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As the ongoing coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, sickening and claiming the lives of patients around the world, a plethora of confusing and occasionally-conflicting information is spreading along with it.

It doesnt help that it took so long for the World Health Organization (WHO) to nail down an official name for the disease. Nor is it ideal that the name we know it by, the name of the actual virus itself, and the outbreaks previous (unofficial) moniker are all fairly similar.

To help you and ourselves here at Futurism, to be honest stay on top of the vocabulary surrounding the outbreak, we put together the following glossary.

This is a now-outdated term that was used to describe the coronavirus linked to the outbreak before the WHO formally named it SARS-CoV-2 (see below). Its an acronym that stands for the novel CoronaVirus discovered in 2019.

The word coronavirus has served as an easy way to reference the ongoing outbreak, but its not terribly specific,since a coronavirus is a broad category of virus. There are hundreds of coronaviruses which, when they infect a human, cause diseases with flu-like symptoms. Think respiratory trouble, soreness, fever and, in more serious cases, pneumonia or kidney failure.

COVID-19, short for COronaVIrus Disease 2019, is the illness caused by a SARS-CoV-2 infection.You could say that a SARS-CoV-2 infection made someone come down with a case of COVID-19 not unlike how the varicella zoster virus causes the disease chickenpox.

A mortality rate is a statistic that represents the proportion of people dying from a specific cause. In this case, it means the percentage of people who get COVID-19 and ultimately die, not a tally of total fatalities.

As of this storys publication, Chinas COVID-19 mortality rate is around 3.4 percent higher than the mortality rate for the rest of the world, which is currently about 1.7 percent.

A pandemic is the term for an outbreak thats spreading rampantly on an international or global scale, as opposed to a more localized epidemic.

The WHO maintains that the ongoing coronavirus outbreak is not a pandemic: even though cases have been confirmed in 41 global territories, most of the countries affected have more or less contained the disease thus far.

Pronounced R naught, this is a statistical measure that represents how many people, on average, someone whos infected with a disease will spread it to. Tracking down an R0 value for COVID-19 has been difficult, in part because mild cases can go undetected and also because some countries have been hit harder than others.

Different studies have arrived at wildly different R0 values for the COVID-19 outbreak, and the number likely wont be solidified until after the fact but thus far the WHO suggests the R0 lies between two and three.

This is the formal name of the specific coronavirus thats causing a commotion right now.

The name is an acronym: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related CoronaVirus 2. SARS-CoV-2 is highly similar to the virus that caused the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003. In fact, when SARS-CoV-2 first emerged in Wuhan, China in December, one of the first doctors to send out a warning about it actually confused it for a resurgence of SARS.

A vaccine is a preventative tool that can strengthen the immune system against a disease. Administered in advance, a vaccine is different from a treatment or cure in that it doesnt fight the virus directly it just better equips your body fight it off and prevent the associated disease.

Specifically, a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 would contain inert and harmless fragments of the virus. If your immune system is exposed to the vaccine, it would generate antibodies capable of fighting the virus in the future, ultimately preventing you from getting sick with COVID-19. Thus far, there are no vaccines available, though many teams are working on them.

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Here's a Glossary for the Ongoing Coronavirus Outbreak's Vocab - Futurism

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Nationally recognized futurist and economist Rebecca Ryan delivers the keynote speech during the Springfield Business Development Corporation's 2020 Annual Meeting at the University Plaza Convention Center on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

The way economist and futurist Rebecca Ryan sees it, Springfield is on the cusp of greatness.

When Ryan was here 10 years ago to help establish a network of young professionals, downtown wasn't yet the booming place it is now. The airport has sincegrown and changed.

But the city is still short of where it wants to be perhaps "stuck" like the rest of the country in a time of great uncertainty and upheaval.

Ryan said like the seasons, the United States goes through phases of prosperity, growth, stagnation and revolution.

This time, like during the American Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Depression, Americans are facing a "winter" period that will make way for spring.

In a Friday speech before the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce's development arm, Ryan encouraged attendees to prepareby looking toward the horizon.

A large crowd filled the University Plaza Convention Center to hear nationally recognized futurist and economist Rebecca Ryan deliver the keynote speech during the Springfield Business Development Corporation's 2020 Annual Meeting on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

"During these winter periods is where great change can happen," she said. "When spring comes again, the competition is going to get even fiercer."

In order to make way for that future, Ryan referenced the city's comprehensive planning effort, during which the community is talking about what it'd like to see happen in the next 20 years.

