Need to Know

Israel – Food technology start-up Aleph Farms has successfully grown the world’s first slaughter-free steak, which the company claims it will bring to market within two years.

Grown using different types of living cells from a cow, the prototype mimics the texture, flavour and shape of a real beef steak, establishing a new benchmark for cell-cultured meat. Until now, one of the barriers to lab-grown meat production has been getting various cell types to grow and interact with each other in order to produce a complete tissue structure. Aleph Farms overcame this obstacle thanks to a bio-engineering platform developed with the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology).

‘The technology we developed marks a true breakthrough and a great leap forward in producing a cell-grown steak,’ says Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms. As new technologies enable the successful growth of various meats, the way they are marketed will, much like fake meats, ultimately determine their success.

Atlanta – The car rental company is the first to use biometrics such as fingerprints and facial recognition to identify customers, allowing them to complete the rental process in seconds.

In partnership with Clear, a technology company that enables travellers to use finger, face and eye scans as forms of identification, the new Hertz Fast Lane at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will speed up the car rental process by 75%. Hertz Gold Plus Rewards members, who already have the ability to skip counter registration, will now be able to use a dedicated lane where a kiosk powered by Clear will identify them at the exit.

The new feature, which will soon be available for Hertz and Clear members in more than 40 Hertz locations, is just one example of the ways that Clear is streamlining identification for travellers, for whom speed is a priority. To find out more about how Clear is disrupting the travel sector, download our Future Forecast 2019 report.

Gender identity is versatile for today’s teenagers, according to a new report by Gucci and youth thinktank Irregular Labs. The global report explored the attitudes of 2,013 young people aged between 15 and 24, and found that nearly 25% expect their gender identification to change during their lifetime. Of these young people, 45% expect their gender identity to change two or three times.

The biannual Irregular Report also includes sections on masculinity and femininity, featuring revealing quotes and short essays from young people in countries such as Nigeria, India and Venezuela. In line with our Girlswear for Boys microtrend, the report explores the notion that until now gender-neutral fashion has typically translated as females wearing men’s clothing. ‘Seeing feminine males is triggering for consumers, whereas a woman dressed in a suit or masculinely can still be taken seriously, if not more seriously,’ says 20-year-old Katya from South Africa.

As Generation Z come of age, they will make progress in breaking down the constructs of gender identity. For more on the future of identity, explore our Far Futures vertical.