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This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.
The entrepreneur dreaming of a mill of unlimited organs
Martine Rothblatt was a palmy outer entrepreneur erstwhile her girl Jenesis was diagnosed with a fatal lung disease. So Rothblatt started a biotechnology company, United Therapeutics, which has developed drugs that are present keeping galore patients similar Jenesis alive. But she mightiness yet request a lung transplant. Rothblatt truthful acceptable retired to lick that occupation too, utilizing exertion to make an “unlimited proviso of transplantable organs.”
At immoderate fixed time, the US transplant waiting database is astir 100,000 radical long. Thousands dice waiting, and galore much ne'er marque the database to statesman with. Rothblatt wants to code this by increasing organs compatible with quality bodies successful genetically modified pigs.
In the past year, this imaginativeness has travel respective steps person to reality. US doctors person attempted 7 pig-to-human transplants, the astir melodramatic of which was a lawsuit wherever a 57-year-old antheral with bosom nonaccomplishment lived 2 months with a pig bosom supplied by Rothblatt’s company.
The experimentation demonstrated the archetypal life-sustaining pig-to-human organ transplant—and paved the mode towards an organized objective proceedings to beryllium they prevention lives consistently. Read the afloat story.
—Antonio Regalado
Organs connected demand is 1 of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies, which we’re highlighting successful The Download each time this week and next. You tin cheque retired the rest of the list for yourself now, and vote successful our poll to determine what should marque our last 11th technology.
China’s Paxlovid cyber scams are everywhere
Right now, China is consumed by an unprecedented surge of covid infections. The country’s healthcare strategy is stretched thin, covid treatments are successful precocious demand, and galore radical are disquieted astir themselves and their loved ones.
It’s against this backdrop that scammers are uncovering caller opportunities. They’re taking vantage of this question of anxiousness and fearfulness successful China by claiming connected societal media to merchantability covid treatments—particularly Paxlovid, the Pfizer-developed medicine that has been the astir effectual successful preventing terrible covid symptoms.
Demand for the cause has soared since authorities relaxed the country’s harsh zero-covid policies, and scammers are reaping the benefits. Read the afloat story.
—Zeyi Yang
Zeyi’s communicative is from China Report, his play newsletter shining a airy connected everything that’s going connected successful China. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Tuesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 It could instrumentality a decennary to cleanable up FTX’s mess
The US bankruptcy courts person ne'er dealt with a catastrophe connected this standard before. (Economist $)
+ Weirdly, Sam Bankman-Fried invested successful the money that backed his ain firm. (FT $)
+ The laminitis is facing 8 transgression counts. (CoinTelegraph)
+ What’s adjacent for crypto. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Germany wants to clasp Big Tech to account
It’s astatine the bosom of Europe’s attempts to clamp down connected anti-competitive behavior. (FT $)
+ The European Commission wants to excavation into telecoms providers, too. (Reuters)
+ The EU wants to modulate your favourite AI tools. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Tesla’s “full self-driving” bundle isn’t surviving up to its promises
Footage of a unsafe pile-up successful San Francisco demonstrates conscionable however flawed it is. (The Intercept)
4 What volition it instrumentality to marque the US a chipmaking powerhouse?
Extremely skilled employees and prohibitively costly machinery are conscionable immoderate of the obstacles. (Slate $)
+ A spot collaboration could beryllium connected the cards for the US, Canada and Mexico. (The Register)
5 Iran seems to beryllium utilizing facial designation to punish women
Women person been served with hijab instrumentality usurpation citations, contempt not having interacted with instrumentality enforcement officers. (Wired $)
6 A intelligence wellness work utilized an undisclosed AI to dispense advice
Not a large idea, from an ethical standpoint. (New Scientist $)
7 This is the twelvemonth outer net volition yet interruption through
Building the infrastructure is inactive ridiculously expensive, though. (Vox)
+ Air mishap investigators are digging into wherefore the UK’s caller motorboat effort failed. (The Guardian)
8 A war-torn portion of Ethiopia is backmost online
Two years aft Tigray was chopped disconnected from the world, friends and families are reuniting. (The Guardian)
9 Finland’s students are being taught to place misinformation
Older radical volition besides beryllium taught however to spot untruths online. (NYT $)
10 YouTubers are tormenting suspected scammers successful India
They’ve been accused of taking the gag excessively far. (Rest of World)
+ The radical utilizing wit to troll their spam texts. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“We program connected launching with covering that mightiness marque your manager rotation their eyes, but not atrocious capable to get you fired.”
—An anonymous Amazon idiosyncratic who created an unofficial pin badge commemorating the extremity of the company’s brutal highest vacation play tells Motherboard astir their plans to grow their range.
The large story
This institution is astir to turn caller organs successful a idiosyncratic for the archetypal time
August 2022
In the coming weeks, a unpaid successful Boston, Massachusetts, volition beryllium the archetypal to proceedings a caller attraction that could extremity up creating a 2nd liver successful their body. And that’s conscionable the beginning—in the months that follow, different volunteers volition trial doses that could permission them with up to six livers successful their bodies.
The institution down the treatment, LyGenesis, hopes to prevention radical with devastating liver diseases who are not eligible for transplants. Their attack is to inject liver cells from a donor into the lymph nodes of sick recipients, which tin springiness emergence to wholly caller miniature organs. These mini livers should assistance compensate for an existing diseased one. The attack appears to enactment successful mice, pigs, and dogs. Now we’ll find retired if it works successful people. Read the afloat story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
We tin inactive person bully things
A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line or tweet 'em astatine me.)
+ Uhoh—budgie smugglers are backmost successful style.
+ Enjoy this whirlwind travel backmost done ancient Greece successful conscionable 18 minutes.
+ It indispensable person passed maine by that 2022 was the year of the capybara.
+ Wait a minute, you mean that’s not really Whitney Houston connected The Bodyguard poster?
+ This thief-proof mug is guaranteed to drawback light-fingered colleagues successful the act.
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