"From face-shields to respirator valves, 3-D printer owners pitch in to the efforts to provide PPE to Australian hospitals," writes davecb (Slashdot reader #6,526). It's not only happening in Australia. But the Guardian talked to Mat Bowtell, a former Toyota engineer in Australia who's using fourteen 3D printers to manufacture thousands of face shields for healthcare workers. And citing 3D printing, the director of a not-for-profit working with the government says the country has an "incredible onshore capability" to respond to the pandemic: "The 3D printing capability onshore is a massive distinguisher for Australia to step up to the crisis," he said. When asked how else 3D printing might be deployed in practice, Goennemann points to the supply of ventilators, which are needed to assist breathing in the most seriously ill Covid-19 patients... Goennemann says Resmed, the main ventilator manufacturer, could struggle to get parts due to the disruption of global supply chains. That's where 3D printing can help. "I don't want to speak on behalf of Resmed, but that's an area where we have critical supply, and parts can be 3D printed onshore rather than being procured offshore," he said... For Bowtell, the decision to shift his production to face shields had nothing to do with profit. It was about doing what he could in the most extraordinary of times. "It's about survival at the moment," Bowtell said. "Just helping people to get through this together." Reuters also reported that one Italian company used its 3D printers to manufacture valves for respirators for its local hospital. And a paywalled article at Fortune also describes the team building an open source ventilator, while also noting that more than 4,800 people with 3D printers "have, via a public Google Doc, signed up to help print everything from face shields to ventilator parts for their local hospitals." They also highlight Budmen Industries, an upstate New York company selling 3D printers that has now also printed 1,492 face shields for New York medical workers. And finally there's the CoVent-19 Challenge, "an open innovation 8-week Grand Challenge for engineers, innovators, designers, and makers" on the GrabCAD Challenges platform, to create "a rapidly deployable, minimum viable mechanical ventilator for patients with COVID-19 related ventilator-dependent lung injury."

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Two associate professors studying foreign trolls online have penned an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that Russian efforts to stir up antagonisms online "continues to be true with coronavirus disinformation." In our research, we have found multiple networks of fake accounts — one of which we can attribute to Russia — that use conversations about coronavirus as a tool for political attacks. To right-leaning Americans, these trolls criticize the response from liberals, suggest the coronavirus is being used to take away their freedoms, and point the finger of blame at China. To left-wing Americans, they suggest the administration's response is immoral and inadequate and point the finger of blame at Trump. On both sides, these are arguments that real Americans are also making, typically with honest intentions. The attacks play to the trolls' goals, however, and so they repeat them, making the loudest and ugliest versions more mainstream. In doing so, they dangerously widen existing divisions in a time of crisis, making critical compromise more difficult. As before, these networks rely on hashtags from organic American conversations, such as #TrumpLiedPeopleDied and #ReopenAmerica. They aren't creating the divisions, but they are working hard to make them wider.... Many commentators have discussed various ways in which the United States has acted to make the coronavirus crisis worse than it could or should be. The public's own role in spreading global disinformation needs to be added to that list. We have to address our own culpability in the problems that are fomented by disinformation. At a time when most news and information people digest is socially mediated, we need to create citizens and platforms that are more resilient to lies and more accepting of facts. Above all, however, we need to stop doing the trolls' jobs for them. The article also cites "websites peddling conspiracy theories" (including what it calls the "Chinese lab origin theory, among other fearmongering stories related to the virus.") "Among those accounts circulating the stories are pro-Russian and Russian state media-affiliated social media influencers."

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Highly recommend this week's Radio Open Source interview with Laurie Garrett who is an eloquent expert on the pandemic. I had heard her interviewed elsewhere, this time she gets all 40 minutes, and she's brilliant, deeply informed and passionate.

CNN reports: Around the world, seismologists are observing a lot less ambient seismic noise -- meaning, the vibrations generated by cars, trains, buses and people going about their daily lives. And in the absence of that noise, Earth's upper crust is moving just a little less. Thomas Lecocq, a geologist and seismologist at the Royal Observatory in Belgium, first pointed out this phenomenon in Brussels. Brussels is seeing about a 30% to 50% reduction in ambient seismic noise since mid-March, around the time the country started implementing school and business closures and other social distancing measures, according to Lecocq. That noise level is on par with what seismologists would see on Christmas Day, he said. The reduction in noise has had a particularly interesting effect in Brussels: Lecocq and other seismologists are able to detect smaller earthquakes and other seismic events that certain seismic stations wouldn't have registered.... Paula Koelemeijer posted a graph on Twitter showing how noise in West London has been affected, with drops in the period after schools and social venues in the United Kingdom closed and again after a government lockdown was announced. Celeste Labedz, a PhD student at the California Institute of Technology, posted a graph showing an especially stark drop in Los Angeles. The Belgian seismologist told CNN that the results suggested an inspiring message for humankind. "You feel like you're alone at home, but we can tell you that everyone is home. Everyone is doing the same. Everyone is respecting the rules."

