The Download

What's up in emerging technology

Connectivity

Who Will Build the Health-Care Blockchain?

Decentralized databases promise to revolutionize medical records, but not until the health-care industry buys in to the idea and gets to work.
Sustainable Energy

Making Sense of Trump’s Surprising Investment in Solar

The DOE’s $62 million into concentrated solar projects could push forward a technology that addresses a critical shortcoming of photovoltaics.
Business Impact

Get Ready for EmTech MIT 2017: November 6-9

Gain access to the most innovative people and companies in the world, and understand the technologies that will drive the new global economy.
Business Impact

Why 500 Million People in China Are Talking to This AI

iFlytek’s voice recognition technology is everywhere in China, and that’s what’s making it smarter every day.
Connectivity

Apple Needs an Entirely New iPhone, Not Just a New Version

The iPhone was fantastic when it was released in 2007. A lot has changed since then.
Sustainable Energy

A Material That Throws Heat into Space Could Soon Reinvent Air-Conditioning

A radiative cooling technology could help cut energy consumption in new buildings by nearly 70 percent—and significantly shave demand in existing structures, too.
Business Impact

Criminals Thought Bitcoin Was the Perfect Hiding Place, but They Thought Wrong

Companies have popped up to help cops identify suspects who use Bitcoin, and savvy criminals are moving to other currencies.
Business Impact

Giving the Dry-Erase Whiteboard a High-Tech Makeover

Your videoconferences are going to become far more productive.
Rewriting Life

Patient Death Won’t Slow Research on “Off-the-Shelf” Immune Cells to Treat Cancer

The approach could treat patients in dire need faster at a lower price, but questions remain about safety.
Content Hub

The Bridge to Digital Transformation: The Move to a Software-Based Network Strategy

Presented in partnership with VMware

Custom White Paper

Modern Storage Accelerates Data Insights, Speeding Innovation

In partnership with Pure Storage

Custom Research Report

Finance and HR: The Cloud’s New Power Partnership

In partnership with Oracle

Custom White Paper

Transform Customer Experiences by Harnessing the Power of AI in CRM

In partnership with Salesforce

Watch Video

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Turning Flood Water into Drinking Water 03:27

CRISPR Decoded 02:22

Blockchain Decoded 01:58

This Is How You'll Actually Use AR at Home 00:46

Q&A with Tim Cook 02:24

Blood-Delivering Drones 04:23

Why I Left the Hospital System and Started Working in Telemedicine 04:03

Beyond Finance: Considering Business and Social Impact of Blockchains 33:57

Jean Yang: Innovator Under 35 02:18

Kevin Esvelt: Innovator Under 35 03:44

Sustainable Energy

Turning Flood Water into Drinking Water 03:27

A Thai government agency has developed a mobile unit called SOS that can purify contaminated water in the aftermath of a flood.

More Videos

From Our Current Issue

September/October 2017

Meet 35 people whose ideas will shape the future.

“Alexa, Understand Me”

Voice-based AI devices aren’t just jukeboxes with attitude. They could become the primary way we interact with our machines.

For Wind Power, Bigger Is Better

Things are looking up for wind power—way up. Wind is now competitive with fossil fuels in many areas of the world, while the rise of turbines to new heights figures to bring down costs even more.

Features

Rewriting Life

A New Way to Reproduce

Scientists are trying to manufacture eggs and sperm in the laboratory. Will it end reproduction as we know it?

by Antonio Regalado

Connectivity

Eliminating the Human

We are beset by—and immersed in—apps and devices that are quietly reducing the amount of meaningful interaction we have with each other.
Connectivity

We Need More Alternatives to Facebook

Chastened by the negative effects of social media, Mark Zuckerberg says he will tweak his service and upgrade society in the process. Should any company be that powerful?

Features

Intelligent Machines

The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI

No one really knows how the most advanced algorithms do what they do. That could be a problem.

by Will Knight

Sustainable Energy

To Feed the World, Improve Photosynthesis

By reworking the basic metabolism of crops, plant scientists hope to forestall devastating food shortages.
Business Impact

A Different Story from the Middle East: Entrepreneurs Building an Arab Tech Economy

Middle Eastern startups are overcoming cultural and other barriers to tap into a growing local taste for technology, from Bitcoin wallets to digital publishing.

