The FDA is set to recommend mixing and matching covid booster shots

These weird virtual creatures evolve their bodies to solve problems

Sponsored by Insight The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology A boost for boosters 10.19.21 Good morning! Today: the FDA is poised to recommend mixing and matching for covid booster shots. Also: how weird, evolving virtual creatures could help lead to more general intelligence in machines. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. The FDA is set to recommend mixing and matching covid booster shots   The news: Americans may soon be able to to receive a different covid-19 vaccine as a booster to the one they originally received, according to the New York Times. The FDA has already authorized Pfizer booster shots for people aged over 65 and certain higher-risk groups. Its new guidance, expected this week, should pave the way for people to have more flexibility over which boosters they receive—and expand the numbers of people eligible for one.  Recent findings: Last week, researchers presented findings to the FDA from a trial which tested nine combinations of primary and booster vaccines. The main finding was that mixing and matching vaccines was at least as good as using the same primary and booster vaccine, if not better. The Moderna vaccine seemed to give the strongest protection as a booster, with Johnson & Johnson offering the weakest protection, especially for those who received it as their primary vaccine. However, the trial was relatively small, with just 458 participants, and is yet to be peer-reviewed. The big picture: Regardless, there's increasingly strong evidence for mixing-and-matching primary vaccines and booster shots. The UK has been administering different third to second shots for well over a month now, after conducting some of the earliest research on mixing vaccines in early 2021. However, booster shots remain contentious. While there's evidence that the vaccines' efficacy against transmission wanes over time, they still stop serious disease, death, and hospitalization. That's partly why the World Health Organization has repeatedly said that wealthy nations should donate extra shots rather than using them as boosters, as much of the world remains unvaccinated.  These weird virtual creatures evolve their bodies to solve problems   A weird world: An endless variety of virtual creatures scamper and scuttle across the screen, struggling over obstacles or dragging balls toward a target. They look like half-formed crabs made of sausages. But these "unimals" (short for “universal animals”) could in fact help researchers develop general intelligence in machines.  Promising research: Unimals have a head and multiple limbs. Researchers used them to explore two questions that often get overlooked in AI research: how intelligence is tied to the way bodies are laid out, and how abilities can be developed through evolution as well as learned. To see what they could do, they were first trained to do a task in a virtual environment, such as walking across different types of terrain. They then checked how they fared with various mutations. The process repeated millions of times: evolve and learn, evolve and learn. Why it matters: Typically, AI focuses only on the “mind”: building machines to do tasks that can be mastered without a body. But this limited repertoire could soon get old. Wrapping AIs in bodies that are adapted to specific tasks could make it easier for them to learn a wide range of new skills. Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven 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.)   + A great bit of dancing to Daddy Cool by Boney M.   + Feral Atlas lets you explore what happens when animals become tangled up with human infrastructure.   + If you own a slow cooker, now is the time to use it. Let these recipes inspire you.   + Catty cake! It's like pat-a-cake, but played by cats.    + How Denis Villeneuve finally made a Dune that fans will love. (NYT $)   + Cannot wait for this Beatles documentary. It's directed by Peter Jackson and features tons of previously unseen, restored footage.    + Watch the utterly gripping closing game of the Balloon World Cup, held last week.  Deepen your understanding of technology.  MIT Technology Review brings you thought provoking perspectives and insightful analysis on technology to help deepen your understanding of the world. Subscribe now and start becoming a better-informed technology citizen today. Sponsor Message Top Security and Risk Management Trends 2021 Information technology has rapidly accelerated over the past year, increasing the risk of cyberthreats. In this complimentary Gartner report, you’ll discover eight emerging cybersecurity trends, the implications of accelerated digital transformation and actionable steps to ensure resilience. The trends covered in this report represent business, market and technology dynamics that security and risk management leaders can’t afford to ignore. Access the report. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Russia is recording more covid deaths than ever before Only one-third of the country is fully vaccinated, amid widespread mistrust in the authorities. (NYT $)   + Unvaccinated Americans are more than 11 times more likely to die from covid. (Axios)   + UK covid cases are approaching 50,000 a day—a level not seen since July. (The Guardian)  2 The Facebook whistleblower won't really change anything We need a movement, not a messiah. (Wired $)   + The Facebook whistleblower says its algorithms are dangerous. Here’s why. (TR)  3 Women are facing an ever-growing barrage of online abuse  And instead of fixing it, tech companies are adding fuel to the fire. (BBC)   + How online sexism became such a big problem—and what can be done to stop it. (TR)   + The pandemic has spurred more people to engage with online extremism. (The Guardian)  4 Nuclear fusion is finally coming. Maybe. At least, more money is being poured into it than ever before. (NYT $)   5 A chain of TV stations in the US was hit by a ransomware attack It's the second such network to be hit with ransomware this year. (NBC)   + Why the ransomware crisis suddenly feels so relentless. (TR)  6 Lawmakers think Jeff Bezos might have lied to Congress On the question of whether Amazon uses data from third-party sellers as it develops its own products. (WSJ $)   + Amazon wants to hire 150,000 temporary workers for the holidays. (CNN)  7 Amid a worker shortage, restaurants are turning to robots 🤖 They never call in sick. But they do break down—and sometimes freak people out. (NYT $)   8 People are using drones to try to gain an edge in horse-race betting 🏇 But they've increasingly got a fight on their hands. (Wired UK)   9 Apple wants to sell you a $19 piece of cloth to clean your devices The saddest part is that loads of people will buy it. (The Verge)   + Everything Apple announced yesterday. (Wired $)  10 This Halloween, beware scammers selling 12-foot skeletons 💀 They may in fact just be 12 inches. (Input) Quote of the day “We have learned all the wrong lessons from the pandemic. We are attacking and removing authority from the people who are trying to protect us.” —Adriane Casalotti, chief of public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, an organization representing the nearly 3,000 local health departments across the US, tells the New York Times that the US may exit this pandemic even less prepared for the next one.  Top image credit: Associated Press Second image credit: AGRIM GUPTA, SILVIO SAVARESE, SURYA GANGULI & LI FEI-FEI Please send tiny skeletons 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 Build your strategic defense again cybercriminals Join us virtually | November 16-17, 2021 Register now Want to change how you receive these emails? 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