(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Worryingly, the U.K. now has the highest rate of obesity in Europe, with one in three children overweight or obese by year six. Obesity in children under 11 has risen by over 40 percent in ten years. If this trend continues, half of U.K. children will be obese or overweight by 2020. London has the highest obesity levels for children in reception and year six compared to other parts of the country.

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – According to Chris Elias, president of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, increasing the availability and use of data is a public health intervention in its own right. Mobile phone can be a simple yet powerful tool to collect such data through rapid-turnaround, nationally representative surveys that measure household well-being and health program performance.

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – While working in rural northern Thailand in 2013, Erin Zaikis met children who didn’t know what soap was, so she brought them some, trying to conduct an impromptu hand-washing workshop. She was stunned to see the children smacking their faces with the bars of soap, unsure of what to do with it.

The Greentopia Future Cities Summit, which took place in Rochester, NY, gave a thoughtful look at some of the potential opportunities for cities in the future, and what kinds of steps might be required to get us there.