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Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo quotes Softpedia: It was probably just a matter of time, but the thing so many people, including everyone at Microsoft, expected finally happened: Microsoft Edge surpassed Mozilla Firefox to become the world's second most-used desktop browser. Data provided by market analysis firm NetMarketShare reveals that the whole thing happened in March, when the adoption of the Chromium-powered Microsoft Edge improved to a level that allowed it to overtake Mozilla's own browser. So right now, Microsoft Edge is the second most-used desktop browser on the planet with a share of 7.59%, while Mozilla Firefox is now third with 7.19%. As for who's leading the pack, Google Chrome continues to be number one with a share of 68.50%.

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I'm okay with people going to church as long as we can lock the doors after they're all inside. They should not be allowed to re-enter society after being so reckless with their own health.

I am old enough to remember what was left after polio. Not old enough to have gotten it myself, the vaccine already existed when I was born. But there were kids in my school that had been crippled by it.

"Crowds flock to Santa Clara County test sites to learn if they have antibodies to COVID-19," reports the Bay Area Newsgroup, citing long lines of cars forming at three Stanford research sites for the drive-through tests: The 2,500 test slots on Friday and Saturday filled up within hours, as news of the project -- the first large scale study of its type in the U.S. -- spread quickly through the county. The test detects protective antibodies to the virus rather than the virus itself. This gives scientists a snapshot of how many people in the county have already been infected, but weren't seriously sick and didn't realize it. And it tells residents whether they carry potentially protective antibodies -- so may be immune to future infection. "This is critical information," said principal investigator Dr. Eran Bendavid, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine with Stanford Health Policy. "We will show the country what to do and how to do it," he said... It can guide public health measures and policies -- showing where the epidemic is heading, when it is safe to lift shelter-in-place restrictions and how far away we are from "herd immunity," when it becomes harder for a virus to spread... This approach, called a "serological test," remains a research tool and is not yet widely available in the United States. Stanford is working on a second test that will be deployed for more widespread use. U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval is imminent -- "within hours, not days," [California governor] Newsom said.... Meanwhile, a global effort to study antibodies is being coordinated by the World Health Organization. Called Solidarity II, more than a half dozen countries will pool their findings from large-scale testing... It is not yet proven that these antibodies actually provide protection... But there are promising clues that COVID-19 might act like it's closest cousin, the SARS virus, which triggers an immune response that persists for at least three years. In a Chinese study of rhesus monkeys, COVID-19 antibodies protected the animals from a second infection. If protected, people could potentially return to work. There is also the prospect that the antibodies could be used as therapy against the disease. Dozens of companies are working to develop antibody tests, as are researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The article notes that United Biomedical Inc will "soon" also provide free antibody testing to all 8,000 residents in Telluride, Colorado, and in some countries in Asia.

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Here's what Enoch Choi said about the Stanford project.

• How would you like to help to predict where the next hotspots are for the Coronavirus?
• Stanford Medicine would like people to take a national survey. It is anonymous in aggregate so they can predict areas that will be most impacted based on how you are feeling. This data can help redirect medical resources and give public guidance.
• Think about it. Most of us, if exposed, may develop a mild case and stay home to recover. We may not be able to be tested because we are not sick enough. There aren't enough tests available either. That data point is considered "under the radar" and is not reported in the daily numbers we hear on the news.
• But if we knew how people felt, self-reporting symptoms, we could get a jump on it.
• Given the 9-10 day delay between onset of symptoms and hospitalization, and the 20% hospitalization rate of patients, this type of survey tool can help fight the Coronavirus.
• Please consider taking this survey to help end this pandemic quickly. You can opt out at any time.

This is great. Stanford University is setting up a network of Americans around the country to track their symptoms and exposure to people with CV. When NakedJen traveled through Seoul on her way home, she had to install a mobile app to keep a diary of her symptoms, if any. This is how they do containment, and it's great to see a similar system starting in the US, from a credible institution like Stanford. We're on the road now. Every American reader of this blog should sign up for daily reminders, and do it. If I could make it a requirement, I would. America being smart.

