Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending May 3, 2014)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
Chernobyl: Capping a Catastrophe
Moving, and fascinating, account of Chernobyl and the measures being taken to contain the disaster decades after it happened.
—Kevin Bullis, senior editor, energy
In a Stock Trade, It’s Man vs. Machine
What happens when a computer’s word is trusted over yours? One man took the issue up with E-Trade.
—Will Knight, online news and analysis editor
A Eulogy for Twitter
Is Twitter fading?
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor
The Future of Chicken
A possible way to produce chicken meat at a mass scale, without antibiotics.
—Brian Bergstein
How One Woman Hid Her Pregnancy from Big Data
On the Internet, everyone knows you’re knocked up.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief
It’s Insanely Easy to Hack Hospital Equipment
Researchers found frightening evidence that many hospital devices are highly insecure and vulnerable to Internet attack via internal hospital networks—patient medical records, blood refrigeration units, and surgical robots among them.
—Nanette Byrnes, senior editor, Business Reports
What Killed My Sister?
A beautifully written long piece on the ongoing search for the genesis of and prognosis for schizophrenia.
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web Producer
The Untold Story of Larry Page’s Incredible Comeback
“Larry Page is the Steve Jobs of Google.”
—Kyanna Sutton
Designer Duds
Have tech companies been led astray by the vogue for slick design? This look at recent efforts from Facebook and Dropbox thinks so.
—Tom Simonite, senior editor, IT
The AROMAFORK™ Will Make Your Food Taste Better. Seriously.
I think this one is cool because it could completely change how we eat. I could be eating a salad, but getting the satisfaction of a cheeseburger just from a sensory overload. I think it could also bring a lot more interesting combinations to the culinary world … it’s like 4-D eating.
—Lina Umansky, events speaker coordinator
3-D Printed Cast Speeds Bone Recovery Using Ultrasound
This one just makes me think of little kids who may be able to heal faster.
—Lina Umansky