June 18, 2025

Puzzle Corner

Ready for a fresh set of puzzles? Click here for the July/August 2025 Puzzle Corner, brought to you by guest editor Ed Faulkner ’03. Send problems, solutions (by August 1), and comments to puzzlecorner@technologyreview.com. Editor emeritus Allan Gottlieb ’67 launched Puzzle Corner in 1966. Find back issues through 2022 at cs.nyu.edu/~gottlieb/tr and more recent back issues at technologyreview.com/puzzle-corner.

August 2023

Why is it so hard to create new types of pain relievers?

August 11, 2023
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. This week I’ve been thinking about America’s addiction to opioids. The statistics are staggering. Since 2010, opioid overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled. More than 80,000 people…

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

August 11, 2023
It’s 1948, and it isn’t a great year for alcohol. Prohibition has come and gone, and booze is a buyer’s market again. That much is obvious from Seagram’s annual sales meeting, an 11-city traveling extravaganza designed to drum up nationwide sales. No expense has been spared: there’s the two-hour, professionally acted stage play about the…

The US just invested more than $1 billion into carbon removal

August 11, 2023
The US Department of Energy announced today that it’s providing $1.2 billion to develop regional hubs that can draw down and store away at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, as a means of combating climate change.  The move represents a major step forward in the effort to establish a market…

X, formerly Twitter, lowers requirements for its ad revenue sharing program

August 11, 2023
Elon Musk-owned social network X, formerly Twitter, said late Thursday that it is lowering requirements for its creator payout program. The company said that the creators who have garnered 5 million impressions in the last three months will be eligible for ad revenue sharing — a third of the previous 15 million impression requirement. Creators will […]

Why Every Business Needs an AI Framework in 2023

August 11, 2023
Artificial Intelligence is quickly becoming embedded in all facets of business operations. Before deciding whether to use a specific AI tool, businesses should set guidelines for their relationship with AI.

Cruise and Waymo win robotaxi expansions in San Francisco

August 11, 2023
In a win for the autonomous vehicle industry, California regulators have given the green light to Cruise and Waymo to offer commercial robotaxi services across San Francisco 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The commission voted 3-1 in support of the expansions; Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma cast the sole “no” votes. The California Public […]

Hidden forces and sliding screens trick the senses to make VR feel more real

August 10, 2023
The next big thing in VR might not be higher resolution or more immersive sound, but an experience augmented by physical sensations or moving parts that fool your senses into mistaking virtual for reality. Researchers at SIGGRAPH, from Meta to international student groups, flaunted their latest attempts to make VR and AR more convincing. The […]