MIT Technology Review

The droughts that swept across the western US in 2021 sparked wildfires and damaged crops. But the historic lack of water also had an impact on one of California’s key sources of renewable energy: hydropower. Electricity generation from California hydropower plants was down 48% from the 10-year average, according to new data from the Energy…

In 1999, Rice University chemist Jim Tour co-founded Molecular Electronics Corporation, a company that aimed to use single molecules to make a new type of electronic memory. But Tour had even bigger dreams. In a 2000 story in Wired, he foretold a future in which molecular electronics would leapfrog silicon-based circuitry, allowing computer chips to…

The world’s oceans are amazing carbon sponges. They already capture a quarter of human-produced carbon dioxide when surface waters react with the greenhouse gas in the air or marine organisms gobble it up as they grow. Their effectiveness has prompted growing hopes that we could somehow accelerate those natural processes to boost the amount the…

At last year’s Google I/O, its annual showcase of new widgets and work-in-progress tech, CEO Sundar Pichai revealed his company’s “latest breakthrough in natural-language understanding”: a chatbot called LaMDA, designed to converse on any topic. He then gave a demo in which LaMDA answered questions about Pluto in natural language. The exchange showed off a…

One of the largest and fastest-growing oil production sites in the US is emitting far more methane than previously measured. It’s well known that oil and natural-gas production is a significant source of the powerful greenhouse gas: methane that is trapped underground leaks out from wells and pipelines, and it can also be released intentionally…

Since the 1940s, scientists have studied ways to increase rainfall with the goal of increasing precipitation in arid and semi-arid climates. Today, that endeavor is making incredible leaps and bounds as scientists and engineers apply nanotechnology to improve the effectiveness of cloud seeding. “The global water shortage has continuously intensified by rapid population growth and…

As a buzzword, quantum computing probably ranks only below AI in terms of hype. Large tech companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft now have substantial research and development efforts in quantum computing. A host of startups have sprung up as well, some boasting staggering valuations. IonQ, for example, was valued at $2 billion when…

When it comes to computing ability, the general rule of thumb is more is better. Quantum computers promise to feed this hunger. Their immense processing power comes from their ability to store and handle significantly larger volumes of data than classical bit-driven computers. The result—a future quantum computer could, in theory, take minutes to solve…

In April of last year, a freelance photojournalist named J.D. Duggan was covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, when things took a disturbing turn. A few days earlier, a police officer in Brooklyn Center had shot and killed 20 year-old Daunte Wright, and a community wounded and incensed by George…

A completely paralyzed man has been able to communicate entire sentences using a device that records his brain activity. The man was able to train his mind to use the device, which was implanted in his brain, to ask for massages, soup, and beer, and to watch films with his son. It is the first…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Russia may resort to even more desperate tactics in Ukraine, Biden has warned Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a “clear sign” Russia is considering using its own against…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The Download: Activists are targeting Russians with open-source ‘protestware’ The news: The largest bank in Russia has warned its users to stop updating any software due to the threat of “protestware,” open source software…

Russia’s biggest bank has warned its users to stop updating software due to the threat of “protestware”: open-source software projects whose authors have altered their code in opposition to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Most of the protestware simply displays anti-war, pro-Ukrainian messages when it is run, but at least one project had malicious code added…

As global viewers waited with bated breath in early February to see whether Japanese figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru would nail a legendary quadruple axel during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, it was likely that few would have considered the amount of behind-the-scenes work needed to bring those images to their screens. The Olympic Winter Games…

Despite public assertions that it had gone dormant, a multi-agency task force consisting of federal, state, and local police that was created to monitor protests in Minnesota during the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin continued to operate in secret after the trial’s conclusion, according to emails and documents examined by MIT Technology…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Russia is risking the creation of a “splinternet”—and it could be irreversible Cut off: Russia’s disconnection from the online services of the West has been abrupt and severe. Facebook has been blocked…

