Keeping covid vaccines cold isn’t easy. These ideas could help.

A voice game boom is giving kids a break from screen time 

The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Keeping cool 03.29.21 Good morning! Today: ideas to get around mRNA vaccines' ultra-cold requirements, and voice games are helping kids to keep away from screens. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Keeping covid vaccines cold isn’t easy. These ideas could help.   The problem: In order to end the pandemic, it will be essential to get vaccines to all parts of the world. But there’s a complication for some covid vaccines: the need to keep them very cold. Currently, Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be kept at -80°C for long-term storage, and Moderna’s at -20°C. Home refrigerators maintain temperatures of about 2 to 4°C. The solutions: Scientists and engineers are taking two different routes: changing parts of the cold chain, or changing the vaccines themselves. Pharmaceutical companies have been testing various storage temperatures, hoping to bring them up a bit. And the companies are looking at the fragile mRNAs inside the vaccines—strings of nucleic acids that give cells instructions on how to fight covid. Currently, they’re wrapped in fat to keep them protected. But scientists are experimenting with other ways to make them stable, including upping the sugar concentration in the formulas they use, and using more solid molecules. Another angle: Then there are the refrigerators themselves. Engineers have designed a barrel-sized super Thermos which requires no electricity to keep vaccines cold—just dry ice or water and ethanol. And Pfizer is working on a process that would avoid the cold chain altogether: dehydrating the vaccines. Read the full story. —Wudan Yan A voice game boom is giving kids a break from screen time A growing trend: The science behind whether screen time is actually bad for kids is not settled, but many parents are still worried that their children spend too much time staring at tablets and televisions. For these families, voice and audio games seem like a healthier alternative. As a result, voice games have rocketed up the download charts during this pandemic year. Many run on voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa. Some examples: These games have mostly taken the form of choose-your-own-adventure stories and trivia competitions. But they're growing in sophistication. The game Lemonade Stand, for example, lets kids practice running a business, while in Kids Court, a voice assistant adjudicates arguments between children by having them talk out their differences. Why they’re so popular: Most voice games can be played asynchronously, meaning players don’t have to be in the same place or playing at the same time. Parents also like the fact that many voice games offer an empty canvas for creativity. And it’s not just kids who are eschewing the screen; adults are a growing market for voice games too. Read the full story. —Tanya Basu 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.)   + Gawp at these incredibly stylish home renovations.   + Some Russian men singing a folk song.   + This tool lets you stick the Ever Given ship anywhere in the world you want.    + Some ideas for dishes that should be eaten outside. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Covid-19 cases are ticking up again in the US This felt sadly inevitable since new variants started showing up. (CNBC)   + Each state's vaccine website, compared. (The Markup)   + How the UK variant tore through a tiny English island and onto the world stage. (Reuters)   + There were no deaths from covid-19 in London yesterday, for the first time in six months. (BBC)   + How German perfectionism wrecked its vaccine program. (The Guardian)  2 The ship stuck in the Suez Canal has been partially freed 🚢 I already miss it. (WSJ $)   + The strange allure of the big ship. (Wired $)  3 Why is being lonely so bad for us? We know prolonged isolation has a terrible impact—but we still don't really know why. (Wired UK)   + Lockdowns have taken a huge toll on people's mental health. (NYT $)  4 The UK is considering using facial recognition for vaccine passports An option fraught with privacy and security concerns. (The Times $)   + Privacy experts are concerned about New York's vaccine passport app. (Gothamist)  5 Why Amazon's suddenly started being very aggressive online Basically, Jeff Bezos thinks it's a good idea. (Recode)   + It's no coincidence that the unionization drive in Alabama is entering its final stretch. (The Guardian)   + How Amazon helped to create an America in despair. (Protocol)  6 Women are turning unsolicited dick pics into NFTs Finally, a good use case. (Input)   + Let's walk through the carbon footprint of an NFT compared to a physical artwork. (Quartz)   + Why did someone pay $560,000 for an NFT of a New York Times column? (NYT $)  7 Why Microsoft wants to buy Discord It's all about getting access to the millions of highly-engaged users. (The Verge)   8 Former prisoners are struggling to get to grips with the internet If you've been locked up since 1983, you've got a lot to catch up on. (NBC)   9 There's an online dating community for people who love trains 🚆👨‍❤️‍👨 It's kind of a joke, but it's also kind of not. (The Atlantic $)   10 Can you tell the difference between real human faces and ones made by AI? Bet you can't. (Vice) What's next for a digitally transformed workforce? Join MIT Technology Review and Harvard Business Review at EmTech Next, the signature "future of work" event. Explore innovative technologies and leadership strategies that will power a forever changed workforce. Reserve your spot today. Quote of the Day "There were about a hundred thousand deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially." —Dr Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under Donald Trump, tells CNN that the vast majority of deaths from covid-19 in the US could have been avoided. Top image credit: Getty Please send the Ever Given 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 today Leading a forever-changed workforce Join us virtually | June 8-10, 2021 Register now   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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