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Our best illustrations of 2021

Our artists’ thought-provoking, playful creations bring our stories to life, often saying more with an image than words ever could.

Emily Luong

January 3, 2022

From the MIT Technology Review art team, here are some of our very favorite illustrations of the year:

conceptual illustration — An E. coli biocomputer solves a maze by sharing the work

the mind falling apart — Eight ways scientists are unwrapping the mysteries of the human brain

conceptual illustration — Geoffrey Hinton has a hunch about what’s next for AI

JF21 cover — The food issue

Image of print magazine cover — The change issue

3 space science questions that computing is helping to answer

biomilq concept illo — Startups are racing to reproduce breast milk in the lab

conceptual illustration showing various women's faces being scanned — A horrifying new AI app swaps women into porn videos with a click

Fiction: Dark spaces on the map

crispr pig concept — Gene editing has made pigs immune to a deadly epidemic

smart rayban glasses with camera eyes — Why Facebook is using Ray-Ban to stake a claim on our faces

chicken network — Technology can help us feed the world, if we look beyond profit

Death and Jeff Bezos — Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley’s latest wild bet on living forever

portland and montreal public toilet illos — How to build freestanding public restrooms that are clean and safe

conceptual collage illustration depicting directors and actors from Netflix India television series' and movies — Netflix v. Modi and the battle for Indian cinema’s soul

panpsychism concept — Is everything in the world a little bit conscious?

crispr decode — Decoding the CRISPR-baby stories

meat with wind turbine — We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

conceptual illustration — Deepfake porn is ruining women’s lives. Now the law may finally ban it.

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2021 tech fails concept

2021 tech fails concept

The worst technology of 2021

Face filters, billionaires in space, and home-buying algorithms that overpay all made our annual list of technology gone wrong.

Antonio Regaladoarchive page

conceptual illustration showing various women's faces being scanned

conceptual illustration showing various women's faces being scanned

A horrifying new AI app swaps women into porn videos with a click

Deepfake researchers have long feared the day this would arrive.

Karen Haoarchive page

Death and Jeff Bezos

Death and Jeff Bezos

Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley’s latest wild bet on living forever

Funders of a deep-pocketed new "rejuvenation" startup are said to include Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner.

Antonio Regaladoarchive page

surgery

surgery

A gene-edited pig’s heart has been transplanted into a human for the first time

The procedure is a one-off, and highly experimental, but the technique could help reduce transplant waiting lists in the future.

Charlotte Jeearchive page

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Illustration by Rose Wong

Illustration by Rose Wong

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