Seven Must-Read Stories (Week ending October 31, 2015)

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

October 30, 2015

The Superconductor That Works at Earth Temperature
Physicists have discovered a material that superconducts at a temperature significantly warmer than the coldest ever measured on Earth. That should herald a new era of superconductivity research.
New Foam Batteries Promise Fast Charging, Higher Capacity
Affordable, lightweight, and versatile, batteries made of porous materials could soon transform energy storage.
A Drone with a Sense of Direction
A small drone capable of building its own maps of an indoor space shows how the craft could become easier to use.
Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality
Japanese startup Adawarp thinks teleporting inside the body of a robotic stuffed animal could be a good way to keep in touch with loved ones.
Alphabet’s Stratospheric Loon Balloons to Start Serving Internet to Indonesia
The high-flying Internet balloons dreamed up by Google will get their biggest test yet in 2016.
Robots Can Now Teach Each Other New Tricks
A robot at Brown University learned how to perform a task from a very different robot at Cornell University.
Now You Can Use Emojis to Search for Cute Cat Videos
Researchers have built an emoji video search demo that lets you use tiny pictures to sort through thousands of YouTube clips.