TIME has released its Best Inventions of 2026, and apparently the future isn't just robots and self-driving cars.

It's also menopause trackers, 30-minute STI tests, sourdough babysitters and toothbrushes with CAMERAS.
TIME's massive list features 300 inventions plus 100 special mentions, chosen for things like originality, effectiveness and potential impact.
Here are a few that caught our attention.
🔥 A Wearable for Perimenopause
Women in their 40s may collectively respond to this one with:
FINALLY. The Peri wearable is a small sensor worn under the breast that can track hot flashes, night sweats, sleep, menstrual cycles, movement and other symptoms. The idea is to give women actual information they can take to their doctor.
Because “I haven't slept properly since 2022, I'm sweating through my pyjamas and everyone is annoying me”apparently isn't enough medical data.
Related: For Better or Weirder: Canadian Inventions That Changed the World
🩺 An At-Home STI Test
The Visby Medical Rapid PCR At-Home Women's STI Test can test for chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis using a vaginal swab.
And results can come back in about 30 minutes, without having to send your sample to a lab. Which may make that the longest 30 minutes of your life.

🥖 A Babysitter for Your Sourdough
Remember 2020 when we all decided we were pioneer women making bread? Well, apparently some people actually kept going.
The Sourdough Sidekick can automatically feed and maintain your sourdough starter for up to a week. There's also Dough Dissolve, which helps break down all that dried dough stuck to your bowls and utensils.
🪥 A Toothbrush With a CAMERA
The Dyson CameraJet combines an electric toothbrush with a water flosser and includes a tiny camera in the brush head. It can analyze images from inside your mouth to help you clean between your teeth. So yes, you can essentially get an up-close look at your own molars.
📸 A Camera for Our Nostalgia Obsession
The Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema combines old-school vibes with modern technology. It has a “decade dial” that lets you give photos and videos looks inspired by different eras.
So now you can take a photo in 2026 and immediately make it look like your mom took it in 1987. All the nostalgia, none of the waiting three weeks to discover your thumb covered half the photo.
🇨🇦 Canada Made the List Too!
Several Canadian innovations were recognized this year. Toronto-based Cyclic Materials was honoured for technology that recovers valuable rare-earth materials from old magnets so they can be reused in electronics and electric vehicles.
Montreal's Alvéole was recognized for Aura, which uses urban beehives and environmental sensors to help measure biodiversity around buildings.
Also in Montreal, ELYSIS was recognized for technology aimed at producing aluminum without the direct greenhouse-gas emissions created by traditional smelting.
And B.C.-based Moment Energy made the list for its Surrey facility that gives old electric-vehicle batteries a second life as energy-storage systems.
We've finally reached the future.
And apparently the future is a menopausal woman checking her hot-flash data while livestreaming her molars and getting a notification that her sourdough has been fed.
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