile phones, which generally require a local SIM card to get onto the Koryolink mobile carrier network.

That opened the door for them to surf the Internet and post to social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. More recently, even live-streaming video had been posted using the new Twitter app Periscope.

Photos from North Korea on Instagram posted by foreigners — though regular users are very few in number — provide a rare window on daily life in North Korea. But they have also posed a quandary for North Korean officials who are highly concerned about the flow of information and images in and out of the country.

Tech support staff at Koryolink said they were not aware of any changes in policy regarding Instagram. There has been no notice from the government or from the mobile phone service to its customers that Instagram has been blacklisted. Instagram officials had no comment when contacted by The Associated Press. Instagram is owned by Facebook, which is functioning normally in Pyongyang.

It was still possible to use the app, despite the warnings, on some mobile devices. But attempts on others to post photos or view user galleries through the standard Koryolink connection have been virtually impossible, suggesting that some access was indeed being obstructed.

It was unclear where the blockage was originating, how widespread it was, whether it was a hack of some sort or if it had any connection to a fire on June 11 at a luxury hotel often used by tourists and foreign visitors in Pyongyang. Photos of the fire leaked out of the country and were carried widely by media around the world. But the fire has not yet been reported by the North's state-run media.

Besides Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites were also functioning normally. Other websites were viewable as usual even on mobile phones on which Instagram was not functioning.

It is estimated that more than 2 million North Koreans now use mobile phones, but with few exceptions they are not allowed to access the Internet, meaning the mobile service is available primarily to foreign visitors, residents and businesspeople in the country.

Andrea Lee, CEO of Uri Tours, which organizes tours to North Korea, said she was not aware of a policy shift toward blocking Instagram.

"We have been using Instagram to post photos from our (North Korea) tours since Koryolink, the local provider, announced that 3G SIM cards would be available to foreigners for purchase," she said. "While I'm unaware of this recent shift in policy toward blocking Instagram, I hope this will be a temporary policy as it's been a great tool for our company to show prospective travelers what our tours are like and to get people motivated in traveling there."

She added that the SIM cards are priced more for the long-term frequent traveler, and usually tourists who are in the country for just a few days opt not to purchase them. "But those who do possess the SIM card have near open access to the web, including social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google and many other sites that have historically been blocked in places like China."

Great news for London locals and tourists: Starting September 12, the Underground's new Night Tube will run for 24 hours a day on certain lines.

According to Transport For London, the five lines running round-the-clock routes are Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria. The new Night Tube hours will apply on Friday and Saturday nights, meaning travelers will be able to get home in the wee hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings, hopefully saving an average of 20-60 minutes on commutes by bus or taxi.

Transport For London cites a 70 percent increase in passenger demand for the Night Tube as the major reason behind expanded Underground service hours. The Night Tube will be ready in time for the start of the Rugby World Cup on September 18.

Below is a map of the lines running the new hours:


Image courtesy of Transport For London

Happy Tube-ing!

H/T Mashable

ROME (AP) — The wait was on the long side for the pizza -- 18 hours -- but this was an extraordinary pie: 1.59545 kilometers, or nearly a mile long.

More than 60 of Italy's best pizza-makers worked through the night to create the pizza at Milan's world fair, Expo 2015. Their toil was rewarded with a proclamation by Guinness World Records judge Saturday that it was the world's longest pizza. Expo organizers said the record-setting pie, made with 1.5 tons of mozzarella and 2 tons of tomato sauce, weighed some 5 tons in all.

The creation topped the record of a 1.1415-kilometer-long pizza made in Spain.

Fair-goers could eat slices of the Milan pizza for free. Slices of long, rectangular pizzas with various toppings are a popular street food in Italy.

We all need help maintaining our personal spiritual practice. We hope that these Daily Meditations, prayers and mindful awareness exercises can be part of bringing spirituality alive in your life.

Today's meditation features a song by American folk group Hem. "Seven Angels" explores the notion that there is always someone or something looking out for us -- and that realization may bring us some measure of peace.



Seven Angels by Hem

Sleep come easy to your bed this night,
Seven angels hold you in their light.

One holds the candle,
One holds the crown,
One holds the moonlight
Shining down.

