feed info

13,781 articles from Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories

2014 in Mobile: Wearable Gadgets Galore

Wearable technology finally took off in 2014, although some devices fared better than others.In 2014, the hottest theme in mobile technology was the introduction of wearable gadgets that can track everything from seizures to how much sunlight you soak up. Device makers large and small attempted to make wearables that are both functional and fashionable.


WEDNESDAY 24. DECEMBER 2014


“Smart” Software Can Be Tricked Into Seeing What Isn’t There

Humans and software see some images differently, pointing out shortcomings of recent breakthroughs in machine learning.A technique called deep learning has enabled recent breakthroughs from Google and other companies in getting computers to understand the content of photos. Now researchers at Cornell University and the University of Wyoming have shown how to make images that fool such software...


TUESDAY 23. DECEMBER 2014


2015 Could Be the Year of the Hospital Hack

Health-care organizations often store medical records and other information insecurely.Along with vast troves of credit card information and celebrity snapshots, hackers stole a record number of medical records from U.S. health-care facilities this year. In 2015, attacks targeting health data will become even more common, according to security researchers.


MONDAY 22. DECEMBER 2014


The Startup Meant to Reinvent What Bitcoin Can Do

A company given $21 million by leading Silicon Valley investors aims to extend Bitcoin’s functionality so it can power much more than just payments.LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman announced an unusual new investment late last month. He and other Silicon Valley luminaries, including Sun Microsystems founder Vinod Khosla, sunk $21 million into a company that may never have to make a profit to be...


SUNDAY 21. DECEMBER 2014


Cuba’s Internet Revolution Faces Economic and Political Realities

The new White House approach could help Cubans gain access to the Internet—but the question is whether the regime will play ball.Cubans could be about to enjoy vastly improved access to communications technology under proposed normalization of relations with the United States, which will permit companies to import telecom infrastructure and expertise. But economic and political obstacles still...


FRIDAY 19. DECEMBER 2014


New Chip Points the Way beyond Silicon

Germanium could be the next great chip material after silicon’s limits have been reached.The first sophisticated electronic circuits made from germanium, a promising alternative to silicon, show a path for the computer industry to keep advancing beyond the physical limitations now being reached. Researchers from Purdue University demonstrated the circuits this week at the International Electron...


THURSDAY 18. DECEMBER 2014


Can Japan Recapture Its Solar Power?

The way the Land of the Rising Sun built and lost its dominance in photovoltaics shows just how vulnerable renewables remain to changing politics and national policies.It’s 38 °C on the Atsumi Peninsula southwest of Tokyo: a deadly heat wave has been gripping much of Japan late this summer. Inside the offices of a newly built power plant operated by the plastics company Mitsui Chemicals, the AC...

Fixing Autism Research

We need to come to grips with what autism really is.Autism researchers have published thousands of papers in recent years. With those numbers, you’d think we’d all be rejoicing over great progress. Yet many people—especially autistic adults—are frustrated by how little benefit has actually materialized. Why?

From the Editor

In “The Troll Hunters,” Adrian Chen writes, “Old-school hate is having a sort of renaissance online, and in the countries thought to be furthest beyond it. The anonymity provided by the Internet fosters communities where people can feed on each other’s hate.”

On Creativity

How do people get new ideas?Presumably, the process of creativity, whatever it is, is essentially the same in all its branches and varieties, so that the evolution of a new art form, a new gadget, a new scientific principle, all involve common factors. We are most interested in the “creation” of a new scientific principle or a new application of an old one, but we can be general...

The Troll Hunters

A group of journalists and researchers wade into ugly corners of the Internet to expose racists, creeps, and hypocrites. Have they gone too far?We’ve come up with the menacing term “troll” for someone who spreads hate and does other horrible things anonymously on the Internet. Internet trolls are unsettling not just because of the things they say but for the mystery they represent: what kind...

What MOOCs Teach Us Online education

Online education offers one effective way to close the skills gap.Three years ago, several of us at stanford launched the first massive open online courses, or MOOCs. We wanted to make the teaching of the world’s great universities accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. The company we founded, Coursera, recently passed a milestone: 10 million enrolled learners. That makes it a good...