Technology Quarterly | Smoother sailing
Safe harbours
Covid-19 has revealed biological capabilities that will improve the odds in future pandemics
ROBERT FITZROY would have taken a dim view of tracking evolving viruses; the theories of his friend and Beagle shipmate Charles Darwin were anathema to him. But the idea of forecasting disease by accumulating and mapping data would have resonated with him. FitzRoy took a very similar approach when, in 1860, he invented what he called the “weather forecast”.
This article appeared in the Technology Quarterly section of the print edition under the headline “A thing of brightness”
From the March 27th 2021 edition
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