In this edition: The new age of air travel, live music's next act and the research behind a new coronavirus vaccine. |
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| ILLUSTRATION: FEDERICA BORDONI |
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As an introvert with a long (and often frustrating) commute, I've mostly welcomed the chance to work from home these past 10 weeks. What seemed like an impossible undertaking in March now feels routine. (Well, most of the time.) I'm not alone. Many companies and employees are starting to wonder: When it's time to go back to the office, will it still be there? The business world is considering a radical rethinking of a place that is central to corporate life. Think fewer offices in the center of big cities, more hybrid schedules that allow workers to stay home part of the week and more elbow room as companies free up space for social distancing. Even Silicon Valley, which once wooed workers with elaborate, perk-filled corporate campuses, is reevaluating. Facebook said Thursday it would shift to a substantially remote workforce over the next decade. Twitter, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and e-commerce company Shopify have also signaled some form of permanent remote work. In the past month, LinkedIn recorded a 28% increase in remote job postings. The shift could allow for more demographic and ideological diversity among employees, attract better job candidates and cut real-estate costs for businesses. One casualty, however, would be the collaboration that comes from colleagues working in the same space. Read the full article here. What do you think? Will offices go extinct? Is that good or bad? Send me your thoughts, questions and predictions by hitting "reply" to this email. |
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| PHOTO: FRED DUGIT/MAXPPP/ZUMA PRESS |
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Plane View. The next age of air travel is taking shape. Here, what you can expect from future flights, including fewer direct routes, body-temperature scans and new procedures for accessing the bathroom. |
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How Polio Research is Helping in the Hunt for a New Vaccine | Research on a vaccine for the new coronavirus is progressing swiftly because of the legacy of scientists working on past diseases. Some of society's most devastating viruses ended up improving the way we study illness and search for cures. We explore the thread that connects research on polio and the new virus, SARS-CoV-2, and consider whether the pandemic will inform future generations of virologists. | Listen Now |
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Listen on your smart speaker with these voice commands: Apple HomePod: "Hey Siri, play the Future of Everything" Amazon Echo: “Alexa, play the Future of Everything on iHeartRadio" "Alexa, play the Future of Everything on TuneIn" |
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“Whatever the new normal looks like after Covid, there is going to be more automation.” | — John Piorkowski of Johns Hopkins University, which will offer an online graduate degree in artificial intelligence starting this summer |
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40% | The percentage of companies world-wide that are increasing their use of automation as a response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to an estimate from research firm International Data Corp. |
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Trading Places. The New York Stock Exchange's crucial 4 p.m. auctions, which determine end-of-day prices for thousands of stocks, ran more smoothly after it closed its floor to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, according to a new study, casting doubt on the value of old-fashioned trading floors. |
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A small English city is on lockdown—except for the robots (New York Times) The push to turn empty malls, parking lots and underground tunnels into tech-enabled urban farms (BBC) Everyone wants to mine the moon. That’s easier said than done. (MIT Technology Review) |
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Thanks for reading. I'm Leigh Kamping-Carder, the digital director of The Future of Everything. Follow me on Twitter @Leigh_KC, and reach me by email at leigh.kamping-carder@wsj.com. |
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