Russia’s disconnection from the online services of the West has been as abrupt and complete as its disconnection from real-world global trade routes. Facebook has been blocked entirely by Russian authorities, while Twitter is almost completely cut off. Many more companies have voluntarily withdrawn from the Russian market—including Apple, Microsoft, TikTok, Netflix, and others. Russia…

Psychedelic drugs have long been touted as possible treatments for mental-health disorders like depression and PTSD. But very little is really known about what these substances actually do to our brains—and it can be hard to find out. Understanding how they work could help unlock their potential. Some scientists are using AI to figure it…

Few today won’t agree that sustainability is important not only to the future of the planet and society but to business practices as well. And approaches are evolving beyond designing products to be used as long as possible. “If we’re going to design a product or use a product, we’re thinking from the very first…

Like many people, Aeden felt helpless when Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. He was a 23-year-old based in the UK with no connection to the country, but he was good at open-source intelligence gathering, which involves scouring the web to collect publicly available data. So he put his hand up to volunteer for investigation…

Creating localized experiences across multiple geographies can be difficult for multinational technology companies. Take HP Inc., for example. As a global manufacturer of personal computers and print devices, HP Inc. tackles challenges to provide localized products and services to cities around the world. HP’s Asia-Pacific division alone plays host to over 3,000 employees from more…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The news: China reported 5,370 new covid cases today, the biggest one-day increase since the pandemic began, and more than double the number reported yesterday. It’s a tiny proportion of China’s population of 1.4…

Every decade or so, we achieve a new generation of communication technology. Many of us remember 2G phones and about 10 years later 3G, then 4G. Now, we are watching the rollout of 5G, which is going to usher in a paradigm shift in the way we use and think about communication technology at both…

Thermo Fisher Scientific is known for its equipment used in a variety of industries—from biosciences to environmental—but the company is also an application developer. An increasing number of instruments can be remotely monitored and managed through the company’s Connect platform, while data is collected and analyzed through more than 40 different modules and applications. Managing…

Manufacturers of all kinds share similar challenges when moving to the cloud. When your mission is to create the most advanced technology independently, regardless of what you’re developing, it’s only possible when you team up with the right partners. Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Technology, builder of the fastest electric hypercars in…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Western officials are increasingly worried that Russia is preparing to use chemical weapons to attack Ukraine, then spread disinformation that the attack came from the Ukrainians themselves. On NBC’s ‘Meet the…

Today, March 11, 2022, marks two years since covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. We’ve had lockdowns, vaccines, and arguments about how to move forward and live with this virus. We’ve watched the pandemic through numbers and data and memorials to the many lives lost, officially now over six million. It…

Deep in the ocean, below the reach of wind-driven currents but well above the seafloor, lies an in-between world—the eerily still midwaters, dominated by alien-looking, gelatinous life forms. Here ctenophores swim about using glittering comb-legs, colonies of siphonophore clones stretch a hundred feet long, and giant larvaceans secrete elaborate mucus structures. These strange inhabitants of the…

Running a healthcare system is like juggling bees. Millions of moving pieces—from mobile clinics to testing kits—need to be in the right places at the right time. That’s even harder to do in countries with limited resources and endemic disease. But getting stuff where it’s needed is a problem big companies deal with all the…

Fueled by innovations in AI, IoT, and blockchain, digital transformation has been accelerating rapidly across industries. But as the world’s data is growing at the edge, the stark differences in digital equity and inclusion have become clear. Access to technology, underrepresentation within tech companies, and bias within technology itself contribute to this stark digital divide,…

Russia’s war on Ukraine’s cities, civilians, and critical infrastructure has exposed a troubling vulnerability in the escalating conflict: the aging and isolated Ukrainian power sector. The nation is effectively an energy island after disconnecting from the Belarusian and Russian electricity systems as the invasion began, requiring it to generate nearly all its own electricity. The…

Across industries and geographies, the pandemic has triggered a paradigm shift in the way companies—and their employees—conduct day-to-day business. The move to work-from-home and hybrid work models has increased the need for collaboration to facilitate communication and innovation from remote locations, and to keep teams connected and engaged when in-person meetings are difficult or impossible.…