Engineered Symbiosis;Robots Don’t Replace People; Minecraft for Art; Airport for self-FLYING Vehicles; Washable Sensors;The Diamond Quantum Revolution

“What if we could transition civilization, from living on the planet to living with the planet. If you're familiar with Star Trek, the TV series. I think of this as Earth track, like we've just figured out how to operate the supply of joules, bits and atoms, the energy, the knowledge and the stuff sufficient to supply 10 billion people without trashing the place”

This is only one of the many great insights from the SynBioBeta Town Hall with Drew Endy, one of the pioneers of synthetic biology. In a conversation with SynBioBeta’s founder John Cumbers, Endy covers a wide range of topics, from the origins of synthetic biology, to his vision for 2030 where according to him we will have the “Bionet and the PB, the Personal Biosyntetizer”, i.e. the synbio equivalent of the internet and the PC. I really highly recommend watching this conversation, even if you are not advanced in synbio. It will open your eyes to its potential. 

Going back to living with the planet, he then continues with “I'd rather not fight climate change, I'd rather enable climate awesome. Right, I want to do something positive, most people want to proactively do something good. So, I think, if you lift the lid on the possibilities of what biology is and technology represents. If you can secure from an engineering perspective, operational prowess with living matter, we actually can pull off some things that have never been done before. And, and there's implicit surprise all over the place that will require very deft maneuvering, not just of science and technology and economics scale up, but culture and politics”. 

These words remind me a lot of the idea of engineered symbiosis, which my friends at Hello Tomorrow are pushing and contributing to make it become reality with their work to enable the deep tech ecosystem. I deeply believe that deep tech has indeed the potential to lead to engineered symbiosis. To get there we need to get business to be a capstone of engineered symbiosis. The way to do this, in my view, is to create a golden triangle made of deep tech, impact investing and sustainable business model innovation. Of course, business alone cannot be the panacea and solve all problems, but is a key element of the solution. 

It will not be easy to get there, to use Endy’s words one more time “It looks like we can deliver on that technically, part of the surprise is that the institutions we inherit, whether companies, governments or universities, they were developed in times of scarcity and optimized to maintain stability in the context of scarcity… They may or may not be able to transition into a flourishing future as could be unlocked by biotechnology”. Engineered Symbiosis is possible, but it will require a fundamental retooling of the business side, if we want to get there.

Some highlights from this week's edition include:

●      Over the past twenty years of crises, roboticists have learned three valuable lessons: robots don't replace people; they're likely to be used in emergencies if they're already in common use; and repurposing robots is more effective than prototyping new ones.

●      Typesetting language TeX creator and famed author of The Art of Computer Programming Donald Knuth injects elements of storytelling into his writings on code and algorithms - including drama and history.

●      What is the world's next Disease X - the one that catches us off-guard again? Rather than react, researchers have been saying that resources already exist to create panviral drugs. But big pharma hasn't found it to be a profitable pursuit till now.

●      Car design may see a shift as consumer outlook changes post-pandemic. Ars Technica spoke to Jaguar's Director of Design to understand what people might want from their cars in the years to come.

●      MIT researchers have developed washable sensors that can be easily embedded in clothing - opening up opportunities to create smart wear capable of monitoring patients remotely.

●      In moments of extreme isolation, we sometimes need an escape, and Italian researchers say peaceful videos in virtual reality have calming effects, especially when we feel anxious during lockdown.

...along with a number of other enlightening reads. If you have interesting articles for this newsletter or would like to see specific topics covered in greater depth, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Human and Machine

The Unsung Heroes of the COVID-19 Crisis? Robots

There are several dozen ways robots have been used during the pandemic, from disinfecting with ultraviolet light, to bringing food to patients, to flying COVID-19 samples to labs. Many of the prototypes being developed now won't make a difference during the current crisis, but if interest and funding continues, they may have a large impact when the next disaster hits.

