The race for a Covid vaccine was more about luck than tech

PLUS: Secret F-14 history, the best indie games of 2020, and WFH gear. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions 12.23.20   BACKCHANNEL The Secret History of the First Microprocessor, the F-14, and Me BY SARAH FALLON In a weird way, I've known Ray Holt all my life, but I never knew what he had accomplished—or how his inventions wove their way into my own family.   YEAR IN REVIEW The Best Indie Games You May Have Missed This Year BY JOSHUA KHAN 2020 wasn't just a year for big-budget blockbusters. Here are the best debuts from smaller shops—that are all worth playing into 2021.   WIRED Q&A What AlphaGo Can Teach Us About How People Learn BY WILL KNIGHT David Silver of DeepMind, who helped create the program that defeated a Go champion, thinks rewards are central to how machines—and humans—acquire knowledge.   GO BACK TO SLEEP Yes, Cyberpunk 2077 Is Buggy. But Mostly, It Has No Heart BY ADRIENNE SO People misunderstand why I dislike the game. It's not the bugs—it's that everyone in it sucks. GET WIRED Happy Holidays from WIRED. Plus get free stickers! Last chance to get one year of WIRED access for $10 $5. Tech news and analysis you won't find anywhere else. Subscribe now.   IDEAS The Race for a Covid Vaccine Was More About Luck Than Tech BY HILDA BASTIAN Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna's mRNA platforms are amazing—but they could easily have been overtaken by more conventional rivals.   OUR ULTIMATE GUIDE Everything You Need to Work From Home Like a Pro BY JULIAN CHOKKATTU Gear can make or break your home office setup. Here's our ultimate list of the best monitors, desks, webcams, headphones, and more.   DOT PHYSICS How Would Deadpool Jump Into a Moving Vehicle? BY RHETT ALLAIN Our sardonic superhero needs to get the timing just right to crash through the sunroof and beat up the bad guys.   YEAR IN REVIEW The Death of FOMO As We Knew It BY SOFIA BARNETT During a global pandemic, the fear of missing out was replaced by something else: dread over not experiencing what could have been.   OPINION The Biden Administration Needs a VP of Engineering, Not a CTO BY DANAH BOYD If our government wants to implement a tech-forward agenda, it needs someone who looks at broken infrastructure with a debugger's eye.     This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or Manage your newsletter subscriptions