Skip to Content

Seven Must-Read Stories (Week ending October 31, 2015)

Another chance to catch the most interesting and important articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.
October 30, 2015
  1. The Superconductor That Works at Earth Temperature
    Physicists have discovered a material that superconducts at a temperature significantly warmer than the coldest ever measured on Earth. That should herald a new era of superconductivity research.
  2. New Foam Batteries Promise Fast Charging, Higher Capacity
    Affordable, lightweight, and versatile, batteries made of porous materials could soon transform energy storage.
  3. A Drone with a Sense of Direction
    A small drone capable of building its own maps of an indoor space shows how the craft could become easier to use.
  4. Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality
    Japanese startup Adawarp thinks teleporting inside the body of a robotic stuffed animal could be a good way to keep in touch with loved ones.
  5. Alphabet’s Stratospheric Loon Balloons to Start Serving Internet to Indonesia
    The high-flying Internet balloons dreamed up by Google will get their biggest test yet in 2016.
  6. Robots Can Now Teach Each Other New Tricks
    A robot at Brown University learned how to perform a task from a very different robot at Cornell University.
  7. Now You Can Use Emojis to Search for Cute Cat Videos
    Researchers have built an emoji video search demo that lets you use tiny pictures to sort through thousands of YouTube clips.
  8. <

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.

The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers.

Plug-in hybrids are often sold as a transition to EVs, but new data from Europe shows we’re still underestimating the emissions they produce.

Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario–like games from scratch

Genie learns how to control games by watching hours and hours of video. It could help train next-gen robots too.

How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets

When wastewater surveillance turns into a hunt for a single infected individual, the ethics get tricky.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.