Dream of fortune in the world below.
Seven angels in the afterglow.

One holds the lantern
Deep in the mine,
One holds the daylight
Left behind.

One holds the lightning,
Flashing then gone.
One holds the Sun
Waiting 'til dawn.

Norway's Women's World Cup team is combating sexism in their own special way: By pretending to admit that they suck at soccer.

With the help of Norwegian journalist Nicolay Ramm, women's national team members Trine Rønning, Ingrid Hjelmseth, Emilie Haavi and Cathrine Dekkerhus produced a short satirical segment stringing together all of the sexist criticisms they face within their sport. It's a video that ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, one of the most popular sexist commentators in sports media, might want to take notice of.

Seconds into the video, Rønning, Norway's captain, fesses up to women's soccer detractors. "We're shit. We suck, plain and simple," she tells Ramm with the sort of cold, candid face of admission that one would expect out of Lance Armstrong.

The players, acknowledging how inferior they are physically compared to men's soccer stars, even come up with a list of tricks and rule changes to "make the game easier."

"Smaller pitches. That's what it takes. We feel like ants running around," Rønning suggested.

Ramm's segment, produced for NRK, also addresses how beautiful Norway's women's team is, because that's all that really matters when females are allowed to play soccer: how the pretty ones look in tight shorts, right? Dekkerhus is identified as "Norway's hottest female soccer player," something that she's said has hurt her career: "My teammates fell in love with me ... Lesbians everywhere. It's teeming with them."



Norway's Maren Mjelde bends the ball to score a game-tying goal against Germany on June 11.

Norway's World Cup run ended yesterday with a 1-0 loss to England in the knockout stage, but when it comes to mixing satire and sexism, these women deserve the Golden Boot.

For many Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a time to look inward, to weigh the heart's desires and separate out the things that really matter.

Muslims are encouraged to fast from dawn to dusk during this holy month. They joyously break the fast in the evening, snacking on a sweet date before sharing the iftar meal with family and friends.

HuffPost Religion will be updating this photo slideshow throughout the month to showcase how worldwide community of Muslims celebrates the holiday in diverse and beautiful ways.

My grandfather knew he was going to see my grandmother with his caregiver that morning. He was still living at home and my grandmother was living in a nursing home. She was the love of his life and he could no longer take care of her. He began to prepare a bath, which he only did if he was going to see her. He always wanted to look his best when he saw her.

When his caregiver arrived at his house, there was no answer at the door. A few minutes later, still no answer. She dialed 911.

It was a tragic end to their love story 66 years in the making. Tragic not only because my grandfather is gone, but that my grandmother has Stage 7 Alzheimer's. She was and still isn't able to comprehend that her husband of 66 years has passed away. There was no goodbye, no grieving, and no true ending to their story -- a story that I've watched and admired my entire life.

Alzheimer's is a disease. It's a disease that my grandmother has no medical coverage for. A disease that costs her over $300,000 in just two years. A disease that took her ability to speak, to walk, to eat, to go to the bathroom, to sit in a chair. A disease that took her memories, her perception of time, her ability to hold the Mother's Day card I got her. A disease that kept her from seeing her grandchildren graduate college and kept her from attending her husband's funeral.

But she's not gone. She's still here. This is not an obituary.

She fought her entire life for the American Dream. She came to America as an immigrant from Greece without speaking a word of English, fell in love with her husband in New York City, worked in the factories as a seamstress through her Great Depression, raised her beautiful, big, fat Greek family and always, always gave everything she had to others.

Alzheimer's will not be how her American Dream ends. It's time to raise our voices for those who can't. To stand up for those who can't. To fight for those who can no longer fight.

She is the greatest fighter I've ever known and she will keep on fighting. And she's not alone. She will never be alone.

From our days as newborns, my grandmother was always there to take care of us. My siblings and I are 19 months apart from each other so we were a lot to juggle growing up. When my family would go out for the day's adventure, my mom had my brother, my dad had my sister, and my grandmother had me. She always had me, and now I have her.

As of 2015, the cost of Alzheimer's paid out of pocket is $44 billion dollars. Alzheimer's care needs to be covered for everyone.