During these winter periods is where great change can happen. When spring comes again, the competition is going to get even fiercer.

She noted that the city hopedto craft a more cohesive image and beautify the streets in its last visioning effort 20 years ago and didn't get it done.

State of the State: Here are four things that stood out in Gov. Parson's speech

Hundreds of Springfieldians said they'd still like to see the city create a "brand" for itself.

Ryan suggested they look toward Milwaukee.

TheMilwaukee Art Museum hired a Spanish architect and in 2001completed a building with a moveable sunscreen that unfolds each day like wings and is designed to serve as a symbol and mimic the "culture of Lake Michigan," according to the art museum's website.

The building has become an icon for the city, and Ryan said it was a bold and forward-thinking vision that made it a reality.

She also suggested residents look toward Henry Ford when they talk about quality-of-life and housing issues.

Nationally recognized futurist and economist Rebecca Ryan delivers the keynote speech during the Springfield Business Development Corporation's 2020 Annual Meeting at the University Plaza Convention Center on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

When he started manufacturing his famous Model T in the 1900s, Ford paid his employees $5 a day the equivalent of just over $16 an hour today.

Ryan said that sort of pay structure, which allowed his employees to afford a Model T themselves, encouraged other employers to follow suit and resulted in a robust middle class for decades.

In Springfield's case, Ryan said the city should focus on building a place that works for its residents, whether that comes through public transportation, making public spaces more friendly for interaction or creating a sense of place.

Missouri rep: Thousands of kids taken off Medicaid were likely eligible for benefits

But in order to make those big, bold changes, Ryan told attendees they should expect resistance.

Nationally recognized futurist and economist Rebecca Ryan moves through the crowd as she delivers the keynote speech during the Springfield Business Development Corporation's 2020 Annual Meeting at the University Plaza Convention Center on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

In the Civil War, she said, Union soldiers had to combat the opposition of Confederate soldiers, who wanted to maintain the status quo and continued slavery.

Ryan said in order to truly create change, people should lean into those difficulties and help bring others along for the ride if they can.

"Greatness never comes out of the voice of fear," she said.

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Economist: Springfield is 'on the cusp.' Here's what it needs to do to take the next step. - News-Leader

Alexis Kirke is something of a visionary when it comes to the future of TV. Once a quant on Wall Street, he took his Ph.D. in computer science and decided that he was going to be an artist. In 2013, he created Many Worlds, a film that changed the direction of its narrative based upon the biometric response of audience members, measured using special sensors capable of monitoring their brain waves, heart rate, perspiration levels and muscle tension. The average of these responses was then used to trigger different scenes.

It was, in essence, a low-budget, more high-tech Bandersnatch, years before Bandersnatch saw the dim light of a glowing Netflix screen. That was just the start.

In the years since, hes created an adaptive personalized radio project at the University of Plymouth collaborating with the UKs BBC amongst others; organized algorithmic film festivals; run experiments on quantum computers; and advised Hollywood studios on the future of interactivity. He is currently doing an additional postgrad study at Metfilm in Ealing Studios, the UKs oldest and most prestigious film studio.

Kirke shared his thoughts on what the next 10 years is going to hold for television and the way we experience on-screen screen entertainment.

Streaming services arent going away. But not all of them will go the distance. And while viewers will continue to reap the benefits of picking and choosing what they want to see when they want to see it, the landscape may wind up looking strangely familiar taking us back to a time of bundled shows more reminiscent of the heyday of cable.

I think that Netflixs dominance will die, Kirke predicted. It was a blip caused by them being first to market. The big players are entering the market in the form of traditional studios. But they will also fracture it. People will not want to subscribe to 10 different streamers, so streaming may consolidate back into the old TV channel system, where you pay a higher amount and get [a package of services.]

Kirkes Many Worlds helped lay the foundations for how interactivity could change the movies we watch. In an age of smart TVs, biometrics-tracking wearables and more, this data could be used by broadcasters to offer an alternative to current fixed narrative movies. Imagine, for example, a horror movie getting louder and more intense because it determines your heart rate isnt elevated enough.

But while this might be promising, Kirke said there is still a conceptual breakthrough that has to happen before this is truly possible. Branching stories are a fun gimmick, but the real challenge is auto-generation of stories that will cover every eventuality. Right now, the technologys not there yet. And we may not want it anyway.

Entertainment that can change its direction depending on the slightest decision of many people already exists and its called video gaming.