Roboticists from Texas A&M and the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue examined 120 media reports from 21 countries on the way robots have been used for the pandemic. Accounts include robots helping receptionists in hospitals interact with patients at a safe distance; outside the hospital, spraying disinfectant; and allowing students to walk to the stage for graduation.

But the authors also hope that three crucial lessons have been learned over the last two decades of disasters: 1) during a crisis, robots don't replace people, 2) robots used in emergencies are usually already in common use before the crisis, and 3) repurposing existing robots is often more effective than building specialized prototypes.

The Race to Save the First Draft of Coronavirus History From Internet Oblivion

For all its persistence, the internet can be quite ephemeral at times. Like when MySpace accidentally deletedeverything before 2016, or GeoCities shut down over a decade ago, almost taking 38M sites with it. Snapchat has ephemerality built-in, and things simply get lost in Twitter.

But there's still material for historians looking for deeper online personal accounts: Suleika Jaouad launched The Isolation Journals to help people cope with the pandemic and document their stories. Over 20k people signed up within two hours.

"Archives have shaped how we understand our past. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, there was a massive effort to document aspects of American life.... But the internet is on a much bigger scale, and all those who post are potentially their own documentarian and curator. Capturing the covid pandemic online isn't just about saving a URL; it's about saving the right URLs over and over again, to show how things have changed over time."

Creativity

Minecraft for Art? Virtual Galleries Grab Gamers' Attention

50k users have already signed up for Occupy White Walls, an art discovery and curation game where users can view and showcase artwork in virtual museums - and 10k of them joined over the last month.

NY Times spoke to Yarden Yaroshevski, CEO at StickiPixels, who said the idea came from a confluence of a few factors: Minecraft's popularity, museums were starting to upload high-res images of their collections online, and there were no games focused on the art world (vs. creating art).

The Computer Scientist Who Can't Stop Telling Stories

"I write an average of five new programs every week. Poets have to write poems. I have to write computer programs." - Donald Knuth

Famed computer scientist Donald Knuth has a way with words. In college he compiled a short story made up entirely of chemical formulas; he developed TeX, an open source typesetting language for researchers who know more about technical symbols than their publishers; and he ideated the concept of literate programming, code that's written "as a piece of literature."

Knuth speaks to Quanta Magazine on how he tells stories, adds drama, and presents a human element in his magnum opus, The Art of Computer Programming. A fascinating portrait of a literary programmer.

Life Sciences

How Scientists Could Stop the Next Pandemic Before It Starts

"We don't prevent well; we respond well."

Given enough funding, can scientists come up with a pre-emptive strike against a future virus - the so-called Disease X? Back in 2018, a group of 30 microbiologists, zoologists, and public-health experts organized by WHO met up to debate which viral threats were the most pressing - resulting in this list (sans COVID-19, at the time). "Disease X" turned out to be COVID-19, and it will turn out to be other novel, highly infectious viruses with a high mortality rate, and no existing treatment or prevention, in the future.

But it wasn't impossible to prevent Disease X after the list was made - there was just no monetary incentive for big pharma (and WHO "had neither the funding nor the power to enforce the large-scale global collaboration"). These panviral drugs - "ones that work broadly within or across virus families" - have been possible for years, but developments have been hampered by not just funding, but also because there were no ways to test for these viruses. "And no one is developing tests because there aren't any drugs to prescribe."

Spaces

China Plans to Build World's First Airport for Self-Flying Vehicles

Autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) company Ehang is planning to build the world's first airport for AAVs in Hezhou, China. Ehang conducted its first autonomous test flight in the US back in January, and received permits to test its two-seat passenger electric jets in Norway, but CEO Hu Huazhi is adamant about Hezhou:

"Hezhou is a beautiful city with rich tourism resources and we are excited to enhance their appeal with our AAVs. As we progress, we intend to create more commercial applications for EHang AAVs, such as aerial sightseeing that can uniquely merge modern culture and tourism."

What Does COVID-19 Mean for Car Design? We Ask Jaguar's Julian Thomson

Some jobs are easier to do from home - for example, writing. Others, like designing vehicles, not so much. Ars Technica spoke with Jaguar's director of design Julian Thomson, who has been leading a 300-person team from his home. It's not like there are no people regularly staring into a monitor at Jaguar, but there are some roles where this is definitely not the MO, like a designer or modeler. (To give an idea of the transition, the image below shows what Thomson would regularly do, walking around and looking at designs.)

But how will the pandemic car design itself? Thomson sees people being more health-conscious, accepting electric cars more, monitoring air quality, and either being much more frugal about their buying decisions... or going completely crazy and saying life is too short - like the shoppers at the Hermès store in Guangzhou, China, when it reopened mid-April.

Materials

Drones Take Flight to Carry Covid-19 Tests to Labs in Africa

Drone-based medical supply delivery company Zipline has been around since 2014, so I'd put in the category of existing robots being repurposed for the pandemic (see the first piece in the newsletter). In addition to medical supplies and various vaccines and drugs, the company's drones are transporting COVID-19 test samples from more than 1,000 facilities to labs in different cities in Africa, with plans to do the same in North Carolina. The US state isn't new to drone programs - it's already running the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program.

MIT Develops Machine-Washable Sensors That Embed in Clothing for Constant Vital Sign Monitoring

Funded by NASA and the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, MIT researchers have developed washable sensors that can be embedded into clothing and monitor a person's vital signs like body temperature and respiratory rate. Potential use cases span medical and athletic sectors, as well as aerospace (monitoring astronauts' vital signs).

Currently the biggest potential impact is the healthcare sector - constant monitoring of patients with chronic conditions, especially without having to visit a doctor multiple times. Companies already experimenting with similar approaches include Forward, which distributes biometric sensors to its patients for at-home monitoring, and public health and smart thermometer company Kinsa, which is sharing anonymized biometric data to predict the movement of illnesses.

Processors

The Diamond Quantum Revolution

A range of technologies are attempting to harness the properties of quantum mechanics, including trapped ions, superconductors, quantum dots, and photons. Some of this technology is effective at room temperature but is challenging to integrate, some is less difficult to fabricate but requires cryogenic temperatures. Diamonds may provide a satisfying compromise for quantum technologies - being solid sate and operational at room temperatures. The thorough Physics World dive takes a look at how defects in the carbon lattice in diamonds may help power tomorrow's quantum technology.

Interfaces

How Could COVID-19 Change AR/VR's Future?

The AR/VR industry was inevitably impacted by the pandemic - for better and for worse. Digi-Capital forecasts a number of immersive experience sectors that will feel COVID-19's shockwaves over the next two years, including hardware sales, video, location-based entertainment (LBE), app store downloads, enterprise, and ad spend. A more in-depth look at headset sales, the impact on LBE, and enterprise:

●      Headset sales: While physical lockdowns might translate to increased ecommerce sales, supply chain disruption, and a recession could hamper any catalytic effects.

●      LBE: The effects of lockdown have been devastating to location-based venues such as VR arcades; Digi-Capital sees a ("hoped-for") recovery in the long-term.

●      Enterprise: Although CIOs are prioritizing tech spend for remote work, IT budgets have been cut and nonessential projects cancelled; still, the pandemic has the potential to accelerated adoption of remote-work hardware like VR headsets, and Digi-Capital is neutral on the sector in the shot/medium-term.

Virtual Reality Videos Can Help You Feel Calm and Connected During Coronavirus Quarantine: Study

New research investigated the effects of VR on subjects' mental state, and found that immersive videos of peaceful scenes can help alleviate stress we feel during isolation (it also helps calm cows down). The authors suggest viewing relaxing scenes in VR whenever one might feel anxious throughout the day.

Giuseppe Riva, study author and a professor of general psychology, says that "VR helps because [it] does not require imaginative skills and isolates the user from the surrounding experience.... if your kids are making noise or your partner is on a conference call, putting on a VR headset and following a relaxation prompt can make it easier to focus than closing your eyes and trying to meditate."