The Download

What's up in emerging technology

Connectivity

Subcutaneous Fitbits? These cows are modeling the tracking technology of the future

Livestock Labs is getting bio-monitors under cows’ skin in hopes of helping farmers spot disease earlier, and it wants to bring its tech to people, too.
Rewriting Life

I lost a bet, and now I am going to let millions of strangers check whether we’re related

How this reporter ended up deciding to join the crowd and get his DNA tested.
Connectivity

This company hopes its cryptocurrency can help the internet of things reach its true potential

Helium, a startup focused on connecting low-power devices, thinks a blockchain can seed the spread of cheap, ubiquitous connectivity.
Intelligent Machines

The White House says a new AI task force will protect workers and keep America first

Saying the US is ahead of other nations in AI, the administration touts actions it has already taken to promote the technology.
Sustainable Energy

California’s rooftop solar rule is a pricey path to emissions reductions

A solar panel on every house might sound good, but it isn’t smart climate policy.
Intelligent Machines

AI program gets really good at navigation by developing a brain-like GPS system

DeepMind’s neural networks mimic the grid cells found in human brains that help us know where we are.
Connectivity

Google’s new tools will make your life more convenient—for a price

Don’t forget that forking over more and more of your data remains part of the bargain.
Intelligent Machines

How uncertainty could help a machine hold a more eloquent conversation

AI startup Gamalon developed a clever new way for chatbots and virtual assistants to converse with us.
Rewriting Life

Before he died, this biohacker was planning a CRISPR trial in Mexico

Aaron Traywick and his company, Ascendance Biomedical, are connected to a website advertising a gene-therapy trial for lung cancer.

June 4-5, 2018

MIT Media Lab

When robots are your colleagues, which human skills will still matter?

Join the conversion at EmTech Next where we talk about the future of work with the world’s leading experts.

Register Now

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More videos

Filtering Drinking Water with Nanofibers 03:17

Blood-Delivering Drones 04:23

How the SEC will affect ICOs 04:05

"Tezos tokens are akin to Amazon AWS credits" 00:25

"Bitcoin is like Coca-Cola" 01:11

Valuing an asset in the crypto world 00:27

Crypto assets versus cryptocurrencies 01:24

How the market is pricing each unit of Bitcoin's transaction volume 00:41

Why now? 01:55

How banks use blockchains 02:03

Sustainable Energy

Filtering Drinking Water with Nanofibers 03:17

Liquidity, an Alameda, California-based startup, has developed a low-cost water filter made from nanofibers that it hopes will reduce water-borne diseases in poor countries.

More Videos

From Our Current Issue

May/June 2018

The future of trust?

Chinese entrepreneurs have some creative responses to the government’s crackdown on crypto

Last September’s official restrictions have unleashed a wave of below-the-radar innovation.

Is the crypto world sexist? That might be the wrong question.

“Inclusion happens when people in power use that power to bring people in rather than keep people out.”

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2018

Dueling neural networks. Artificial embryos. AI in the cloud. Welcome to our annual list of the 10 technology advances we think will shape the way we work and live now and for years to come.

See the Collection

Rewriting Life

Reprogramming our bodies to make us healthier.

All Topics

  1. Does the brain store information in discrete or analog form?

    New evidence in favor of a discrete form of data storage could change the way we understand the brain and the devices we build to interface with it.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  2. I lost a bet, and now I am going to let millions of strangers check whether we’re related

    How this reporter ended up deciding to join the crowd and get his DNA tested.
    by Antonio Regalado

  3. A stealthy Harvard startup wants to reverse aging in dogs, and humans could be next

    Biologist George Church says the idea is to live to 130 in the body of a 22-year-old.
    by Antonio Regalado
More from Rewriting Life
Webcast

Rapid Engineering Design Innovation for a Connected World

Presented by IBM

Briefing Paper

How to Unlock the Power of IoT with Real-Time Monitoring

In association with AppDynamics

Webcast

Optimizing Assets: Using AI to Rethink Maintenance and Repair

Presented by IBM

Executive Briefing

Cloud Development: The Key to Rapid Innovation

In partnership with Oracle

Features

Sustainable Energy

The scientist still fighting for the clean fuel the world forgot

A decade of investment in advanced biofuels led nowhere, but Jay Keasling remains undaunted.

by James Temple

Rewriting Life

A stealthy Harvard startup wants to reverse aging in dogs, and humans could be next

Biologist George Church says the idea is to live to 130 in the body of a 22-year-old.
Connectivity

In blockchain we trust

To understand why blockchain matters, look past the wild speculation at what is being built underneath, argue the authors of The Age of Cryptocurrency and its newly published follow-up, The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything.

Sustainable Energy

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

All Topics

  1. The scientist still fighting for the clean fuel the world forgot

    A decade of investment in advanced biofuels led nowhere, but Jay Keasling remains undaunted.
    by James Temple

  2. California’s rooftop solar rule is a pricey path to emissions reductions

    A solar panel on every house might sound good, but it isn’t smart climate policy.
    by James Temple

  3. How to prepare cities and citizens for more killer heat waves

    As climate change takes hold, researchers are exploring what it will take for communities to adapt.
    by James Temple
More from Sustainable Energy