Our Best GIFs of 2017

We collected the top short video clips about emerging technology published in MIT Technology Review stories this year.

Antonio Regaladoarchive page

December 30, 2017

1. Animals Set Survival Record Inside Artificial Womb

Fetal lambs lived for weeks in a fluid-filled bag. Tests to help premature babies could begin in three years

A fetal lamb kept alive inside an artificial womb.

Video courtesy of Partridge E.A. et al. Nature Communications

2. A Carbon-Fiber Cage Could Crash-Proof Drone Delivery

For those worried about shipping fragile items this way, there may be a solution.

EPFL

3. Artificial Human Embryos Are Coming, and No One Knows How to Handle Them
Stem cells can be coaxed to self-assemble into structures resembling human embryos.

A time-lapse movie of stem cells forming a primitive streak, a feature of the early human embryo. The cells are genetically modified with a molecule that glows green.

COURTESY OF ARYEH WARMFLASH, RICE UNIVERSITY

4. Inside the Far-Out Glass Lab
A key ingredient in flexible and lightweight devices of the future is taking shape.

Photographs by Rachel Jerome Ferraro

5. Ford Has a Robotic Butt to Test Its Car Seats
And it’s called Robutt.

Ford

6. Watch This $100 Drone Try to Do a Bumblebee’s Job
Japanese tinkerers created a tiny, flower-pollinating drone for a world without insects.

7. Scientists Used CRISPR to Put This GIF Inside a Living Organism’s DNA
Embedding images in the genomes of bacteria is testing the limits of DNA storage.

Harvard researchers used the CRISPR gene-editing system to insert this GIF of a galloping horse and rider into the DNA of living bacteria.

8. First Human Embryos Edited in U.S.
Gene-editing chemicals are injected into a human egg at the moment of fertilization.

A video shows gene-editing chemicals being injected into a human egg at the moment of fertilization. Scientists used the technique to correct DNA errors present in the father’s sperm.

9. Boston Dynamics’ Backflipping Robot Is an Astounding Advance
Boston Dynamics has gotten its two-legged Atlas humanoid to do backflips.

Watch how agile Atlas has become.

Deep Dive

Humans and technology

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023

Every year, we pick the 10 technologies that matter the most right now. We look for advances that will have a big impact on our lives and break down why they matter.