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Our Best Photographs of 2016

Transport yourself around the world and see people creating and dealing with technological change in MIT Technology Review’s top photos of the year.
December 25, 2016

In 2016, we featured photographs from a dome filled with self-destructive mosquitos in Perugia and showed a surreal transportation startup in the Nevada desert. We took you to a Canadian pilot plant trying to capture carbon dioxide from the air; an experimental, immersive movie theater prototype in the Berkshire Hills, and a South Carolina town struggling with both the prosperity and inequality created by advanced manufacturing.

These are images not just of technology, but of the stories generated by new ideas and innovations. These photos show the visionaries who dream up innovations, the way those innovations take form, and how they in turn shape our culture and society. 

We work with an incredibly talented group of photographers who come from diverse areas: fashion, fine art, photojournalism. Below are some of our favorite photos we commissioned in 2016.

35 Innovators Under 35: Jean Yang
Photograph by Leonard Greco
The Unbelievable Reality of the Impossible Hyperloop
Photograph by Jeff Minton
The Science Behind Your Volumizing Shampoo
Photograph by Joshua Mathews
Learning to Prosper in a Factory Town
Photograph by Stacy Kranitz
The Extinction Invention
Photograph by Michele Borzoni
35 Innovators Under 35: Oriol Vinyals
Photograph by Jess Kohl
The One and Only Texas Wind Boom
Photograph by Sandy Carson
Go Inside TriAlpha, A Startup Pursuing the Ideal Power Source
Photograph by Julian Berman
Oculus Rift Is Too Cool to Ignore
Photograph by Damien Maloney
Go Inside an Industrial Plant That Sucks Carbon Dioxide Straight Out of the Air
Photograph by Kamil Bialous
10 Breakthrough Technologies: Precise Gene Editing in Plants
Photograph by Grant Cornett
35 Innovators Under 35: Meron Gribetz
Photograph by Damien Maloney
10 Breakthrough Technologies: SolarCity’s Gigafactory
Photograph by Gus Powell
35 Innovators Under 35: Wei Gao
Photograph by Damien Maloney
What If Apple Is Wrong?
Photograph by Jonno Rattman
35 Innovators Under 35: Alex Hegyi
Photograph by Damien Maloney
35 Innovators Under 35: Ari Roisman
Photograph by Damien Maloney
Restoring the Allure of the Movie Theater
Photograph by Leonard Greco

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