The disease progressed to the point where my grandmother could no longer live in her own home and my family could no longer take care of her by ourselves. My grandmother stays in a four-star nursing home in a unit specializing in Alzheimer's care that costs over $10,000 a month. Do not be fooled by that rating.

But going into a nursing home is not the end of the battle. Stay positive and be there for them. Be their voice. Love them. Pretend like nothing is wrong and give them a big smile -- your biggest smile. They're still the person you knew your entire life.

My grandmother, Sotiria Catacalos, is a victim of Alzheimer's. As of 2015, 5.3 million Americans are living with the disease. Alzheimer's disease, the sixth largest cause of death in America is the only cause of death among the top 10 that cannot be prevented, cured, or even slowed. This disease needs to be taken seriously. It will not be a new norm.

Alzheimer's has taken my grandmother's ability to walk, eat and participate. But, every time I see her, she still gives me the biggest kiss.

She remembers me. I know she does. Love will trump this disease.


June is Alzheimer's Awareness Month. To learn about how you can help fight this disease please visit www.alz.org.

You don’t need scientific research to tell you that listening to music can quiet your mind and help you relax. But here it is anyway.

A 2013 study published in the online peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE found that listening to music before a stressful situation helps calm the nervous system. Additional research has shown that music can act as a sleep aid, and that classical music in particular is effective in reducing sleeping problems.

As long as a song or musical number is string-instrument based, with minimal brass and percussion, it has the potential to bring on drowsiness by decreasing anxiety, blood pressure and heart and respiratory rates. Findings suggest that music around 60 beats per minute (the low end of a healthy resting heart rate) can trigger your brain to synchronize your heart rate with the musical beat, and classical does this best.

So it’s Mozart or nothing?

Not necessarily. Kansas State University’s counseling center suggests adding Baroque or New Age music to your sleep playlist, or any other music that has no defined melody and minimal fluctuations in volume. The University of Nevada Counseling Services recommends Native American and Celtic music, Indian stringed instruments, flutes and light jazz. While rock may not be the best option, acoustic instrumental versions of your favorite songs could be worth a listen.

Just keep in mind that two to three tracks probably won’t do the trick. You may need to spend at least 45 minutes in a relaxed position in your bed, listening, to feel the effects. And it could take consecutive days of listening before you find your eyelids drooping to the beat.

According to Gabe Turow, the organizer of a Stanford University symposium that looked at therapeutic benefits of musical rhythm, “Listening to music seems to be able to change brain functioning to the same extent as medication, in many circumstances.”

Is there one perfect song that will put me to sleep?

Actually, there is, according to the British Academy of Sound Therapy. The institution, collaborating with the Manchester band Marconi Union, said it used scientific theory to produce the world’s most relaxing song ever, “Weightless.”


Lyz Cooper, founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy, explained that not only does the rhythm of “Weightless” lull you by synchronizing with your heart rate (starting at 60 beats per minute and gradually slowing to around 50), but the length of the song figures in as well.

“It’s important that the song is eight minutes because it takes about five minutes for that syncing process to occur.” As with classical music, the drop in heart rate also leads to a drop in blood pressure.

Composed of guitar, piano and manipulated field recordings, “Weightless” relies on “harmonic intervals — or gaps between notes” to create a feeling of “euphoria and comfort,” according to Cooper. And there’s “no repeated melody, which allows your brain to completely switch off” because you’re not trying to predict what comes next. Rather, there are “random chimes that induce a deeper sense of relaxation” and “low whooshing” tones like Buddhist chants that supposedly induce a trance-like state.

Though a few listeners found the bass beats made them hyper, others described the music as “aural bliss.”

-- Ellen Thompson

Are you an early bird? Perfectionist? Extrovert? Your "personality type" may explain a lot about how you interact with the world when you're awake, but it may also give a bit of insight into your sleep habits.

While character traits are hardly a significant or deciding factor when it comes to our sleeping patterns, it turns out how we behave can still subtly affect us while we sleep. Below are a few ways our personality, sleep schedules and shut-eye might be linked.



Photo credit: Shutterstock

1. Genetics determine whether you're a night owl or an early bird.
You may not even be able to help it if you prefer to rise with the sun or the stars. The distinction between late nighters and early risers -- also known as a chronotype -- may lie in our body's own internal clock. Chronotypes are largely determined by genetics, the BBC reported.

