June 25, 2025

Bill Gates-backed AirLoom begins building its first power plant

Wind power has run into some headwinds, and not the kind that spin its turbines.  Recently, President Trump has decided to wage war against the technology, an unwelcome bit of friction that coincides with rising costs in recent years. Onshore wind power went for $61 per megawatt-hour last year, according to Lazard, bucking a decade-long […]

The Download: tracking animals, and biotech plants

February 22, 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. How tracking animal movement may save the planet Animals have long been able to offer unique insights about the natural world around us, acting as organic sensors picking up phenomena invisible to humans.…

Meta’s Oversight Board extends its scope to Threads

February 22, 2024

Meta’s external advisory group, its Oversight Board, announced today that it is expanding its scope to Threads along with Facebook and Instagram to scrutinize Meta’s content moderation decisions. This means if users on Threads are unsatisfied with Meta’s decision on issues like content or account takedown, they can appeal to the Oversight Board. “The Board’s […]

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Ready, set, grow: These are the biotech plants you can buy now

February 22, 2024
This spring I am looking forward to growing some biotech in my backyard for the first time. It’s possible because of startups that have started selling genetically engineered plants directly to consumers, including a bright-purple tomato and a petunia that glows in the dark. This week, for $73, I ordered both by pressing a few…

Consolidation continues in micromobility as Cooltra snaps up Cityscoot

February 22, 2024

Paris’ commercial court has accepted Cooltra’s offer to acquire Cityscoot. These two companies provide shared electric mopeds that you can unlock and ride to go from one place to another. Cityscoot had been placed under court-ordered receivership several months ago. As interest rates hovered around 0% in Europe, micromobility startups thrived. Europe became the perfect […]

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How tracking animal movement may save the planet

February 22, 2024
There was something strange about the way the sharks were moving between the islands of the Bahamas. Tiger sharks tend to hug the shoreline, explains marine biologist Austin Gallagher, but when he began tagging the 1,000-pound animals with satellite transmitters in 2016, he discovered that these predators turned away from it, toward two ancient underwater…

Watch this robot as it learns to stitch up wounds

February 22, 2024
An AI-trained surgical robot that can make a few stitches on its own is a small step toward systems that can aid surgeons with such repetitive tasks. A video taken by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, shows the two-armed robot completing six stitches in a row on a simple wound in imitation skin,…

Three frequently asked questions about EVs, answered

February 22, 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. For someone who does not own or drive a car, I sure do have a lot of thoughts about them. I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about transportation in general,…

Hohm Energy to scale adoption of rooftop solar across South Africa, backed by $8M seed

February 22, 2024

In the face of South Africa’s worsening energy crisis, marked by increasingly severe power shortages, implementing daily electricity rationing has become imperative to avert the risk of a nationwide grid collapse. According to the state-owned power generator Eskom, the country witnesses a significant power deficit, surpassing 6,000 megawatts on occasion. This situation is similar in […]

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Uber CEO says firm to explore integration with India’s ONDC

February 22, 2024

Uber has signed a memorandum of understanding with an Indian government-backed program that aims to make mobility and commerce more accessible across the South Asian nation. The ride-hailing giant said Thursday that it will explore an integration with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to explore integrations with the network and expand range of its […]

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