Images of students wearing so-called “anti-cheating hats” during college exams have gone viral on social media in the Philippines, sparking amusement.

Students at one college in Legazpi City were asked to wear headgear that would prevent them looking at others’ papers. Many responded by creating homemade devices out of cardboard, egg boxes and other recycled materials.

Their tutor told the BBC she had been looking for a “fun way” to ensure “integrity and honesty” in her classes. Mandane-Ortiz, a professor of mechanical engineering at Bicol University College of Engineering, said the idea had been “really effective”. It was carried out for recent mid-term exams, which were sat by hundreds of students at the college in the third week of October. Prof Mandane-Ortiz said her initial request had been for students to make a “simple” design out of paper. She was inspired by a technique reportedly used in Thailand some years previously. In 2013, an image went viral appearing to show a room of university students in Bangkok taking test papers while wearing “ear flaps”—sheets of papers stuck to either side of their head to obscure their vision. Prof Mandane-Ortiz said her engineers-in-training took the idea and ran with it—in some cases innovating complex headgear in “just five minutes” with any junk they found lying around. Others wore hats, helmets or Halloween masks to fulfill the direction.

A string of the professor’s Facebook posts—showing the youngsters wearing their elaborate(精心制作的) creations—gained thousands of likes in a matter of days, and attracted coverage from Filipino media. They also reportedly inspired schools and universities in other parts of the country to encourage their own students to put together anti-cheating headwear.

Prof Mandane-Ortiz said her students performed better this year, having been motivated by the strict examination conditions to study extra hard. Many of them finished their tests early, she added, and nobody was caught cheating this year because they themselves expected justice in their exams.

If you are reading this, you were probably born in the 2000s.The oh-ohs.The 21^st century.That would make you young, creative, connected, global, and no doubt smart.Maybe good-looking, too.Right? But what do other people think about your generation?

Some adults worry that you’re more interested in the screen in front of you than the world around you.They think of you as the “face-down generation” because you use your phone so much and they wonder how you will deal with school, friends, and family.Are today’s teenagers too busy texting and taking selfies to become successful in real life - or “IRL”, as you would say?

Other adults worry that today’s youth are spoilt and don’t want to face the challenges of adult life.Many children born in the 1990s and 2000s were raised by “helicopter parents”, who were always there to guide and help their children with a busy schedule filled with homework and after-class activities such as dancing, drawing, or sports.With parents who do everything for them, today’s youth seem to prefer to live like teenagers even when they are in their 20s or 30s.

With these taken into account, does the face-down generation need a warning? Well, probably not.The fact is that many of today’s teenagers are better educated and more creative than past generations.They seem to be enthusiastic and willing to become leaders.More young people than ever volunteer to help their communities.There are also brave young people such as Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for pushing girls’ rights to go to school.

So if you’re one of the oh-ohs, there are reasons to be hopeful about the future.Things are looking up for the face-down generation.Chances are that you will do GR8 (great) and LOL (laugh out loud.

In the wake of the banning of white coats for doctors, Dr. Max explorers whether the rule makes sense.

White coats, replaced by plastic aprons, were banned, along with things like ties, because it was claimed that they were an infection risk, often covered with organic matter. Many doctors have felt offended by this — not because they are being required to observe rules, but because the rules make no sense.

In fact, it’s actually a dangerous policy because it mists the real problems faced when tackling hospital-acquired infections. Along with hand washing, the only other variable that has been consistently shown to be relevant to hospital-acquired infections are bed occupancy rates. Put simply, the quicker the turnaround in hospitals and the more pressure there are on beds, the more infections there are.

Rather than look critically at the current model for the NHS (National Health Service), which is all about cutting beds, and realizing that this is directly contributing to hospital infections, it’s far easier to look to the innocent white coat and ban that instead.

By banning white coats and ties, doctors now don’t look “smart” and have lost their “presence” in hospitals. Most frustratingly for doctors, who are encouraged to practice evidence-based medicine, there’s no clear evidence that white coats actually carry any disease-causing bugs. A review commissioned by the Department of Health (DH) found that most of the bugs that were found on white coats were simply from the doctor’s skin and would be on any item of clothing they wore — and didn’t cause disease anyway.

The fact that the white coats don’t spread disease is borne out not just by studies, but in practice too. In Hong Kong, for example, where white coats are still standard uniform for all doctors, the rates of hospital acquired infection are still considerably lower than UK hospitals. In fact, in other European countries where white coats are worn, the infection rates are also lower than the UK.

The case against white coats was shallow and fueled by politics not evidence. Surely, it’s time doctors rose up and put on their white coats once more.