Top Stories

Your guide to what matters today

01.21

  1. Climate Data Preservation Efforts Mount as Trump Takes Office

    Universities host hackathons to save environmental information amid fears the Trump administration will scrub data that undercuts its views.

    by James Temple

  2. President Trump Takes Immediate Aim at Obama’s Climate Action Plan

    Shortly after Donald Trump took office, climate change and clean energy disappeared from the White House website.

    by James Temple

  3. The President’s New Smartphone

    Donald Trump has been forced to hand over his old phone for a more secure device—which might make tweeting a little harder.

    by Jamie Condliffe

  4. FDA Mulls Tighter Regulation of Gene-Edited Animals

    The regulator has suggested that it treat every edit of an animal’s genome like a new drug, but some scientists think it could slow progress.

    by Jamie Condliffe

  5. Data Mining Solves the Mystery of Your Slow Wi-Fi Connection

    Chinese researchers have worked out the reasons for why Wi-Fi can take so long to connect.

    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  6. Voice Analysis Tech Could Diagnose Disease

    Researchers enlist smartphones and machine learning to find vocal patterns that might signal post-traumatic stress disorder or even heart disease.

    by Emily Mullin

  7. AI Software Learns to Make AI Software

    Google and others think software that learns to learn could take over some work done by AI experts.

    by Tom Simonite

What's important in technology and innovation, delivered to you every day.

The Download

Features

Genomic medicine

Google’s Long, Strange Life-Span Trip

Why does a mole rat live 30 years but a mouse only three? With $1.5 billion in the bank, Google’s anti-aging spinout Calico is rich enough to find out.

by Antonio Regalado

Genomic medicine

The Cancer Lottery

Finding telltale mutations in tumors and targeting those cancers with precisely selected drugs is the newest front in the war on cancer. Now researchers just have to figure out why it doesn’t work for everyone.
Novel therapeutics

Rejuvenating the Chance of Motherhood?

An audacious startup thinks it can give 40-ish women a better shot at having children. Should desperate would-be parents believe it?
Internet of things

Alexa Gives Amazon
a Powerful Data Advantage

Millions of people talking with Alexa could help Amazon fight off Google in the home voice assistant market.
Innovation strategies

Will Science Have a Seat at President Trump’s Table?

Every president since FDR has had a science advisor. Trump has yet to name one or indicate leading candidates.
Business

The Business of Blockchain: A New MIT Technology Review Conference

Our one-day conference will explore the opportunities and challenges associated with blockchains.
Genomic medicine

Questionable “Young Blood” Transfusions Offered in U.S. as Anti-Aging Remedy

A startup called Ambrosia will fill your veins with the blood of young people and empty your pockets of $8,000.
Innovation strategies

Obama’s Technology Legacy

The past eight years saw some wins, and more than a few failures.
Automated cars

Robot Cars Can Learn to Drive without Leaving the Garage

Playing video games and surfing Google Street View can teach software a lot about driving.
Internet access

Digitally Unequal

Poor areas have lousy Internet. Here’s what Trump can do to help them.
Security and privacy

Air Force Tests IBM’s Brain-Inspired Chip as an Aerial Tank Spotter

Chips with silicon “neurons” could make satellites, aircraft, and drones smarter.
Internet of things

This $500 Tablet Brings Words to Blind Users’ Fingertips

The first of its kind, the device will include a touch screen and 14-line Braille display.

From Our Current Issue

January/February 2017

Inside the quest to slow aging, extend fertility, and defeat cancer.

The Unacceptable Persistence of the Digital Divide

Millions of Americans lack broadband access and computer skills. Can President Trump bring them into the digital economy?

If Only AI Could Save Us from Ourselves

Google has an ambitious plan to use artificial intelligence to weed out abusive comments and defang online mobs. The technology isn’t up to that challenge—but it will help the Internet’s best-behaving communities function better.

Features

Gene editing

One Man’s Quest to Hack His Own Genes

When Brian Hanley set out to test a gene therapy, he started with himself.

by Antonio Regalado

Funding commercialization

The Pentagon’s Innovation Experiment

The U.S. Department of Defense founded a kind of startup in Silicon Valley to accelerate the development and acquisition of new technologies useful to the military. But will it survive President Trump?
Innovation strategies

Ghana’s Last Mile

Innovative African e-tailers are offering sought-after goods to the continent’s growing ­middle class. But logistical challenges must be worked out delivery by delivery.
Business

Closing the Digital Divide Isn’t Easy—But We Have to Try

The poorest people, who might benefit most from Internet access, are often the least likely to have it.

Jason Pontin

March 27-28, 2017

San Francisco

Artificial intelligence is changing
every business.
Don't be left behind.

