The impact of the pandemic on online activism

An albino opossum proves CRISPR works for marsupials, too 

Sponsored by Lumen Technologies The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Organizing online 07.22.21 Good morning! Today: activists explain how they organized online during the pandemic, and CRISPR has been used to gene-edit a marsupial for the first time. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. The impact of the pandemic on online activism   For the past year, people in the United States were supposed to live at a distance and keep to themselves to prevent the spread of a deadly virus. At the same time, there was a nationwide reckoning on systemic racism and inequality, a contentious election, and a rise in racist violence. The activism that met those crises was often organized wholly or partially online, sometimes by young people experimenting with creative new ways to build social movements.  My colleague Abby Ohlheiser spoke to four people in their 20s who, through the internet, became viral voices, key organizers, and vital resources over the past year. Read their stories. This story is the last we'll share from the latest print edition of MIT Technology Review, all about change. Check out the full magazine, and if you want to get a copy of our next one, subscribe! It comes out at the end of August, it's going to be all about the mind, and it's going to be amazing. An albino opossum proves CRISPR works for marsupials, too   The news: CRISPR has been used to modify the genes of tomatoes, humans, and just about everything in between. Because of their unique reproductive biology and their relative rarity in laboratory settings, though, marsupials had eluded the CRISPR rush—until now. A team of researchers at Japan’s Riken Institute have used the technology to edit the genes of a South American species of opossum.  How they did it: The researchers used CRISPR to delete a gene that codes for pigment production. Targeting this gene meant that if the experiments worked, the results would be immediately obvious: the opossums would be albino if both copies of the gene were knocked out, and mottled, or mosaic, if a single copy was deleted. The resulting litter included one albino opossum and one mosaic opossum (pictured above).  Why it matters: The ability to tweak marsupial genomes could help biologists learn more about the animals and use them to study immune responses, developmental biology, and even diseases like melanoma. Read the full story. —Casey Crownhart 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.)      + I could eat chickpea-potato chaat by the bucketload. This summer corn rice looks delicious and very versatile too.    + It's slightly blown my mind that Donna Summer recorded the vocals for I Feel Love in one take.   + This Corgi puppy is endorsed by none other than Stephen King.   + Goths are just fine with it being the summer, thank you very much.   + If you want to hear from your heroes, there's a chance they've been on the BBC radio show Desert Island Discs. Listen to the tracks they'd choose to be stranded with!   + A good piece of advice for your career (and indeed life generally): get comfortable with saying "I don't know." Sponsor Message Computing at the cutting edge Placing computation and analysis close to where data is generated offers high speed and performance for a new class of applications. Learn more. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 How we'll coexist with covid-19 Much depends on the strength of our immune memories—and the pace of vaccinations globally. (New Yorker $)   + Some countries are now planning to just live with covid. (NYT $)   + Not Australia. Half of the country is back in lockdown. (NYT $)   + The pandemic shaved a full year and a half off Americans' life expectancy in 2020. (Slate)   + What vaccinated people need to know about their risk from the Delta variant. (Slate)   + The Delta variant now accounts for 83% of US cases. (CNN)   + The UK now has a vaccine passport in all but name. (Wired UK)   + How anti-vaxxers dodge social media bans. (NBC)  2 Floods in China have killed dozens The city of Zhengzhou has had almost a year’s worth of rain in three days. (WSJ $)   + The scenes from the subway there are the stuff of nightmares. (The Guardian)   + The public is questioning the readiness of the authorities for disaster. (The Guardian)   + From China to Germany, these floods expose just how vulnerable we are to climate change. (Reuters $)  3 Video game giant Activision is being sued over endemic sexual harassment It sounds like the company fostered a truly hellish working environment, especially for women and people of color. (Bloomberg $)   4 How TikTok works 📱 It's pretty simple: its algorithms look at how long you spend on each video and feed you more of the stuff you like. (WSJ - video $)   + The beauty of TikTok’s secret, surprising, and eerily accurate recommendation algorithms. (TR)  5 Why you should care about the fact you're being tracked This debate can seem theoretical. The case of a Catholic priests' private life being exposed brings it sharply into focus. (NYT $)   6 A flexible computer chip could enable some amazing inventions  This could let us connect everyday items like clothes and food containers to the internet. (New Scientist $)   7 Emirati Princess Latifa may have been captured using Pegasus spyware She has not been seen since her failed 2018 escape from her father. (WP $)   + Israel is coming under pressure due to the Pegasus revelations. (The Guardian)  8 Why gun violence is surging in the US Hopefully we will soon find out, thanks to hugely increased research funding. (Nature)   9 Can Blue Origin succeed? It's by no means guaranteed, despite Tuesday's flight. (Ars Technica)   + Saying "we need to move all polluting industry into space" is as dumb as it sounds. (Earther)   + Bezos' flight got as much morning show coverage in a day as climate change got all last year. (Earther)   10 Airbnb for pools is now a thing that exists 🏊 And I guess it makes a lot of sense. (WSJ $) Understand the promise of technology.  Make MIT Technology Review your go-to resource for thought-provoking insights, analysis, and news about the world of technology. Get unlimited access when you subscribe today. Quote of the day “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.” —In an emotional Facebook post, Dr. Brytney Cobia, an internal medicine specialist in Birmingham, Alabama, writes that young, otherwise healthy people are being admitted with covid-19 infections, and virtually every single one is unvaccinated.  Top image credit: GRACE HEEJUNG KIM Second image credit: RIKEN Please send chickpea-potato chaat 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 with Innovation. Join us virtually September 28-30. 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