Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending July 11, 2015)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
One Man’s Desperate Quest to Cure His Son’s Epilepsy—With Weed
This is a great, thoughtful personal story about reporter Fred Vogelstein’s efforts to halt his son’s epilepsy after many other treatments failed.
—Rachel Metz, senior editor, mobile
How Virtual Reality Porn Could Bring About World Peace
A disturbing glimpse of what some believe could be VR’s killer app.
—Will Knight, senior editor, AI
.@Twitter. Who Do You Think You Are?
Nick Bilton struggles with the question of what Twitter actually is.
—Will Knight
Waste Hours Staring at This Real-Time 3D Map of Objects Orbiting Earth
A fascinating map of all the objects orbiting Earth (including GPS satellites and debris from a 2009 satellite collision).
—Anna Nowogrodzki, intern
Revealed: How Developers Exploit Flawed Planning System to Minimise Affordable Housing
A deeply reported, deeply unsettling dive into the “dark arts of accounting” surrounding the massive Elephant & Castle regeneration project in London. This is the kind of investigative journalism that few outlets other than the Guardian are doing today.
—Richard Martin, senior editor, energy
How You Consist of Trillions of Tiny Machines
This completely fascinating review of two important new books on the “nanoverse” details “one of the most astonishing discoveries of the twentieth century—that our cells are comprised of a series of highly sophisticated ‘little engines’ or nanomachines that carry out life’s vital functions.”
—Richard Martin
The Father of the Emoticon Chases His Great White Whale
The inventor of the smiley emoticon thinks that “invention” has been a mixed blessing for his career.
—Julia Sklar, intern
Why Can’t We Move?
Infrastructure failures are “issues of technology, competitiveness, economic development, and equity.”
—J. Juniper Friedman, associate Web producer