Technology

This test could reveal the health of your immune system

October 10, 2025
Attentive readers might have noticed my absence over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been trying to recover from a bout of illness. It got me thinking about the immune system, and how little I know about my own immune health. The vast array of cells, proteins, and biomolecules that works to defend us from…

The Download: mysteries of the immunome, and how to choose a climate tech pioneer

October 9, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How healthy am I? My immunome knows the score.   Made up of 1.8 trillion cells and trillions more proteins, metabolites, mRNA, and other biomolecules, every person’s immunome is different, and it is constantly…

3 takeaways about climate tech right now

October 9, 2025
On Monday, we published our 2025 edition of Climate Tech Companies to Watch. This marks the third time we’ve put the list together, and it’s become one of my favorite projects to work on every year.  In the journalism world, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest news, whether it’s a fundraising round,…

How healthy am I? My immunome knows the score.  

October 9, 2025
The story is a collaboration between MIT Technology Review and Aventine, a non-profit research foundation that creates and supports content about how technology and science are changing the way we live. It’s not often you get a text about the robustness of your immune system, but that’s what popped up on my phone last spring.…

The Download: carbon removal factories’ funding cuts, and AI toys

October 8, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The Trump administration may cut funding for two major direct-air capture plants The US Department of Energy appears poised to terminate funding for a pair of large carbon-sucking factories that were originally set…

The US is set to cancel funding for two major direct-air capture plants

October 7, 2025
The Department of Energy appears poised to terminate funding for a pair of large carbon sucking factories that were originally set to receive more than $1 billion in government grants, according to a department issued list of projects obtained by MIT Technology Review and circulating among federal agencies. The projects include the South Texas Direct…

The Download: extracting lithium, and what we still don’t know about Sora

October 7, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This company is planning a lithium empire from the shores of the Great Salt Lake On a bright afternoon in August, the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake looks like something out of…

The three big unanswered questions about Sora

October 7, 2025
Last week OpenAI released Sora, a TikTok-style app that presents an endless feed of exclusively AI-generated videos, each up to 10 seconds long. The app allows you to create a “cameo” of yourself—a hyperrealistic avatar that mimics your appearance and voice—and insert other peoples’ cameos into your own videos (depending on what permissions they set). …