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

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

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

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