Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending May 14, 2016)

Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.

TR Staffarchive page

May 13, 2016

The Unbelievable Reality of the Impossible Hyperloop
Startup Hyperloop Technologies has started shooting magnetically levitated capsules along a track in Las Vegas to show off a radical idea for the future of freight and mass transit.
In Global Shift, Poorer Countries Are Increasingly the Early Tech Adopters
In some corners of the world, the poorest populations are the first to benefit from new technologies that are improving health.
Gene Therapy’s First Out-and-Out Cure Is Here
A gene therapy for an inherited immune disease completes a 27-year journey.
Injectable Gel Generates New Blood Vessels
An experimental treatment helps diabetic mice grow new blood vessels. It could offer new hope to people with vascular disease.
Coffee Under Threat
Starbucks’s efforts to head off climate change and its impact on coffee bend to business realities.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Keep Falling in the U.S.
Despite continued economic growth, emissions in the U.S. are on a steady decline thanks in large part to cheap natural gas.
To Make Fresh Water without Warming the Planet, Countries Eye Solar Power
Solar-powered desalination is ideal—if only the cost comes down.

Keep Reading

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.