Choice can be debilitating when we log into Netflix, he said. And the knowledge subconsciously that we can change film to 30 others we want to watch, while watching the one were currently watching, can be distracting.

Entertainment that can change its direction depending on the slightest decision of many people already exists and its called video gaming. Games and TV-style entertainment may bleed over slightly, but dont expect them to merge entirely. At least not any time soon.

As Digital Trends has covered before, the personalization most of us might see first is not narrative-based, but rather the advent of things like real-time personalized product placement edited into our content of choice.

The idea of broadcast television sticking to a fixed schedule is over. As iGen (the generation who grew up with smartphones and constant connectivity) grows older, it will appear like more of an anachronism than ever. Subscription services will highlight the challenges faced by traditional broadcasting.

Theyll still have their niche, though mainly the province of live sport and ultra-popular watercooler reality shows that large numbers of people need to watch at the same time.

Last year, YouTube was the most used app and website for children between the ages of 8 and 11. U.S. pre-teens say they would pick YouTube over broadcast TV if they had to choose between the two. In a decades time, this group will be between 18 and 21. Some may graduate to more traditional streaming services such as Netflix for more episodic content. But theyll have grown up with the expectation that media is intrinsically social. The same age range are spending more time playing or social games like Fortnite, or watching them on Twitch.

Mainstream broadcasters and streamers will need to emulate YouTube and Twitch in order to to compete.

Mainstream broadcasters and streamers will need to emulate YouTube and Twitch in order to to compete. Imagine a social Netflix with an open upload policy, which has a sort-of bargain basement where anybody can get their content on Netflix, Kirke said. A Netflix with social streaming channels. And eventually a Netflix with built-in social games you can choose to either login and watch others playing, or login and play yourself.

The 2020s will likely see new form factors emerge, but these will not necessarily lead to a one-size-fits-all medium for watching content. Kids are happy enough to consume media on their phones, but not all the time. Theaters will continue to provide a social environment and shared experience, and better sound system and ambience, Kirke said. It is also a way of voluntary trapping ourselves in an environment and removing choice.

As studios tried in the mid-twentieth century with the innovation of widescreen and gimmicks like smell-o-vision, they will today work to separate theatrical event movies from small screen films. New devices such as foldable smartphones could help make mobile viewing more popular, as large screens would become portable. But dont write off the big screen experience.

Kirke thinks VR is currently a dead-end. The technology is too bulky and expensive. And efforts to provide a more immersive viewing experience miss the point by forcing users to be their own cinematographers and directors; responsible for choosing their own shots.

In terms of the next step up from VR/AR and screens, it seems that this would be eyeball projection, Kirke said. If a person is put into a dark room, then the only light hitting their eyeballs could come from a [ultra-high] resolution projector at ultra frame rates. Roll on the day. Or not, depending on your religious and philosophical implications.

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Humanitys media habits shifted radically in the 2010s. What do the 2020s hold? - Digital Trends

Some Answers

As the Space Force evolved from a vague Trumpian thought to a full-fledged branch of the U.S. military, questions surfaced about what exactly it would do and how it would differ from NASA and the Air Forces ongoing work in orbit.

Lieutenant General David Thompson, the Space Forces second-in-command, sat down with GEN to clarify exactlywhat it does revealing the agencys goals, the scope of its operations, and that its already collaborating with SpaceX and Blue Origin.

In addition to scanning for hostile missile launches and other surveillance missions, the Space Force is also responsible for maintaining communication, GPS, and military satellites.

We already work pretty closely with Elon Musk and SpaceX, Thompson told GEN, specifically on developing and maintaining satellite constellations like Starlink.

Mainly, Thompson pressed back against the idea that launching a Space Force would be anything like Star Trek or Star Wars. The uniforms wont be spandex or have capes, he told GEN, nor does it expect to fight battles on the Moon or Mars any time soon.

Rather, Thompson told GEN the Space Force exists because we have to ensure space capabilities are there for the folks on the ground.

READ MORE: Space Forces Second-in-Command Explains What the Hell It Actually Does [GEN]

More on space: Space Force General: Russian Satellite Is Unusual and Disturbing

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Space Force Working "Pretty Closely With Elon Musk and SpaceX" - Futurism

War Games

The Pentagon performed a training exercise last week in which it simulated a nuclear exchange with Russia, according to National Defense Magazine.

They attacked us with a low-yield nuclear [warhead], and in the course of the exercise we simulated responding with a nuclear weapon, an official told the magazine under condition of anonymity.

