The Download: NASA’s tiny spacecraft, and the RSV vaccine scarcity

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This is immediately’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on the earth of expertise.

Inside NASA’s bid to make spacecraft as small as potential

Since the Nineteen Seventies, we’ve despatched loads of large issues to Mars. But when NASA efficiently despatched twin Mars Cube One spacecraft, the scale of cereal packing containers, to the pink planet in November 2018, it was the primary time we’d ever despatched one thing so small.

Just making it this far heralded a brand new age in house exploration. NASA and the group of planetary science researchers caught a glimpse of a future lengthy sought: a pathway to rather more inexpensive house exploration utilizing smaller, cheaper spacecraft. 

There was a catch, although—one which NASA quickly needed to grapple with. Miniaturization can solely go to date earlier than it involves a crashing halt in opposition to some very basic legal guidelines of physics. Read the complete story.

—David W. Brown

This story is from our most up-to-date print concern of MIT Technology Review, which is all about society’s hardest issues, and the way we should always deal with them. If you don’t subscribe already, enroll now to get future points once they land.

RSV is on the rise however preventative medicine are in brief provide

This yr we had been speculated to have extra instruments than ever earlier than to guard youngsters from RSV (quick for respiratory syncytial virus), together with a brand new shot that’s given preventively to infants and weak toddlers to guard them from the worst results of the virus.

But now—simply as charges of illness are rising—this medication is in brief provide. The CDC issued an alert final week advising pediatricians to ration doses, reserving them for infants youthful than six months and people with underlying circumstances that place them at highest threat for extreme RSV. 

The state of affairs is irritating to oldsters and pediatricians alike. But shouldn’t forecasting demand for this sort of preventative be comparatively simple? And why was there such a mismatch between provide and demand within the first place? Read the complete story.

—Cassandra Willyard

This story first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech publication. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Sam Bankman-Fried has been discovered responsible on all seven fraud costs 
But he’ll have to attend till March subsequent yr to seek out out his sentence. (Economist $)
+ The tech trade has already moved on, although. (NYT $)
+ It’s unlikely that SBF would be the final of his variety. (The Atlantic $)

2 Meta’s open-source AI comes at a value
Just as a result of Llama 2 is publicly accessible doesn’t imply it’s low-cost. (The Information $)
+ AI corporations actually don’t wish to pay for coaching information. (Insider $)

3 We shouldn’t get complacent about covid this winter
The reality vaccines are a lot tougher to get nowadays isn’t serving to. (The Atlantic $)
+ Who advantages most from the brand new covid vaccines? (MIT Technology Review)

4 The AI growth is lining Big Tech’s pockets
The wealthy have gotten even richer because of their cloud investments. (WSJ $)

5 Surveillance tech is coming to a metropolis close to you 
City councils are investing in Fusus AI techniques, however not all residents are glad. (404 Media)
+ Marseille’s battle in opposition to the surveillance state. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Zoonotic illnesses are a rising menace
Animal-to-human illnesses are forecast to kill many extra folks in future many years. (FT $)
+ Meet the scientist on the middle of the covid lab leak controversy. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Forget the leap second—it’s time for the leap minute
Technically, it might bridge the 2 methods we inform the time. But is the world prepared? (NYT $)

8 How on-line playing ensnared a complete era of Africans
Its governments are ill-equipped to guard residents who’re changing into more and more addicted. (Bloomberg $)
+ How cell cash supercharged Kenya’s sports activities betting dependancy. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Airbnb isn’t what it was
Its value is on the rise—and so are complaints. (Vox)
+ New York’s conflict in opposition to Airbnb has made it much more costly to go to. (The Atlantic $)

10 We all know food regimen soda is dangerous for us 🥤
Maybe candy protein substitutes might provide a more healthy different. (Proto.Life)

Quote of the day

“The crypto trade is likely to be new, the gamers like Sam Bankman-Fried could also be new, however this sort of fraud is as outdated as time and we’ve got no persistence for it.”

— Damian Williams, the US legal professional who led the prosecution of disgraced crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has a solemn message for reporters outdoors the Manhattan courtroom, Reuters reviews.

The large story

Inside the app Minnesota police used to gather information on journalists at protests

March 2022

Photojournalist J.D. Duggan was masking a protest in Minnesota in April 2021 when law enforcement officials surrounded him and others, and advised them to get on the bottom.

Officers sorted the press from the protesters, walked them to a car parking zone, and commenced photographing them, one after the other. They advised Duggan the pictures can be saved in an app. 

An investigation by MIT Technology Review discovered the info was collected utilizing a software known as Intrepid Response, a straightforward solution to nearly immediately de-anonymize protest attendees and maintain tabs on their actions. For some, the software’s use is a harmful step within the course of authoritarianism. Read the complete story.

—Sam Richards & Tate Ryan-Mosley

We can nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Got any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Thanks to the wonders of AI, we’ve been blessed with one final Beatles tune.
+ 65 years in the past immediately, Laika the canine grew to become the primary canine in orbit! 🪐
+ Working as a Disney animation mannequin seems to be completely exhausting.
+ The world’s most distant lighthouses is a superb topic for a e book.
+ Historic England is on the hunt for ghost indicators—these fantastically light painted indicators promoting companies and merchandise of the previous.

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