EmTech digital separates fact from hype—giving you the business intelligence you need in this rapidly shifting landscape.

Register now

Features

Practical robots

Mining 24 Hours a Day with Robots

Mining companies are rolling out autonomous trucks, drills, and trains, which will boost efficiency but also reduce the need for human employees.

by Tom Simonite

Social networking

Social Media Is Killing Discourse Because It’s Too Much Like TV

We need more text and fewer videos and memes in the age of Trump.
Robot breakthroughs

Meet the World’s First Completely Soft Robot

Researchers use an ingenious design to make a soft robot that moves on its own.

Computing

From the latest smartphones to advances in quantum computing, the hardware behind today's digital age is rapidly changing.

All Topics

  1. Cybersecurity Experts Uncover Dormant Botnet of 350,000 Twitter Accounts

    A massive botnet secretly infiltrated the Twitterverse in 2013 but has lain mysteriously dormant since then, say researchers.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  2. New U.K. Surveillance Law Will Have Worldwide Implications

    Even if you don’t live in Britain, the U.K.’s new “Snooper’s Charter” is worth watching. It could inspire other democratic nations to adopt aggressive surveillance policies.
    by Mike Orcutt

  3. Researcher Claims He’s Identified a Co-creator of a Massive Internet of Things Botnet

    But even if we find out who orchestrated some of the fiercest Internet attacks of late, will it matter?
    by Jamie Condliffe
More from Computing
View from the Marketplace

Big Data Game-Changer: Alibaba’s Double 11 Event Raises the Bar for Online Sales

The ever-expanding Double 11 Global Online Shopping Festival showcases Alibaba’s innovations in key technology areas such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.

In partnership with Alibaba

Partner Webcast

Leading Innovation: The Challenge of Leadership in Digital Transformation

In partnership with SAP and Intel

Partner Webcast

The Connected City: Trends and Developments Driving Smart City Innovation

In partnership with Presented by

Partner White Paper

The Digital Economy: Disruption, Transformation, Opportunity

In partnership with SAP and Intel

50 Smartest Companies 2016

Explore the 50 smartest companies in depth, including the full list and stories that examine the opportunities for small companies going big and the challenges facing big companies fending off the newcomers.

See the Collection

Biomedicine

New technologies and biological insights are providing unprecedented ways of improving our health.

All Topics

  1. FDA Mulls Tighter Regulation of Gene-Edited Animals

    The regulator has suggested that it treat every edit of an animal’s genome like a new drug, but some scientists think it could slow progress.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. Voice Analysis Tech Could Diagnose Disease

    Researchers enlist smartphones and machine learning to find vocal patterns that might signal post-traumatic stress disorder or even heart disease.
    by Emily Mullin

  3. The Billion-Dollar Bid to Prevent Epidemics

    Filling a gap that pharma fails to fund, a new initiative will develop vaccines to prevent outbreaks of emerging viruses.
    by Jamie Condliffe
More from Biomedicine
Insider Conversations

You can be part of the discussion.

Insider Premium subscribers are invited to join Insider Conversations as our editors interview technologists and entrepreneurs to discuss some of the most important stories happening today.

Subscribe to Insider Premium for full access

Trend Roundup: Data Storage and the Cloud

Sponsored by Lenovo

  1. Video: 5 Data-Center Hyperconvergence Myths

    Hyperconvergence can simplify your data center and increase its agility. This short video from collection sponsor Lenovo addresses common misconceptions about the infrastructure, such as its impact, cost, and deployment time.

  2. Rejoice, Disorganized Workers: This Smart Cloud Looks After Your Files For You

    The storage company Box ratchets up its competition with Dropbox.
    by Will Knight

  3. Your Car’s Sensors Are About to Shorten Your Commute

    Mapping company Here aims to crowdsource data from cars’ on-board sensors and use it to alert drivers or autonomous vehicles to conditions on the road ahead.
    by Jamie Condliffe
More in Trend Roundup: Data Storage and the Cloud

Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Provided by BBVA

  1. A Secure Model of IoT with Blockchain

    The Internet of Things is a fast-growing, increasingly complex network of connected devices. This excerpt from an Open Mind article touches on blockchain as a way of securing this new ecosystem.
    by Ahmed Banafa

  2. The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics

    In this article excerpt, a British researcher discusses why AI and cybernetics are moving beyond the realm of science fiction—but warns that the technologies also raise significant ethical questions.
    by Kevin Warwick, Coventry University

  3. The Ethics of Human Enhancement

    Recent scientific advancements increasingly allow humans to improve everything from memory to appearance. But those capabilities come with questions about how they should be used, and who should make those decisions.
    by Andy Miah
More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights