Liver transplant success, and lifting Shanghai’s lockdown

A patient who received a donated liver that had been stored for three days in a new type of machine that mimics the human body is healthy one year on from surgery, according to a study in Nature Biotechnology.

The technology could significantly increase the number of livers suitable for transplant, the authors claim, both by enabling donor livers to be preserved for longer than the current standard, and by making it possible to repair organs that are available but too damaged to transplant as is.

Although further research is required, the team believes the new technique could allow donor livers to be stored safely for up to 12 days before transplantation. If it works, it could increase the likelihood of treating donor livers with drugs before surgery, widening the availability of livers to patients in need, and potentially saving countless lives. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Shanghai has lifted its 65-day covid lockdown
Much to the relief of the city’s exhausted residents. (BBC)
+ For many citizens, the celebrations have felt like Chinese New Year. (The Guardian)
+ However, a negative covid test is still required 72 hours before taking public transport. (CNN)

2 The Supreme Court has blocked Texas’ attempt to control social media
But the order banning the law, which would make content moderation impossible, is only temporary. (Vox)
+ Racist content that radicalizes extremists is freely available on mainstream platforms. (NYT $)
+ Why social media can’t keep moderating content in the shadows. (MIT Technology Review)

3 NSO proposed selling its spyware tool to known risky customers
In a desperate bid to make money, despite human rights groups revealing its abuse. (FT $)
+ Inside NSO, Israel’s billion-dollar spyware giant. (MIT Technology Review) 

4 What a ‘60s sci-fi novel tells us about Elon Musk
His habit of treating everything as a problem to be fixed ignores the underlying systems that created them. (Jacobin)
+ A new biography paints Musk’s success as inevitable, but tainted with sadness. (New Statesman $)