You’ve likely already heard the term “digital twin.”

Whether it’s an avatar in a Zoom meeting, a postmortem persona, or a pair of sneakers, a digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical entity.

But there’s an application for digital twins that’s somehow even more exciting than texting with the dead: They could one day save your life.

The global digital twins health care market is projected to reach $21.1B by 2028, up from $1.6B in 2023. And startups, government agencies, and academic institutions alike are pouring funding into developing it, per The Wall Street Journal.

Have heart

At Johns Hopkins University, researchers are creating digital twins of real patients’ hearts with potentially fatal arrhythmias.

• First, patients complete a cardiac MRI. Then, researchers use AI to turn the scan images into a 3D reconstruction of the patient’s heart, complete with scarring and damaged cells.
• The on-screen heart is then filled with virtual cells, which can generate electrical signals, and a heartbeat.

The digital twin can then be used to predict the location of irregular rhythms and plan out future procedures to fix them.

Virtual head to toe

Digital twins aren’t just for our hearts — experiments are underway to use them for all sorts of medical processes.

• Researchers at Columbia University are making digital twins for uteruses and cervixes to predict the course of pregnancies and, hopefully, someday prevent preterm births.
• The National Cancer Institute is creating digital twins of oncology patients to predict how cancer might respond to different treatments.
• Cleveland Clinic is using digital twins to better understand population health and tackle location-based health disparities.

If, one day, we all had a digital twin, it could solve some of health care’s biggest issues, like conducting drug trials without harming patients or spotting potential issues before beginning surgery.

But if our digital twins could get shots instead of us, we’d really be excited.

$150k: Price of the ultimate dog for the discerning (and perhaps paranoid) pet owner. Montana-based company Svalinn trains these German shepherd, Dutch shepherd, and Belgian Malinois mixes on its ranch for two to three years to be the perfect guard dog — fierce protectors, but as loyal and loving as you’d expect any other dog to be. They’re also rare: Svalinn sells up to 20 per year and only ~350 exist.

10k+: Number of crystals that will adorn the US women’s gymnastics team’s leotards at the Paris Olympics. GK Elite, the company behind the outfits, has long embellished outfits with crystals, which design director Jeanne Diaz says can “accentuate” gymnasts’ routines. If this year’s leotards were sold in stores, they’d cost ~$5k, but a replica version using spangles instead of crystals will be available for $90.

523 miles: How far Joby Aviation’s vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (VTOL) flew during its test flight. The hydrogen-powered air taxi could provide an eco-friendly alternative to private jets, but not overnight — hurdles include the fact that it’s expensive to produce hydrogen power, and that ~95% of hydrogen produced in the US uses CO2-emitting natural gas. “Green hydrogen” is rare today but could become more prevalent thanks to a $7B initiative from the US government.

$18,118: Hidden costs the average US homeowner pays annually, up 26% since 2020, per Bankrate. This includes property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, and utilities. They’re up because, well, everything is: from the price of energy and labor, to the frequency of natural disasters and thus insurance premiums. The state with the highest average hidden costs per year is Hawaii at ~$29k.