New on MIT Technology Review

This $40,000 Robotic Exoskeleton Lets the Paralyzed Walk

Mon, 01 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Still pricier than motorized wheelchairs, SuitX’s Phoenix exoskeleton weighs just 27 pounds and is custom-fit to the user’s body.

Paralyzed from the waist down after a BMX accident, Steven Sanchez rolled into SuitX’s Berkeley, California, office in a wheelchair. A half-hour later he was standing and walking thanks to the Phoenix—a robotic exoskeleton now available for around $40,000.

The Step Needed to Make Virtual Reality More Real

Mon, 01 Feb 2016 05:00:00 +0000

If virtual reality is going to be truly immersive, holding a game controller could be distracting. Companies will instead try to let you control the action with your eyes, head, or fingers.

It’s one thing to play the arcade game Whac-A-Mole by swinging around an oversized mallet; it’s far easier to whack those moles virtually, controlling the mallet with just your gaze.

Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week ending January 30, 2016)

Sat, 30 Jan 2016 05:37:06 +0000

The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week.

Scalability in Neural Control of Musculoskeletal Robots

America’s Broadband Improves, Cementing a “Persistent Digital Divide”

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 22:15:00 +0000

New figures show that U.S. broadband access is improving, but only for some.

U.S. broadband infrastructure is improving fast, according to new figures from the Federal Communications Commission. But the gains are uneven, with people that live in rural areas left behind.

This Is How to Stop the Zika Virus

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:50:00 +0000

Halting the explosive spread of Zika means waging war with mosquitoes. There are several ways, old and new, to win that war.

The Zika virus is out of control. Earlier this week, the World Health Organization called it an “explosive” epidemic, and officials in Brazil, the country hardest hit by the disease, have admitted that they are “losing badly” to the disease. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff went so far as to declare war on Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits Zika. Officials in several other countries in the region have asked women to consider not getting pregnant until the epidemic is brought under control.

Spam Trail Leads to China’s Three Largest Banks

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:17:00 +0000

A researcher made 300 purchases of fake luxury goods online and found that 97 percent were handled by China’s largest three banks.

An academic’s investigation into the underpinnings of the fake luxury goods spam that pollutes in-boxes, social networks, and search results sheds new light on the economics of online crime—and implicates some of the largest banks in the world.

Is Facebook About to Kill Off Twitter?

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 14:00:00 +0000

Twitter is struggling to grow, its executives are leaving in droves, and now Facebook looks to be muscling in on its turf.

Twitter’s stock price has been tumbling for months, and CEO Jack Dorsey announced this week that several of its highest ranking executives are fleeing. The deepest concern, though, isn’t about corporate machinations—it seems that the product itself simply isn’t as compelling as Facebook. Walt Mossberg, one of the better-known tech pundits anywhere, said Twitter had become way too complicated to use and called it “secret-handshake software” that only people who invest huge amounts of time can get full benefit from.

Seven Must-Read Stories (Week ending January 30, 2016)

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 14:00:00 +0000

Another chance to catch the most interesting and important articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.

Will Machines Eliminate Us?

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 05:00:00 +0000

People who worry that we’re on course to invent dangerously intelligent machines are misunderstanding the state of computer science.

Yoshua Bengio leads one of the world’s preëminent research groups developing a powerful AI technique known as deep learning. The startling capabilities that deep learning has given computers in recent years, from human-level voice recognition and image classification to basic conversational skills, have prompted warnings about the progress AI is making toward matching, or perhaps surpassing, human intelligence. Prominent figures such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have even cautioned that artificial intelligence could pose an existential threat to humanity. Musk and others are investing millions of dollars in researching the potential dangers of AI, as well as possible solutions. But the direst statements sound overblown to many of the people who are actually developing the technology. Bengio, a professor of computer science at the University of Montreal, put things in perspective in an interview with MIT Technology Review’s senior editor for AI and robotics, Will Knight.

Facebook Now Lets You Live-Stream Video From Your iPhone

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 21:34:00 +0000

Look out, Periscope and Meerkat: Facebook’s latest move shows it is taking live-streaming very seriously.

Recommended from Around the Web (Week ending January 30, 2016)

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 21:00:00 +0000

A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.

The Real Legacy of Steve Jobs
An interesting connection between Steve Jobs’s approach to business and the way Apple is handling AI research.
—Brian Bergstein, executive editor

California Decides the Future for Solar Is Net Metering

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 20:50:00 +0000

New state regulations attempt to strike a balance between rooftop solar owners and utilities in the nation’s largest solar market.

In a victory for the solar power industry, California’s Public Utility Commission voted Thursday to approve new regulations for net metering—the compensation to residential solar power owners for excess electricity that they return to the grid. The regulations will help set a course for distributed renewable energy in the largest solar market in the United States.

The Drug That Killed Michael Jackson Is Helping Us Unravel the Mystery of Consciousness

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 19:35:00 +0000

Using the powerful anesthetic propofol, researchers have begun to pick apart how human brain activity gives rise to consciousness.

Although doctors have been giving general anesthesia to patients for more than 150 years, the mechanism by which it puts people under is still a medical mystery. Unraveling that mechanism could shed light on another mystery: how consciousness works.

A Gadget for Spotting Fake Viagra, and Other Counterfeit Pills

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 17:34:00 +0000

Startup Stratio says its small spectrometer can attach to your smartphone and figure out which pills are the real deal.

A startup is building a smartphone-connected gadget that aims to tell you if the pill you’re about to take is really what you think it is by shining light on it.

Four Factors for Successful Entrepreneurial Negotiations

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 15:05:00 +0000

If you can’t negotiate, you can’t be a successful entrepreneur.

How DARPA Took On the Twitter Bot Menace with One Hand Behind Its Back

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 12:38:00 +0000

When DARPA ran a competition to find Twitter bots designed to influence online debates, it inspired a new generation of anti-bot strategies.

One of the more disturbing phenomena on Twitter is the proliferation of bots that generate tweets automatically in an attempt to spread spam, to make money illicitly through click fraud, and, most worryingly, to influence the discussion on topics such as terrorism and politics.

NSA Hacking Chief: Internet of Things Security Keeps Me Up at Night

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 03:19:00 +0000

The leader of the National Security Agency’s hackers says that putting industrial control systems online has made America less secure.

The trend to connect devices such as air conditioners and door locks to the Internet is making life easier for the National Security Agency’s hackers—but also keeping their boss awake at night.

Pope Francis Said to Bless Human-Animal Chimeras

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 23:10:00 +0000

A scientist sought the Vatican’s approval for mixing human cells in animal embryos. And the Pope said yes.

A Spanish scientist working at the Salk Institute in California told Scientific American that Pope Francis personally blessed his cutting-edge research to mix human cells into animal bodies.

Spotify Taps Hannibal Burress to Create Playlists

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 22:30:00 +0000

Spotify relies heavily on algorithms to offer its listeners interesting music. Today the company decided to see what happens when a human comedian gives it a try.

It’s interesting to see that Spotify has tapped the comedian Hannibal Buress to create interesting playlists combined with colorful commentary, as part of its In Residence show.

The Problem with Biofuels

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 21:20:00 +0000

The U.S. Navy is touting its “Great Green Fleet,” but why haven’t biofuels made a bigger splash despite a decade of hype and investment?

Last week the U.S. Navy, with its accustomed pomp and fanfare, launched its first carrier strike group powered partly by biofuel—in this case, a blend made primarily from beef fat. The biofueled warships form a central element of the Navy’s Great Green Fleet program to draw half of its power from clean energy sources, rather than petroleum, by 2020.