MEDICINE

Researchers Push for Mass Blood Tests as a Covid-19 Strategy

Gregory Barber | Wired

“…a simple blood test, like the kind Zaaijer’s team will perform on the donated blood, can tell whether it carries antibodies to Covid-19, which are produced when a person’s immune system responds after an infection. Identifying what proportion of the population has already been infected is key to making the right decisions about containment.”

China Goes Back to Work as the Coronavirus Rages Elsewhere

Will Knight | Wired

“Three months after the novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China appears to have successfully dampened the rate of new infections—even allowing for some fudging in the official numbers. …Regulations vary by province, but tough measures are in place for workers even in cities that were spared the worst of the virus. These include firm workplace rules, rigorous testing, travel restrictions, and comprehensive smartphone tracking.”

10 Covid-Busting Designs: Spraying Drones, Fever Helmets, and Anti-Virus Snoods

Oliver Wainwright | The Guardian

“Designers, engineers, and programmers have heard the klaxon call. The last few weeks have seen a wave of ingenuity unleashed, with both garden-shed tinkerers and high-tech manufacturers scrambling to develop things that will combat the spread of Covid-19.”

We Just Glimpsed How a ‘Digital Dollar’ Might Work, Thanks to Coronavirus

Mike Orcutt | MIT Technology Review

“Even though the proposed system didn’t make the final cut for the coronavirus response bill, it appears the digital dollar got closer than ever to becoming a reality. And the pandemic-fueled crisis may just end up being an important turning point in the discussion.”

Turning Back the Clock on Aging Cells

Nicholas Wade | The New York Times

“Researchers at Stanford University report that they can rejuvenate human cells by reprogramming them back to a youthful state. They hope that the technique will help in the treatment of diseases, such as osteoarthritis and muscle wasting, that are caused by the aging of tissue cells.”

Coronavirus Pushed Folding@Home’s Crowdsourced Molecular Science to Exaflop Levels

Devin Coldewey | TechCrunch

“The long-running Folding@Home program to crowdsource the enormously complex task of solving molecular interactions has hit a major milestone as thousands of new users sign up to put their computers to work. The network now comprises an ‘exaflop’ of computing power: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second.”

2019 Saw Over 60 Gigawatts of Wind Power Installed

John Timmer | Ars Technica

“During the past year, wind power saw its second-largest amount of new installed capacity ever, with over 60GW going in. But the news going forward is a bit more uncertain, with the report predicting that after years of double-digit growth, the industry would see things tail off into steady-but-unspectacular territory. And that prediction was made before many key markets started dealing with the coronavirus.”

The Biggest Distance-Learning Experiment in History: Week One

Anya Kamenetz | NPR

“Thrown into the breach, public schools are setting out on an unprecedented experiment: With little training and even fewer resources, in a matter of days they’re shifting from a system of education that for centuries has focused on face to face interaction, to one that works entirely at a distance.”

Image Credit: Clayton Caldwell / Unsplash