“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or cancer or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody.””

— Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The Lab focus on loneliness has resulted in a lot of interest - with support and challenge for the tests we are proposing.

Here's a round-up of some of the reaction...

The suggestion that AirBnb style co-living could solve two problems at once caused some debate.

Peter Hall pointed out that market has already answered that question - with a useful link to spareroom.co.uk, Are housing providers promoting these resources well enough?

Sahil Khan pointed out this is less a future model - and more a return to how communities lived until relatively recently...

Cathy Ayrton pointed out Alex from Shared Lives has done some good work on this - and that's an important link for us going forward.

How well do we design bump spaces - where people can meet naturally and take time to speak to one another?

Roz Davies highlighted some more resources and also made an important point about virtual bump spaces. We'll be testing the use of iBeacons to support how physical and virtual can be blended - perhaps using some basic VR techniques using Cardboard VR.

Both Sophie Payne and Pamela Welsh ( and quite a few others ) - highlighted similar work to the Lab which is why working out loud is so important. We are all working on same things - so it's vital we join up and don't duplicate.

Neville Higman and Shirley Ayres raised the issue of isolation as experienced by carers.

A fascinating provocation from Emma Bearman - what if everyday objects like garden gnomes or dustbins were equipped with sensors to detect social isolation?

One of the most intriguing threads was started by Andy Johnson and Natasha Andrews who shared the idea of a #BillyNoMates club to destigmatise social networks for the lonely.

Jane Turner- Bragg also talks about this in the next Lab Show - the importance of language and not dwelling on the negatives!

Quite a few others picked up on the idea of making it fun and engaging. There are loads of deadly earnest reports out there - we are committed to coming up with practical solutions - and you'll be able to follow them here!

Thanks to everyone for commenting and sorry we couldn't include them all.