The Download: GLP-1s and eating disorders, self-aware cities, and forever chemicals

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Eating disorders are on the rise.

GLP-1s could make things worse.

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are one of the biggest biotech breakthroughs of the last decade.

But to some clinicians, they can represent something sinister—a potential trigger for eating disorders.

A new report suggests the global incidence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa shot up by 71% between 1990 and 2023.

And clinicians are already seeing GLP-1s exacerbate the issue.

Here’s how they could make an already growing problem worse.

—Jessica Hamzelou This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter.

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Love is infrastructure —“Love is Infrastructure” is a short fictional story by Charlie Jane Anders, author of a forthcoming novel titled Good Things Are Coming Your Way.

Mainspring and St.

Barnabas are two neighboring cities with different personalities.

They’ve never particularly liked each other, but that changes when both develop minds of their own, shaped by the votes of their residents.

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