What happens when no one shows up for a tech conference? Fast Company's technology editor harrymcc writes: From Apple to Microsoft to Google, major tech companies have responded to the coronavirus crisis by either canceling their 2020 conference or making them purely virtual. But one well-established event — Vancouver's CanSecWest — went ahead earlier this month, with streaming as an option but not mandatory. Only three attendees showed up in the flesh. But so did security reporter Seth Rosenblatt, who wrote about the eerie experience for Fast Company. They were outnumbed by the six staffers at the event -- "there to run the online component" -- but the article notes that the conference's organizer and founder promised all attendees "infrared body temperature checks, on-site coronavirus testing, ample supplies of disposable face masks and hand sanitizer, and restrictions on physical contact and interaction..." "Empty hallways and escalators echoed with every footstep, and it smelled empty, the ventilation system circulating unused air. At the conference registration desk, I was offered a disposable surgical face mask and gloves."

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Yesterday, I asked a somewhat nuanced question, basically why does the virus travel in waves across the United States? Why is it not distributed uniformly across the country?

A retired bioresearcher sent via email a non-mathematical explanation that makes sense to me. Note she talks about places where Asians are in the US, it's a bit delicate, but since the virus originated in China, and I'm trying to understand why it's not everywhere, it is factually relevant.

Here's the story:

• My degree is not in mathematics but after forty years in bioresearch I hope I know how to think logically.
• People do move freely about the US, but it isn’t random movement. There are also nuances in genetic, endemic disease, age distribution demographics, health care infrastructure.
• Travelers congregate at airports, on cruise ships, and mingle at tourist destinations. There have been numerous maps published that show how spread of the virus aligns with popular travel routes and political alignments. Winter holiday travel turned out to be a particularly bad idea last year.
• Our index case was already symptomatic when he left Wuhan and came home to Seattle in mid-January. New York didn’t see their first case until March (via Iran). Both are coastal cities with seaports, major airports, universities, and diverse populations, but NYC is half the size of Seattle and has about nine times as many people. New Yorkers literally can’t get away from each other.
• Chinese Americans are not homogeneously distributed across the US, and they tend to live, work, and travel in aggregates. NYC and Seattle demographics show about the same proportions of Asians, but NYC’s are jammed more tightly together and an airborne contagion would hit more people, more quickly there.
• California's significant Asian population is clustered in Santa Clara County, by far the hardest hit by the virus. The state has been under shelter-in-place orders since mid-March.
• Philadelphia has a tiny Asian population and they’re all in one district. Philly also has a very large and well-equipped hospital in Center City; they’re prepared.
• Drilling down into the data in my area, West Virginia was late to the party imo because the folks who choose to live there like their solitude in the woods, and they don’t travel much. This held back the spread in the western parts of adjacent states (Maryland and Pennsylvanio) where the first cases weren’t seen intil mid-March. None of these areas have significant Asian populations.The two Maryland counties with large Asian populations recorded their first cases a month earlier.
• The wave thing is - once the virus is in the door, one way or another it’s gonna find you - it’ll getcha getcha getcha - unless it can’t, of course."

sciencehabit writes: Not too close, but not too far. That's long been the rule describing how distant a planet should be from its star in order to sustain life. But a new study challenges that adage: A planet can maintain water and other liquids on its surface if it's heated, not by starlight, but by radioactive decay, researchers calculate. That opens up the possibility for many planets — even free-floating worlds untethered to stars — to host life, they speculate.

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Dan Drollette writes: We absolutely, positively, must tackle climate change speedily. Or as the authors of this article put it: 'By 'speed,' we mean measures — including regulatory ones — that can begin within two-to-three years, be substantially implemented in five-to-10 years, and produce a climate response within the next decade or two.' (Quick aside: one of the authors, Mario Molina, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1995, for his work on holes in the ozone layer.) From the article: Rapid warming over the near term threatens to accelerate self-reinforcing feedbacks in which the planet starts to warm itself in a Hothouse Earth scenario — vicious cycles which could lead to uncontrollable warming as these feedback mechanisms become the dominant force regulating the climate system. These feedbacks would then set off a domino-like cascade that triggers tipping points in the Arctic and elsewhere, many of them irreversible and potentially catastrophic.

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