Technology

Puzzle Corner

December 20, 2024
Ready for a fresh set of puzzles? Click here for the January/February Puzzle Corner, brought to you with a special Mystery Hunt twist by guest editor Dan Katz ’03. This column includes solutions to three September/October 24 problems. Find solutions to the other three problems here.

Puzzle Corner September/October 2024 bonus solutions

December 20, 2024
Here are solutions for the three bonus problems that appeared in the September/October 2024 Puzzle Corner column we guest edited. Solutions for S/O2, S/O4, and S/O6 are below; those for S/O1, S/O3, and S/O5 can be found here. S/O2. Frank notes that a repunit Rk is a decimal integer consisting of the digit 1 repeated…

The Download: shaking up neural networks, and the rise of weight-loss drugs

December 20, 2024
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 next generation of neural networks could live in hardware Networks programmed directly into computer chip hardware can identify images faster, and use much less energy, than the traditional neural networks that underpin…

Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story

December 20, 2024
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. Later today, around 10 minutes after this email lands in your inbox, I’ll be holding my four-year-old daughter tight as she receives her booster dose of the MMR…

The next generation of neural networks could live in hardware

December 20, 2024
Networks programmed directly into computer chip hardware can identify images faster, and use much less energy, than the traditional neural networks that underpin most modern AI systems. That’s according to work presented at a leading machine learning conference in Vancouver last week. Neural networks, from GPT-4 to Stable Diffusion, are built by wiring together perceptrons,…

Accelerating AI innovation through application modernization

December 19, 2024
Business applications powered by AI are revolutionizing customer experiences, accelerating the speed of business, and driving employee productivity. In fact, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan’s 2024 Global State of AI report, 89% of organizations believe AI and machine learning will help them grow revenue, boost operational efficiency, and improve customer experience. Take for…

The Download: digital twins, and where AI data really comes from

December 19, 2024
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. Digital twins of human organs are here. They’re set to transform medical treatment. Steven Niederer, a biomedical engineer at the Alan Turing Institute and Imperial College London, has a cardboard box filled with…

Three pieces of good news on climate change in 2024

December 19, 2024
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The vibes in the climate world this year have largely been … less than great. Global greenhouse-gas emissions hit a new high, reaching 37.4 billion metric tons in 2024. This year is…

The Download: AI tracking birds, and a pig kidney transplant

December 18, 2024
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. AI is changing how we study bird migration In a warming world, migratory birds face many existential threats. Scientists rely on a combination of methods to track the timing and location of their…