50 Smartest Companies 2017

Explore the 50 smartest companies in depth, including the full list and stories that examine how this group is combining important technologies and smart business strategies to best the competition.

See the Collection

Sustainable Energy

Can we sustainably provide food, water, and energy to a growing population during a climate crisis?

All Topics

  1. Making Sense of Trump’s Surprising Investment in Solar

    The DOE’s $62 million into concentrated solar projects could push forward a technology that addresses a critical shortcoming of photovoltaics.
    by James Temple

  2. A Material That Throws Heat into Space Could Soon Reinvent Air-Conditioning

    A radiative cooling technology could help cut energy consumption in new buildings by nearly 70 percent—and significantly shave demand in existing structures, too.
    by James Temple

  3. Our Hurricane Risk Models Are Dangerously Out of Date

    We’ve built our cities and flood protections with assumptions based on the climate of the past.
    by James Temple
More from Sustainable Energy

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017

These breakthrough technologies will affect the economy and our politics, improve medicine, or influence our culture. Some are here now; others will take a decade to develop. But you should know about all of them right now.

See the List

Internet of Things: A World on the Move

Sponsored by Siemens

  1. If Only a Simple Gadget Rating Could Save Us from Cyberattack

    Suggestions that a security score be awarded to connected devices is a lovely idea that would be almost impossible to implement.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. Botnets of Things: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017

    The relentless push to add connectivity to home gadgets is creating dangerous side effects that figure to get even worse.
    by Bruce Schneier

  3. Personal AI Privacy Watchdog Could Help You Regain Control of Your Data

    If regulators aren’t going to help consumers make sense of what companies are doing with their data, maybe artificial intelligence can.
    by Mike Orcutt
More in Internet of Things: A World on the Move

November 6-9, 2017

Cambridge, MA

Discover the emerging technologies that will change the world.

Meet the people and companies shaping our future. From next-generation brain interfaces to the impact of social media on society and much more, this is the tech conference you must not miss.

Register Now

Rewriting Life

Reprogramming our bodies to make us healthier.

All Topics

  1. First Human Embryos Edited in U.S.

    Researchers have demonstrated they can efficiently improve the DNA of human embryos.
    by Steve Connor

  2. Genetic Engineering Holds the Power to Save Humanity or Kill It

    The same technology that allows researchers to design viruses and vaccines for specific genetic targets also allows them to design organisms that can spread and kill.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  3. Artificial Human Embryos Are Coming, and No One Knows How to Handle Them

    Stem cells can be coaxed to self-assemble into structures resembling human embryos.
    by Antonio Regalado
More from Rewriting Life

AI Meets CRM: Transforming Customer Experiences

Sponsored by Salesforce

  1. Transform Customer Experiences by Harnessing the Power of AI in CRM

    Companies are using AI to build personalized and dynamic experiences to engage both internal and external audiences.
    by MIT Technology Review Custom

  2. Artificial Intelligence for Everyone: A Next-Generation Experience

    Organizations today are challenged with mining, analyzing and putting to good use the vast amounts of data now flooding in from multiple checkpoints. How to utilize that data to get closer to internal and external customers?
    by MIT Technology Review Custom

  3. Customer Data Meets AI

    A new day is dawning for the customer experience, driven by the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automated technologies to CRM data. The potential exists to transform the customer’s experience by providing service in a more predictive and intuitive way than ever before.
    by MIT Technology Review Custom
More in AI Meets CRM: Transforming Customer Experiences

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Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Provided by BBVA

  1. Our Extended Sensoria. How Humans Will Connect with the Internet of Things

    Mark Weiser predicted the Internet of Things in a seminal article in 1991 about how people would interact with networked computation distributed into the environments and artifacts around them.
    by Joseph A. Paradiso

  2. Interstellar travel and post-humans

    The stupendous time-spans of the evolutionary past are now part of common culture.
    by Martin Rees

  3. Robotics, Smart Materials, and their Future Impact for Humans

    We are on the cusp of a robotics revolution in which the boundaries between artificial intelligence and biology are blurring.
    by Jonathan Rossiter
More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights