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Today's Smart Brevity count: 1,846 words or about 7 minutes.
Welcome to Axios Future, where we are all for the idea of canceling August.
Today's Smart Brevity count: 1,846 words or about 7 minutes.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
New coronavirus diagnostics could eventually enable near-constant testing — and herald a future where even common infections no longer go undiagnosed.
Why it matters: Rapid testing could be especially important during the winter, when it will become vital to quickly distinguish between an ordinary cold or flu and a new disease like COVID-19.
What's happening: New testing technologies are being developed that, while not always as accurate as the PCR tests currently in use, can be done cheaply and quickly, at an accelerated rate that "matches the kinetics of the virus," says Jeff Huber, vice chairman of the cancer diagnostics company Grail and the science lead for the XPRIZE Foundation's $5 million rapid COVID testing contest.
The key is speed and frequency. Modeling done during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa found that if 60% of new Ebola cases had been detected within a day of patients becoming infectious — using rapid tests — the epidemic could have been immediately stopped.
What's next: The burst of innovation around disease diagnostics — as well as the growth of at-home health tracking devices — could lay the groundwork for a range of tests that rapidly detect infections of all kind, says Jack Regan, the CEO of the molecular diagnostics company LexaGene.
The catch: Testing populations twice a week or more would require a massive leap in current capacity. As of Aug. 20, the U.S. had performed fewer than 70 million tests throughout the entire pandemic — not even enough to test a quarter of Americans once.
The pandemic and lockdown significantly accelerated the rise of online commerce, compressing years of projected growth into a few months.
The big picture: Stuck at home for weeks on end, we turned to the internet and delivery to meet our consumer needs. That's been a boon for many tech companies, but it's not yet clear whether consumers will return to the real world once the pandemic ends.
By the numbers: Data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau indicated that U.S. e-commerce retail sales for the second quarter of 2020 rose to $211.5 billion, up 31.8% from the first quarter and 44.5% from the same period last year.
What they're saying: "This was a time when the digital shopping shows what it is really capable of," Biju Dominic, the chairman of FinalMile Consulting, said in a briefing on Thursday. "The question is whether this trend will continue after COVID."
The bottom line: Q2 2020 may be looked back upon as a lockdown aberration, but over the long run, more and more of our economic activity will migrate to the internet — just like the rest of our lives.
Children study by firelight in Kenya. Photo: Tony Karumba/AFP
New research suggests that the true number of people around the world who lack reliable and regular access to electricity is many times higher than previously estimated.
Why it matters: Access to affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity is a requirement for modern life, and enshrined in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. But fair access needs to go beyond a few lightbulbs and enable full participation in an electrified world.
Background: According to the UN — which has the goal of achieving universal energy access by 2030 — the number of people without access to electricity declined from 1.2 billion in 2010 to 789 million in 2018.
What's happening: In a paper published this week in The Electricity Journal, researchers tried to calculate global numbers around what they termed "reasonably reliable" access to electricity.
Yes, but: That number includes the population of India, which has uneven but improving electricity service.
Of note: Even these numbers don't get at the yawning gap in energy access between rich countries and poorer ones.
The bottom line: The future will be electrified, and those who can't plug in will be left behind.
Here go RoBeetle. Credit: Xiufeng Yang et al./USC
A tiny, lightweight beetle-inspired robot fueled by alcohol can crawl on its own for up to two hours, my Axios colleague Alison Snyder writes.
Why it matters: Researchers have long dreamed of creating tiny autonomous robots that could explore small spaces to inspect infrastructure, assist in disaster relief or drop pollen on flowers. But bringing the required power and control to insect-sized robots has been challenging.
How it works: The RoBeetle's artificial muscle is powered by methanol instead of batteries, freeing it from tethered power sources.
Yes, but: The robotic beetle is slow, moving about 0.05 body lengths per second.(The video above is sped up.)
What's next: Yang says a different fuel — for example, propane — might help to speed up the robot. Ultimately, he says, they hope to generate enough force to create a robotic butterfly.
My thought bubble: I've also crawled for long periods of time while fueled by alcohol, though not since college.
Welcome to Conspiracy, Inc. (Keith Kloor — Substack)
Inside NSO, Israel's billion-dollar spyware giant (Patrick Howell O'Neill — MIT Tech Review)
Why we need inclusive nationalism (John Halpin — Democracy)
California reveals that the transition to renewable energy isn't so simple (Alex Trembath and Zeke Hausfather — Slate)
"The Postman": the film that answered the question: "What if 'Mad Max' but with mail carriers instead of this guy?" Photo: Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images
Current concerning trends offer an opportunity to reassess a famous post-apocalyptic box office bomb — and its star.
Why it matters: OK, no, the 1997 Kevin Costner vehicle "The Postman" is not a good movie. But if you're worried about the world ending and suddenly find yourself interested in the Postal Service, you could do worse this weekend.
Background: Only two years after starring in "Waterworld" — the sci-fi, ocean-going catastrophe that launched a thousand puns about sinking — Costner returned to the dystopian vein with an adaptation of the David Brin novel "The Postman."
"The Postman" was a historic bomb, making only $20 million against an $80 million budget.
What they said: "It's about as inspiring as a movie about a vengeful meter reader," wrote Paul Tatara for CNN.com.
Yes, but: I've seen "The Postman." It's not quite as bad as its reputation — and today it practically feels ripped from the headlines.
The bottom line: If you want to comfort yourself by imagining how things could ever be worse than they are now, try renting "The Postman."