Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending February 7, 2014)

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

MIT Technology Reviewarchive page

February 7, 2014

A Robotic Hand, This Time with Feeling
A man with a robotic hand can now feel varying degrees of pressure thanks to an implant that connects with the nerves in his arm.
Burning the U.K.’s Plutonium Stockpile Could Fast-Track New Reactors
GE’s nuclear waste-burning PRISM reactors get a new chance at commercialization.
Does Bill Gates Still Know What Computer Users Want?
Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, will work with Bill Gates to define new products.
Why Google Kept Motorola’s Research Lab
Motorola Mobility’s sale to Lenovo only looks like a loss—the patents were cheap, and Google might yet advance wearables, home devices, and modular phone hardware.
Solar Thermal Technology Poses Challenges for Drought-Stricken California
Reducing water consumption at solar thermal plants raises costs and decreases power production.
Quantum Internet: First Teleportation to a Solid-State Quantum Memory
A European team of physicists has demonstrated a device that can teleport quantum information to a solid-state quantum memory over telecom fiber, a crucial capability for any future quantum Internet.
Why the Promise of Cheap Fuel from Super Bugs Fell Short
The sell-off of synthetic biology pioneer LS9 goes to show that making biofuels from genetically engineered microbes has yet to deliver economically.

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.