Good morning! Today: pooled tests could help us reopen safely without a vaccine, China is on its way to Mars, and why Japan is emerging as NASA's most important partner. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day.
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Why pooled tests could be a way to reopen safely without a vaccine
Test, test, test: It’s impossible to contain covid-19 without knowing who’s infected: until a safe and effective vaccine is widely available, stopping transmission is the name of the game. While testing capacity has increased, it’s nowhere near what’s needed to screen patients without symptoms, who account for nearly half of the virus’s transmission.
The idea: In pooled testing, many people’s samples are combined into one. If no virus is detected in the combined sample, that means no one in the pool is infected. The entire pool can be cleared with just one test.
A compelling opportunity: If we combined machine learning with test pooling, large populations could be tested weekly or even daily, for as low as $3 to $5 per person per day. In other words, for the price per test of a cup of coffee, governments could safely reopen the economy and halt ongoing covid-19 transmission—all without building new labs and without new drugs or vaccines.
The AI aspect: A key part of knowing how to pool is knowing the likelihood that certain people in the group will be positive, and separating them from the rest. How do we know that risk? That’s where machine learning comes in, estimating the risk for each individual person. Read the full story. By Ned Augenblick, Jonathan Kolstad, and Ziad Obermeyer, associate professors at the University of California, Berkeley. They are also cofounders of Berkeley Data Ventures, a consultancy that applies machine learning to healthcare problems.
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China’s Tianwen-1 mission is on its way to Mars
The news: China’s Tianwen-1 mission to Mars successfully lifted off shortly before 1pm local time today, Chinese media reported. The mission, which includes a lander, rover, and orbiter, is expected to arrive at the red planet in February 2021. It’s the first nation to try to transport all three components to Mars at once.
The purpose: The rover is designed to carry out extensive geological research and mapping of Mars. It should help us to better understand the distribution of ice on Mars, which would be crucial to sustaining human life there. The orbiter will study Mars’s atmosphere and magnetic field for 90 Martian days.
Summer of Mars: The mission is the second of three bound for Mars due to launch this month, following the United Arab Emirates’ launch of its Hope orbiter on July 20. NASA is set to launch its Perseverance rover next week. All three launches are clustered closely together as they hope to take advantage of the short period which occurs every 26 months or so when Earth and Mars are closer than usual.
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Why Japan is emerging as NASA’s most important space partner
What’s happening: Japan is emerging as one of the most important partners for NASA’s Artemis program to send humans back to the moon—perhaps the most important. The US and Japan signed a formal agreement on July 9 regarding further collaboration in human exploration. Without Japan, the agency would find it much more difficult to meet the long-term goals of establishing a sustainable permanent presence on the moon.
Why Japan? The country has a spaceflight pedigree superior to that of most other American allies. In return, Japan gets to participate in a major human exploration program and likely send its own astronauts to the moon via NASA missions, without having to pay for and develop a lunar mission of its own.
The details: Specific details about the new agreement were not released, but we already know the country is sending a couple of science payloads on Artemis 1 (an uncrewed mission around the moon) and Artemis 2 (crewed, but only a flyby). The biggest thing Japan might contribute is a pressurized lunar rover that astronauts could use to cruise around the moon. Read the full story.
—Neel V. Patel
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We can still have nice things
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The top ten must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Global coronavirus cases have sailed past the 15 million mark
The US is the worst hit, followed by Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa. ( Reuters)
+ Numbers of hospitalizations in the US are back near their April peak. ( NYT $)
+ The CDC found lots of undetected coronavirus cases in the US. ( Ars Technica)
+ A convent outside Detroit lost 12 nuns to covid-19 in a single month. ( CNN)
+ Young people see coronavirus as a bigger threat than their elders do. ( The Economist)
+ The pandemic isn’t over. We need to act accordingly. ( Self)
2 It’s very unlikely you can become reinfected with covid-19, experts say
Anecdotal reports of reinfection are more likely to be one single drawn out infection. ( NYT $)
3 The US has agreed to pay $2 billion for 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine 💉
The vaccine candidate is made by Pfizer and biotech firm BioNTech. ( CNBC)
+ What it’s like to be one of the 10,000 participants in the Oxford vaccine trial. ( BBC Future)
4 The Twitter hackers accessed 36 high profile people’s direct messages
Joe Biden was not one of them. ( TechCrunch)
5 What if covid-19’s origins aren’t in China?
If true, this theory could help explain why Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam have had so few infections. ( The Economist)
6 New York has placed a moratorium on the use of facial recognition in schools
It seems to be the first state to try to regulate the use of the technology in this setting. ( VentureBeat)
7 How to stay productive when the world is on fire
Take lots of breaks. Ideally outside. And most of all: be kind to yourself. ( Wired $)
8 Social distancing devices will be fall’s hot new trend
A buzzing tag will teach you that six feet is further away than you think it is. ( NYT $)
9 Brits are sick of queuing
2020, what have you done?! ( Wired UK)
10 How clever are dogs? 🐶
Whatever the answer, they are very good boys regardless. ( Gizmodo)
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“I don't want to be a hero. I want to teach.”
—Claudia, a music teacher at a school in Massachusetts, tells Teen Vogue she doesn’t want teachers to be put at risk then be lionized, as has been the case for healthcare workers.
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