"Chronotypes reflect individual differences in the timing of the circadian rhythm and can be affected by age," Natalie Dautovich, an environmental scholar at the National Sleep Foundation, told The Huffington Post in an email. "For example, adolescents are more likely to be an evening type compared to older adults."

2. Early birds may be happier.
Early birds get the worm, and it turns out they also might get a few health perks, too. Morning people report feeling happier and tend to be more persistent than their night-owl counterparts.

Research also suggests morning people may be more well-rested since they are less likely to experience "social jet lag," which is what happens when our biological clock is out of sync with our 9-to-5 social clock.

3. "Type As" might struggle with falling asleep.
If you're a notorious overthinker, like a Type A individual, you might have a little trouble letting go of your stressors -- especially when you crawl into bed. "Cognitive arousal can take many forms, from simply reviewing the activities of the day, to ruminating or worrying about different things," Dautovich said.

For some people, that inability to shut off the brain may prevent them from falling asleep, says Dr. Shalini Paruthi, education committee chair of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the director of the Pediatric Sleep and Research Center at Saint Louis University.

"What it really means is that the mind isn't mentally aligning with the body to physically fall asleep," Paruthi told The Huffington Post. If anxious thoughts are keeping you awake, there are therapies to help treat the problem -- the most common form being cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, she said.

4. Night owls are believed to be greater risk-takers.
Evening people may be more sensation- or novelty-seeking, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. They're rumored to be more creative and have higher cognitive abilities, though Paruthi explains that research has yet to confirm that as far as she knows.

Night owls get a bad rap for burning the midnight oil, but their late bedtime isn't something to criticize as long they're getting the recommended seven hours of interrupted sleep each night, Paruthi said.

5. Extroverts might get a better quality of sleep.
In a preliminary 2014 study published in the journal Health Psychology, researchers found an association between individuals with higher extroversion and better sleep. The same association was found in individuals with high conscientiousness and agreeableness. This of course is not the sole indicator of a good night's rest, as other environmental factors play a much bigger role, but studying the link between personality and sleep "may benefit more personalized treatment of sleep disorders and help in personnel selection to jobs in which it is critical to stay alert," the researchers noted.

6. Neurotic individuals may be more susceptible to insomnia.
Those who display traits of neuroticism may have an increased stress-reactivity, which could lead to sleep disruption and insomnia, according to 2013 findings published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews. However, researchers note that neuroticism and stress are somewhat cyclical, so it's likely the anxiety that's associated with the behavior is what could be leading to poor sleep.

"Stress can definitely be a detriment to obtaining healthy sleep," Dautovich said. "Stress can create a vicious cycle where it affects sleep, and the lack of sleep affects our ability to cope with stress."



What can we do about it?
Ultimately, experts stress that personality types have little influence compared to other external factors in your sleep environment, so don't worry too much if you identify with a certain behavioral trait. Regardless of what's keeping you up at night, whether it be your wired mind or something else, here are a few tips to help you fall asleep faster and get a better quality of sleep:

• Get out of bed. If you don't, your brain may start associating that sleep haven with being wide awake. If you don't fall asleep within 20 to 30 minutes, get up and go to a different room.

• Check the temperature. The best quality of sleep is achieved in a cool, dark room. The ideal temperature for getting quality shuteye is around 60 to 68 degrees, Dautovich previously told HuffPost.

• Try an activity. Just make sure it's boring, Paruthi advised. Pick up a dull textbook if you can't seem to drift off (sorry, no Harry Potter). Writing in a journal may also help.

• Ban those screens. Turn off those devices at least 30 minutes, but preferably an hour, before bed, Paruthi said. Research shows that the blue wavelengths emitted from screens may delay the production of melatonin, the hormone in the body that helps us drift off. "Use a [physical] alarm clock to wake up in the morning," she said.

• Stick to a sleep routine. Start getting ready for bed around the same time and make it a calming ritual (meditation, anyone?). "People fail to prioritize sleep," Paruthi said. "A routine really helps guide the brain -- and sleep is a function of the brain -- that's time to switch from 'go, go, go' to settling down."

Looking for more tips? Click here for 31 hacks to help you sleep better tonight.