Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending March 21, 2014)
The Making of Myths
A software developer discusses how fallacies in his field form and ossify, and how that limits our imagination of what software can do.
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor
Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem
A young technologist asks why so much of Silicon Valley is drawn to creating trivial applications.
—Brian Bergstein
Most of Us Are Part Neanderthal
Steven Mithen in the New York Review of Books reviews Svante Pääbo’s new book about sequencing the genome of a neanderthal. It’s a classic technology story: Pääbo’s breakthrough occurred only because he made a bet on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) when his academic competitors bet on different technologies. But the insights derived from the sequencing will tell us how humans differ from neanderthals; and in that difference is what makes us uniquely us.
—Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher
U.K. to Replace 1-Pound Coin with Secure 12-Edged Design
You can keep your bitcoins. U.K. readies counterfeit-proof 12-sided £1 coin, modelled on discontinued threepenny.
—Tom Simonite, senior editor, IT
How 3D Printers Forge New Art from Old Etchings
Flat art turns to sculpture with 3-D printing technology.
—J. Juniper Friedman, editorial assistant
Venture Money Flows Into Hardware Startups (WSJ paywall)
Interesting numbers from the Wall Street Journal show how much money is being invested in hardware startups.
—Mike Orcutt, research editor
Tesla’s Bet on Winning the Global Lithium Race
I really liked this piece on Tesla and its battery ambitions.
—Nanette Byrnes, senior editor, Business Reports
Dorian S. Nakamoto Hires Lawyer to ‘Clear His Name’ of Bitcoin Claim
Man named as Bitcoin creator hires lawyer to deny it.
—Antonio Regalado, senior editor, business
Bitcoin-Stealing Malware Hidden in Mt. Gox Data Dump
Downside to everyone’s-a-reporter trend: leaked Bitcoin documents contain bitcoin-stealing malware.
—Antonio Regalado
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.
OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora
The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.
Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.
This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language
A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.