Of course you could have seen this coming

Startups are racing to reproduce breast milk in the lab 

Sponsored by Arm The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Hiding in plain sight 01.08.21 Good morning! Today: more fallout from the Capitol invasion, including why we should have seen it coming, how conspiracies about it are already flourishing, and why it's such a security nightmare. Also: why the odds of US climate progress just slightly improved, and you've heard about lab-grown burgers, but what about artificial breast milk? Have a fabulous weekend and don't forget you can get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Of course you could have seen this coming   The level of shock you feel right now about the power and danger of online extremism depends on whether you were paying attention.  The rabble of internet-fuelled Trump supporters who tried to block Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s presidential victory showed how the stupidity and danger of the far-right internet could come into the real world again, but this time it struck at the center of the US government.  Neo-nazi streamers weren’t just inside the Capitol, they were putting on a show for audiences of tens of thousands of people who egged them on in the chats. The mob was having fun doing memes in the halls of American democracy as a woman—a Trump supporter whose social media history shows her devotion to QAnon—was killed trying to break into Congressional offices. The past year, especially since the pandemic, has been one giant demonstration of the consequences of inaction; the consequences of ignoring the many, many people who have been begging social media companies to take the meme-making extremists and conspiracy theorists that have thrived on their platforms seriously. Read the full story. —Abby Ohlheiser Read more: How an internet lie about the Capitol invasion turned into an instant conspiracy theory Just as well-known, easily identifiable far-right figures livestreamed themselves invading the Capitol in Washington, DC, a lie started spreading around the Trump-supporting internet: What if the mob was actually a group of antifa activists trying to make the president’s supporters look bad? The lie’s spread provided a perfect encapsulation of how conspiracy theories are born and grow in less than 24 hours. Read the full story. Startups are racing to reproduce breast milk in the lab   On a summer day in 2013, Leila Strickland sat, rapt, in front of her laptop and watched on screen as Mark Post unveiled the first lab-grown hamburger.  He had taken thousands of tissue culture plates full of bovine stem cells, mixed them with fetal calf serum and other nutrients, and waited until they differentiated into muscle cells. This was exciting in and of itself. But Strickland’s mind wandered to another potential application of cell culturing: human breast milk.  Like many mothers, Strickland had hoped to breastfeed both her children for the first six months after they were born. The medical establishment considers breastfeeding the gold standard of infant nutrition. But like many mothers, Strickland had found breastfeeding difficult. As Strickland watched Post from her kitchen table, she began thinking about how she might be able to use a process like his to grow not artificial beef but the cells that produce breast milk.  She had earned her doctorate in cell biology and spent several years as a researcher at Stanford before finding work as a medical editor and writer. She and her husband scrounged together $5,000 in savings and purchased a hulking gray tissue culture hood, a microscope, an incubator, and a centrifuge from eBay for her to experiment with. For years she struggled to keep the project funded, and she came close to abandoning the idea. But in May 2020, Biomilq, a company she had founded, got $3.5 million from a group of investors led by Bill Gates. Biomilq is now in a race with competitors in Singapore and New York to shake up the world of infant nutrition in a way not seen since the birth of the now $42 billion formula industry. Read the full story. —Haley Cohen Gilliland This article is from the latest issue of MIT Technology Review, all about food. Read the full magazine, and if you haven’t already, you can subscribe to MIT Technology Review for the year for as little as $50. The odds of US climate progress just improved a bit A smoother path: The outcomes in Georgia’s runoff Senate elections hand the Democratic Party control of both chambers of Congress, easing the path for President-elect Joe Biden to achieve progress on his ambitious climate agenda. Why it matters: It means Biden will find it far easier to quickly push through political appointees in charge of crucial departments like the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. That, in turn, could help the incoming administration more rapidly restore crucial environmental regulations that Trump had challenged or rolled back. There could also be opportunities to enact new climate policies under what’s known as the budget reconciliation process, in which measures pass with a simple majority and under strictly limited debate time. However: The Democrat majority is too narrow to easily overcome the 60 votes required to end a filibuster in the Senate. That will almost certainly still prevent movement on the most ambitious climate policies. Read the full story. —James Temple  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.)   + The funniest things on the internet this past year.   + It’s cold, it’s dark and we’re in a pandemic, so low-fuss one-pan dishes are the way to go.   + There’s something outrageously cute about cats with their tongues out.    + 52 places to love in 2021. (NYT $) Sponsor Message A new horizon: Expanding the AI landscape Organizations are using AI to drive business and improve processes. That’s spurring changes in how they’re deploying the technology and governing its use. To see how industry leaders are stepping up, download the report here. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The mob at the Capitol may have threatened national security At least one laptop containing sensitive information was stolen. (Buzzfeed)   + This is a nightmare scenario for Capitol IT staff. (Wired $)    + Madness on Capitol Hill. (The Nation)   + Much of it was live-streamed by participants. (Wired $)   + And people are scrambling to identify the perpetrators from that footage. (The Verge)   + Parler’s role in the mess. (Vox)  2 Donald Trump has been suspended by Facebook indefinitely I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the Republicans also just lost power. (Protocol)   + Twitch has suspended him too. (The Verge)   + Experts say it’s all too little, too late. (The Guardian)   + YouTube is mostly still a safe space for fascists. (NYT $)  3 More life-saving medication for covid-19 💊 The two anti-inflammatory arthritis drugs reduced deaths among hospitalized patients by a quarter in a trial. (The Economist $)   + How to fix the vaccine rollout. (NYT $)   + Some experts want to relax vaccine prioritization. (Axios)   + The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine appears to still work against new coronavirus variants. (Reuters)   + The race to vaccinate the world has begun in earnest. (The Economist $)   + And…. vaccine misinformation is still rife on Facebook. (The Guardian)  4 Why 2020 was a pivotal, contradictory year for facial recognition We’ve never been more aware of all the problems with it, yet its adoption just keeps growing and growing. (TR)   5 Boeing has been ordered to pay $2.5 billion to settle 737 Max charges That is one hell of an expensive software error. (FT $)   6 The pandemic made all of us adopt immigrant traditions Technology has made the separation easier to bear for diaspora families for decades. (The Verge)   7 Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world In theory. (CNBC)   + How he got here. (The Guardian)  8 How those Boston Dynamics robots got their moves 🤖🕺 Sure, they can dance. But it’s all hand-coded. No machine learning. (IEEE Spectrum)   9 Online sperm sales are booming Everyone’s a winner?! (NYT $)   10 Science’s demons  No, not the sort with horns. The gaps in our knowledge that continue to haunt us. (New Yorker $) Our New Year's offer ends tonight. Get 2 additional months FREE when you subscribe to MIT Technology Review today. Make 2021 the year you keep up with the pace of tech innovations and their impact on the way you live and work. Subscribe now and save. Quote of the day "Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle. I can't believe this happened." —A NATO intelligence official tells Business Insider what he thinks happens on Wednesday. Top image credit: CHRIS KLEPONIS | SIPA USA, VIA AP IMAGES Second image credit: AMRITA MARINO Please send casserole 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 The age of implementation Join us virtually | March 23–25, 2021 View in a browser This newsletter was sent to ricklivermore.1220@blogger.com. Manage your preferences to get special discounts, important news, information on exclusive events and initiatives from MIT Technology Review. You can unsubscribe to stop receiving all emails. 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