Its common for the Pentagon to walk through simulated conflicts in order to fine-tune its official response, according to National Defense but its unusual to publicize the simulations.

And this particular exercise sounds important, with Defense One corroborating National Defenses claim that U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper personally took part.

National Defense contextualized the exercise as part of the Trump administrations efforts to modernize the militarys nuclear stockpile and, chillingly, prepare to use it.

The other side is building their nuclear weapons up, modernizing their stockpiles, and so this [U.S. modernization effort] is just a sensible response to that, the anonymous official said.

READ MORE: BREAKING: U.S. Nukes Russia in Simulation Exercise [NPR]

More on nuclear war: This Video Shows Horrifying Devastation of US-Russia Nuclear War

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The Pentagon Just Simulated a Nuclear War With Russia - Futurism

According a report published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) last week, researchers were able to confirm COVID-19 patients had live virus in stool specimens suggesting that the vicious virus called 2019-nCoV can be transmitted through fecal matter.

The spread through only respiratory droplets and contact transmission werent able to fully account for all cases of the deadly COVID-19 according to the report, leading to searchers examining other ways the virus spreads.

This virus has many routes of transmission, which can partially explain its strong transmission and fast transmission speed, reads the report.

A different study was able to reproduce these findings independently, finding the virus in both blood and anal swabs of COVID-19 patients, as LiveScience reports.

As for what you can do to minimize risk, the advice remains largely the same, as issued by the World Health Organization: wash your hands frequently, avoid unprotected contact with farm animals, and keep a distance from those who are showing symptoms.

China CDC additionally recommends drinking boiled water, avoiding raw food consumption, and disinfecting of surfaces of objects in households, toilets, public places, and transportation vehicles, among other suggestions.

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Deadly Coronavirus May Be Spreading Through Poop - Futurism

Wireless Charging Cars

Carmakers are expected to release wireless charging pads for electric cars based on a universally agreed-upon standard as soon as this year, CNET reports.

The chargers work (more or less) the same way as wireless smartphone chargers: you roll the vehicle on top of the pad, and the car starts charging. Without the need of plugging it in.

The goals to make it as easy as possible for consumers to charge their electric vehicles and to standardize future wireless charging spots both in public and at home.

To get there, the Society of Automotive Engineers came up with a standard (SAE J2954) that is in its final stages of development, according to CNET.

German automaker BMW has already shown off a wireless charging tray that owners can place on the floor of their garage. When the car shuts off its ignition, the pad starts charging the car automatically.

Theres no guarantees wireless charging, let alone the proposed standard, will become ubiquitous and adopted on a large scale. Municipalities will have to be convinced the extra costs of installing public wireless charging spots are worth the investment especially on top of the existing costs of installing conventional charging stations.

READ MORE: Ditch the cable with wireless car charging [CNET]

More on wireless charging: Wireless Charging Tech Lets Drones Stay Aloft Indefinitely

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Carmakers Expected to Roll Out Wireless Car Chargers This Year - Futurism

Martian Moons Exploration

Japanese space agency JAXA announced today it has greenlit a sample return mission to the Martian moon Phobos called the Martian Moons Exploration mission (MMX). If its successful, it could result in the first vehicle in the history of space travel thats made it to the Martian system and back home, here, to Earth.

The plan is to launch a spacecraft to the moon in 2024, and then, spend three years surveying both of Mars moons, Phobos and Deimos. The ideas to create a detailed map of both moons surfaces, using 11 (11!) instruments the craft will be equipped with to do so.

If all goes well, the spacecraft will collect a ground sample of just ten grams from at least two centimeters below the moons surface before taking the long trip home.

The mission could answer a pretty simple question: How did both of Mars moons form? Are they asteroids trapped in Mars gravity, or did they split off the Red Planet after a violent event?

Scientists also want to know how Mars acquired its water during its suspected Earth-like environment phase that took place eons ago. By investigating the composition of the planets two moons, scientists are hoping to understand Mars evolution better.

The news comes after JAXA managed to land a spacecraft called Hayabusa2 on a tiny distant asteroid called Ryugu last year to collect rock samples.

READ MORE: Japan greenlights mission to bring back sample of Mars moon Phobos [CNET]

More on Japans space ambitions: NASA Proposed Sending Japanese Astronauts to the Moon

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Japan Gives the 'Go' to Sample Return Mission to Mars Moon - Futurism

Every year, we pick 10 recent technological breakthroughs that we predict will have a big impact in the years to come. Weve been doing it for nearly two decades, and weve been pretty good at predicting big trends like data mining, natural-language processing, and microfluidics, but not so great at specific products.

