Futurology

A person turning on a kitchen faucet, causing water to splash dramatically into a clear glass below.

Desalination could avert one of the top 10 threats facing the world

Desalination — changing seawater into safe drinking water — could avert a crisis. Here’s how to make it less costly and labor-intensive.

Johnny Wood | World Economic Forum

A lineup of compostable algae-based water bottles in various stages of degradation on a reflective surface.

Sustainability

Toward truly compostable plastic

Materials scientists are cooking up environmentally friendly plastics from natural sources like silk, plant fibers and whole algae.

Boyce Upholt | Knowable Magazine

Green fig fruit with water droplets hanging on a branch with leaves, exhibiting plant hardiness.

Climate Crisis

Your garden’s 2024 “hardiness zone” could change, thanks to warming climates

Hotter summers and warmer winters are changing the types of plants we’ll be able to successfully grow. Here’s how to adapt.

Matt Kasson

A map of the world with a blue background.

Climate Crisis

Reflecting sunlight to cool the planet will cause other global changes

MIT researchers find that extratropical storm tracks would change significantly with solar geoengineering efforts.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office

Lupine flowers with purple, red and blue blooms in a garden.

Food

Is this plant the protein food of the future?

Over the past 50 years or so, lupins have become more common as food for farm animals, and are also increasingly eaten by humans

Matthew Nelson

A person is holding a bowl of lab-grown meat in front of a purple background.

Food

Lab-grown meat techniques aren’t new

Cell cultures are common tools in science, but bringing them up to scale to meet society’s demand for meat will require further development.

André O. Hudson

An image depicting brain-computer interfaces with wires extending from a brain.

Neuroscience

Brain-computer interfaces could let soldiers control weapons with their thoughts

Brain-computer interfaces raise many ethical questions about how and whether they should be used for certain applications — including war.

Andrew Ko and Nancy S. Jecker

A package of meat alternatives in a plastic bag.

Food

By 2040, 60% of “meat” won’t come from dead animals

"Novel vegan meat alternatives" and cultured meat will likely become competitors to traditional meat products, the report says.

Stephen Johnson

Brain

Neuralink’s monkey can play Pong with its mind. Elon Musk says human trials are next.

If Neuralink’s monkey can play Pong with its mind, imagine what humans could do with the same technology in just a few years.

David Tuffley

an illustration of another planet with Earth-like features being added to it

Aerospace

Can “terraforming” turn Mars or the moon into Earth 2.0?

Terraforming — the hypothetical process of making another place “Earth-like” — offers the hope of turning Mars or the moon into Earth 2.0.

Kristin Houser

an illustration of a person looking at a baby growing in an artificial womb

Biology

Scientists are growing animals in artificial wombs. Humans might be next.

Artificial wombs promise to give people a way to have biological children without putting their own health at risk.

Kristin Houser

The silhouette of a tree against the full moon.

Agriculture

Here’s how growing plants on the Moon could benefit Earth

Making plants grow on the Moon could be instrumental in helping gardens to grow greener on Earth in the face of climate change.

Monica Grady

Art

The "Creative Singularity" came and went. Now what should we do?

The emergence of generative AI signals an important inflection point for artists.

Jesse Damiani

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