How to test everyone for the coronavirus

Facebook's digital currency project just got a lot less audacious 

Sponsored by BBVA OpenMind The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 04.17.20 Good morning! Today: how to test everyone for the coronavirus, Facebook has radically scaled back its digital currency plans, and how to get your elderly relatives into video calling. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. How to test everyone for the coronavirus   The situation: The US badly fumbled the rollout of testing for the coronavirus. Tests remain limited, and so now the possibility that everyone can be tested, all the time, appears to ride on private initiative. As a result, entrepreneurs and academic gene jockeys are hatching schemes for population-level coronavirus testing. Why it’s needed: About half the globe’s population is under stay-at-home orders to stall the spread of the coronavirus. Reopening will depend on massive levels of testing so people know if they are infected right away. Potential options: Either we develop centralized testing, where we collect samples from lots of people and process them in one place, or a decentralized process where we let everyone test at home, whenever they need to. Both approaches are complex and risky, and will take time to set up. Read the full story. —Antonio Regalado Facebook’s digital currency project just got a lot less audacious Remember Libra, Facebook’s plan to create a global digital currency? Unveiled last June, it was immediately met with resistance from policymakers and central bankers around the world. So the team went back to the drawing board, and this week it reemerged with a new vision—one that is a lot less audacious than the original.  The changes: Facebook has a whole new plan. Instead of its own currency, it will provide a “digital composite of some of the single-currency stablecoins available on the Libra network.” It will also integrate central bank digital currencies as they become available.  It’s even less of a “cryptocurrency” now. Few purists have ever seen Libra as a true cryptocurrency, despite the fact that it will use distributed ledger technology. A signature characteristic of Bitcoin and its brethren is that they are “permissionless,” meaning that anyone with the right hardware can run the network’s shared software and contribute to the ongoing validation of new transactions. The validators in Libra’s network, on the other hand, will need to be vetted and given permission by the Libra Association. Read the full story.  —Mike Orcutt We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Fancy lunch with an MIT faculty member? Get bidding! The money raised goes to a covid-19 disaster relief fund.   + Chicago pastry chef Gale Gand is offering free classes from her home.   + How to set up your elderly relatives with video calling capabilities from afar.   + Call your Mom.   + Bears in Yosemite are living it up.   + How to play board games over video chat. Sponsor Message The Must-Read Book on Data and AI's Impact on the Labor Market Looking for top quality material to read these days? How about getting up to date on how digitalization, automation and AI affect productivity, growth, and employment? In BBVA OpenMind’s new book, “Work in the Age of Data”, 19 world-class experts shed light on these vital issues which are shaping the world today and provide ideas on how we can ensure that technological advances will lead to better jobs for everyone. The book is available for free download in different electronic formats as well as audio. Click here to download your free copy.   The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Facebook is stepping up its efforts to debunk coronavirus falsehoods It’s still not explicitly telling people if they’ve seen or shared incorrect posts, though. (TR) 2 The world’s biggest covid-19 drugs trial has started in the UK 💊 It’s recruited over 5,000 patients in 165 hospitals. (The Guardian)   + The UK’s lockdown won’t end until these five conditions are met. (Sky News)   + The UK’s National Health Service is in a standoff with Google and Apple over contact tracing. (The Guardian) 3 Massachusetts turns to an old fashioned contact tracing method: people The state is hiring 1,000 people to find then warn people who’ve been exposed to coronavirus. (NYT $)   + Bluetooth is at the core of tech-based tracing. (Quartz) 4 Uh, the internet is still a dumpster fire 🔥 Sorry. (The Atlantic)   + Or is it? I guess your answer depends which bits you hang out in. (TR)   + We’re alone, but that doesn’t mean we have to be lonely. (The Economist $)   + FOMO is still a thing, even in lockdown. (NYT $) 5 CT scans might offer an alternative to coronavirus tests They were widely used in China, but they are more expensive and time consuming. (STAT)   + Testing in the US is a zipcode lottery. (The Markup) 6 Amazon is trying to make people buy less It’s taking promotions off the site and delaying its usual sales bonanzas. (WSJ $) 7 People are recreating art on Instagram and it’s glorious 🖼️ Surprisingly, none of these are “The Scream.” (NYT $) 8 Immunity to covid-19 is not what you think It’s unlikely to be permanent or perfect. (Wired $) 9 Moscow tried to implement widespread surveillance and failed  The authorities seem to have been too incompetent and arrogant to make it work. (The Moscow Times) 10 Three astronauts are returning from space today 👩‍🚀 “Honestly, you might as well have stayed up there.” (The Verge) How will you adapt your strategy and your workforce when technology changes your business and your market? Join our upcoming virtual conference, EmTech Next, to gain real-world insights into the technologies that are changing the status quo. Quote of the day “We seem to be banging on a lot of doors and nobody is listening.” —Abi Reader, a farmer, tells Wired UK that parts of the agricultural sector are closer to collapse than we might think.  Top image credit: MS TECH | GETTY Please send your art recreations to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Get unlimited access to online stories. 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