Lets look back at our 2010 list: mobile phones with hologram-style 3D displays? Microbes that turn carbon dioxide from the air directly into diesel fuel? Electronic implants that dissolve in your body when their job is done? Social TV that lets you talk about shows with your friends online while you watch? (Yeah, we have thatits called Twitter.)

At least in 2009 we profiled Siribefore it was even launched, mark you, let alone acquired by Apple. Shame we bought into the companys hype that it was going to be not merely a voice-activated search engine but a do engine that can book you a restaurant or a flight.

Then again, if we really could predict which new inventions would take off, we wouldnt tell you about them; wed start a fund. Venture capitalists, who do this all day long, still get it wrong nine times out of 10. But as any decent futurist will tell you, the point of futurism isnt to guess the future; its to challenge your assumptions about the present so the future doesnt catch you off guard.

So this year, since its 2020 and we like round numbers as much as anyone, we decided to supplement our annual listwith a closer look at the art and science of prediction, and to collect some other peoples predictions for 2030if only so we can have a laugh a decade hence at how wrong they were.

David Rotman examines Moores Law, the most reliable prediction of modern times, and asks how the predictions of its imminent demisethemselves already rather long in the toothwill influence future progress. Rob Arthur looks at why forecasters messed up so badly in the 2016 US presidential election and why they think they can do better in 2020. Brian Bergstein describes the effort to create AI that understands causality so that it can make predictions more reliably. Bobbie Johnson asks some people whose job is prediction how they think about the future and what they expect in 2030.

Meanwhile, I pick up some more 2030 predictions at the World Economic Forum in Davosthe place where, if you believe either the conspiracy theorists or the WEFs own marketing, the future of the world is decided by politicians and billionaires. Tim Maughan writes about design fiction, a quirky movement for imagining the future creatively, and how it got co-opted by corporations. Tate Ryan-Mosley summarizes five big trends that will shape the next few decades, while Konstantin Kakaes rounds up five of the best books on humanitys relationship to prediction. And Andrew Dana Hudson provides this issues short fiction piece, a story of one future that I fear is all too likely to come true.

Sign up for The Download your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology

We also have longer stories on some of our 10 breakthrough technologies: Erika Check Hayden on cure-for-one drugs, Ramin Skibba on satellite mega-constellations, Mike Orcutt on the future (or rather, lack thereof) of cash, and me on quantum computing.

This last topic is close to my heart; I first wrote about it more than 20 years ago, when nobody had yet built a working quantum computer. Last fall Google announced the first demonstration of quantum supremacy, a quantum computer doing something a classical one cant feasibly pull off. Some people are still skeptical theyll ever amount to much, but I predict we will be using them to solve real problems by 2030. Check back on me then.

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Editors letter: How to predict whats coming in 2030 and beyond - MIT Technology Review

For the first time, scientists haveengineered and switched on a working neural net that allows biological and silicon-based artificial brain cells to communicate back and forth.

Researchers in Switzerland, Italy, and the U.K. connected a series of neurons: two high-tech artificial neurons and one biological neuron cultured from a mouses brain, that were able to communicate back and forth over the internet in a highly similar way to how neurons pass along signals in the brain.

The research, published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports, is in its early days. After all, one mouse neuron in a petri dish is hardly the same as an internet-connected human brain. That cell is housed in a lab at Italys University of Padova, from which it signals back and forth with the artificial neurons at University of Zurich via University of Southampton-build nodes called synaptors, named after synapses, the connections between individual brain cells.

For now, its a simple network. But, it could be an important first step toward smarter and more adaptive prosthetics and brain-computer interfaces and potentially lay the groundwork for a world where neural implants create real brain networks.

On one side it sets the basis for a novel scenario that was never encountered during natural evolution, where biological and artificial neurons are linked together and communicate across global networks; laying the foundations for the Internet of Neuro-electronics, Themis Prodromakis, a nanotechnology researcher and director at the University of Southamptons Centre for Electronics Frontiers said in a press release.

On the other hand, it brings new prospects to neuroprosthetic technologies, paving the way towards research into replacing dysfunctional parts of the brain with AI chips.

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Artificial and Biological Neurons Just Talked Over the Internet - Futurism