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Coronavirus home testing kits are coming to Seattle
It might soon be much easier and safer to determine if someone has been infected by the novel coronavirus. The team behind a Gates Foundation-backed project told the Seattle Times that it's preparing to deliver home testing kits for the virus to Seattle (where the infection rate has been relatively high) within the "coming weeks." Potential patients swab their noses and send the samples back to a lab for study, with results ready in one to two days. If someone is infected, they can fill out an online questionnaire to determine their contact and travel habits in case officials need to notify anyone else that they might have the virus.
Future contraceptives will let women remote-control their fertility
Contraceptive implants are nothing new, but the current generation of progestogen-releasing devices need to be replaced every three years and have to be removed if you want to try for a baby. That may change soon, however, now that the Gates Foundation is backing a Massachusetts biotech company to build the next generation of implantable devices. MicroCHIPS Inc. is building a wirelessly controlled implant that slowly pumps out drugs and could, theoretically, only need replacing once every 16 years.
Charlie Rose interviews 'Bill Gates 2.0' on 60 Minutes: the man after Microsoft
Last night's 60 Minutes gave a solid block of screen time to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with a focus on his efforts to tackle preventable diseases through the Gates Foundation. The show looked at how the Foundation is using the ethos of a technology company to meet humanitarian challenges, such as its recent plumbing-free toilet competition to improve sanitation around the world, and the development of a thermos that can keep 200 vaccines cool for 50 days using a single block of ice. Separately, Gates also spoke about the late Steve Jobs and how the two men effectively "grew up together" as rivals. 60 Minutes interviewer Charlie Rose noted that Gates will "long be remembered" for his philanthropy, whereas Jobs "did not have time to do that." There are two excerpts from the show after the break, but we can't guarantee how well they'll work on mobile devices so you may want to go straight to the source links below.
Gates Foundation collaborates with Manchester University to develop potable toilet water
It's an unsettling thought, having to drink water from that bowl in your bathroom, but if the need ever arose, wouldn't you be glad to know it was clean and safe? Dr. Sarah Haigh, a researcher into the properties of nanomaterials at Manchester University, is currently pursuing this goal with a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With the help of nanomaterials and bacteria, Haigh believes that hydrogen can be easily extracted from not only the water, but human waste itself, which could then be processed into clean water. Should the system work effectively, Haigh stands to receive an additional $1,000,000 grant to further her research and develop inexpensive purification systems for use in nations without modern infrastructure. And you thought nothing worthwhile would come from purchasing Microsoft Office.
Teachers-in-training to get pointers, CIA updates via wireless headsets
Okay, so maybe there's no actual guarantee that headset-wearing teachers will be able to tune into top secret broadcasts from the nation's capitol, but once the infrastructure is in place, it's just a matter of time before everyone's moonlighting as an operative. As the story goes, a gaggle of teachers are volunteering to take part in a Teach for America campaign that puts a bug into their ear and a mentor on the other end. The idea would be to rapidly bring a teacher up to speed by correcting and shaping their technique as it happens, and the potential implications and applications are both vast and numerous. For example, PhDs in foreign nations could one day remotely tutor rural math teachers if Obama's national broadband plan takes hold, and if they're feeling a bit comical, they could throw question marks onto the end of each pointer à la Anchorman. The trial is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
