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Welcome back to "While You Were Out," where the Verily editors drop quick-fire takes on what unfolded this week.
Whole Foods Delivery Debuts in Select Cities, Signaling a Major Shift in How We Buy Groceries
Recall the June headlines when Amazon—the titan of internet retail—acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, sending shockwaves through the business world? The real-world impact is finally arriving. Amazon has "gotten serious at last," launching complimentary two-hour grocery delivery for Prime subscribers in four mid-sized markets—Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas, and Virginia Beach—with broader expansion on the horizon. This move could fundamentally reshape how Americans purchase their food.
With the grocery battle now in full swing, all eyes are on how rivals like Kroger, Walmart, Publix, and Wegmans will adapt to stay competitive. Speaking from Cincinnati, I'm eager to watch Kroger—headquartered in this city, and likely the reason it made the cut—ramp up its efforts. Personally, I'm already fantasizing about a future without grocery runs, save for the occasional weekend visit to the local farmers' market. —Maria Walley
Lucas Makes History as the First Gerber Baby with Down Syndrome
Most parents of adorable infants have heard the familiar quip that their child is so precious they ought to be the next Gerber Baby. Yet only one infant each year earns the actual title of Gerber "Spokesbaby," stepping into the role of a global icon of beauty. For 2018, that distinction belongs to baby Lucas—the first child with Down syndrome ever chosen for this prestigious role.
Lucas will collect $50,000, take the spotlight across Gerber's social channels, and demonstrate to audiences worldwide the incredible happiness a child with Down syndrome can deliver. His mother shared with the Today Show: "He's always been such an easygoing baby. I've never met anyone who encounters Lucas without breaking into a smile." And she's absolutely right—Lucas's grin has gone viral, standing out as the most uplifting story to emerge this week. —Monica Gabriel Marshall
Is It Time to Reconsider Asparagus?
While the notorious post-asparagus odor is an unwelcome consequence for some eaters, new concerns suggest there may be other reasons to approach this vegetable with caution. Fresh research involving mice indicates that asparagine—a compound originally discovered in asparagus but present in numerous foods—plays a role in cancer metastasis.
Greg Hannon, the lead researcher and director of the Cancer Research U.K. Cancer Institute in Cambridge, noted that asparagine enables cancer cells to morph into a form capable of migrating from the breast through the bloodstream and colonizing distant organs as secondary tumors. However, when the team suppressed asparagine levels in mice with breast cancer, secondary tumor formation in other tissues dropped significantly.
Although that's discouraging for asparagus enthusiasts, the findings could pave the way for new strategies to halt breast cancer from spreading systemically—provided human trials yield similar results. The complication is that asparagine appears in so many foods that scientists believe developing a medication to block the amino acid directly might prove more practical. —MGM
Amtrak's Troubled Streak of Accidents Rolls On
Last Sunday, an Amtrak passenger train traveling from New York to Miami collided with a freight train close to a switchyard in South Carolina, leaving two dead, 116 injured, and thousands of gallons of oil spilled at the scene. This marks the third Amtrak incident within a span of under two months.
Robert Sumwalt, who chairs the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), reported that a misaligned switch rerouted the train off its tracks. Officials are still piecing together the exact cause. Meanwhile, case coroner Margaret Fisher underscored how much higher the toll could have been. Fisher remarked: "With something like this, you'd typically brace for a higher death toll, but we were fortunate that the count stopped at two." —MGM
Philadelphia Clinches Historic First Super Bowl Title as Timberlake Returns for a Second Halftime Run
In a landmark victory, the Philadelphia Eagles captured their inaugural Super Bowl championship, toppling the formidable New England Patriots against the odds. The matchup stayed tight, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats right down to the wire. Naturally, the championship was only part of what attracted 103.4 million viewers to their screens on Sunday.
The advertisements are always a crowd favorite—and they need to be, given that companies shell out around $5 million per spot. This year, Tide made an especially bold splash. Pink also earned accolades for powering through the flu to deliver a stirring rendition of the national anthem—proving even superstar singers are, at the end of the day, human. Justin Timberlake returned to the halftime stage—clearly society has moved past the 2004 wardrobe mishap—earning rave reviews from some fans and skepticism from others who questioned whether his set was more about selfies than substance. —MW
The #MeToo Momentum Shows No Signs of Slowing
Two high-profile sexual misconduct allegations dominated headlines this week: one tied to the executive ranks of a casino corporation, the other shaking the foundations of the Catholic Church. Steve Wynn, the billionaire CEO and chairman of Wynn Resorts, stepped down two weeks following a Wall Street Journal exposé detailing allegations of assault and sexual harassment from multiple women. He now faces inquiries from gambling regulators across Nevada, Massachusetts, and Macau. Wynn has rejected the accusations, and the board characterized his departure as "reluctantly."
Across the Atlantic, the credibility of the Vatican's leader is now facing intense examination. Reports indicate that Pope Francis, the Catholic Church's 266th pontiff, received an eight-page letter in 2015 from a victim graphically recounting abuse at the hands of a priest. The victim alleges that Chilean clergy didn't merely dismiss his account but actively conspired to bury it. Pope Francis has denied any awareness of these events, branding accusations against the bishop allegedly at the center of the cover-up as defamatory. However, this week brought new reporting suggesting Pope Francis may have been aware of the allegations through the 2015 letter after all. As the spiritual head of roughly 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, this revelation carries enormous weight and is likely to spark further investigation—and potentially, meaningful reform. —MW
