Recommended from Around the Web (Week ending January 9, 2016)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
The Father of Online Anonymity Has a Plan to End the Crypto War
Can we really have it all—perfect encryption and a way to snoop on truly bad people?
—Brian Bergstein, executive editor
China Embraces Precision Medicine on a Massive Scale
China plans precision medicine push.
—Antonio Regalado, senior editor, biomedicine
Lumosity to Settle Deceptive ‘Brain Training’ Health Claims
Lumosity fined $2 million for its ads.
—Antonio Regalado
How a Nation of Tech Copycats Transformed Into a Hub for Innovation
I really enjoyed this story about China’s increasingly innovating online industry. I think the “copycat” stereotype is somewhat overblown, but it’s certainly true that Chinese companies are increasingly leading rather than following.
—Will Knight, senior editor, AI
IPv6 Celebrates Its 20th Birthday by Reaching 10 Percent Deployment
A good explanation of why only 10 percent of Google users worldwide have adopted the next-generation Internet protocol, IPv6, which has been around for two decades.
—Mike Orcutt, research editor
The Bankruptcy of India’s Economic and Political “Miracle”
My article “India’s Energy Crisis” looked at the potential and the impossibilities in India’s struggle to bring light and power to its burgeoning population while dramatically limiting its emissions of greenhouse gases. Taking as its text Dilip Hiro’s important new book, The Age of Aspiration: Power, Wealth, and Conflict in Globalizing India, this thoughtful essay by Kamil Ahsan argues that the image of India as a modernizing, peaceful, and democratic superpower promoted by the government of prime minister Narendra Modi and many world leaders is a façade covering “a country mired in a corrupt nexus of businessmen and politicians, [with] spectacular wealth juxtaposed to ever-deepening penury and the brutal suppression of all those opposed to India’s neoliberal path.” The future of India will powerfully influence the future of the planet, and anyone who has traveled beyond the technology parks of Mumbai and Bangalore will recognize Ahsan’s portrait of a deeply divided country with seemingly insurmountable problems.
—Richard Martin, senior editor, energy
Getting Old? This High-Tech Suit Simulates Aging
One of the more surprising finds at the big Consumer Electronics Show was a suit designed to make its wearer feel 40 years older. Wearing it was at times shocking, at times distressing, writes Geoffrey Fowler in the Wall Street Journal, but it also inspired empathy.
—Nanette Byrnes, senior editor, Business Reports
NASA Aims for Regulated Drone Highways
A discussion with Tom Ashbrook on the “one million drones unwrapped at Christmas.”
—J. Juniper Friedman, associate Web producer