space travel technology paradox

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Taurid meteor shower 2024: When, where & how to see it

Daisy Dobrijevic last updated 31 October 24

Reference The Taurid meteor shower is composed of two streams known as the Southern Taurids and the Northern Taurids. We explore this impressive shower in more detail here.

On this day in space! Oct. 31, 2015: Skull-shaped Halloween asteroid flies by Earth

Hanneke Weitering last updated 31 October 24

On Oct. 31, 2015, an asteroid shaped like a human skull flew by Earth.

Night sky for tonight: Visible planets, stars and more in this evening's sky

Jamie Carter last updated 31 October 24

Find out what you can see in the night sky for tonight, from planets and stars to dazzling meteor showers.

What is the moon phase today? Lunar phases 2024

Tariq Malik last updated 31 October 24

Reference See what moon phase it is tonight and find out when you can see the rest of the moon phases for 2024.

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida (video, photos)

Mike Wall last updated 30 October 24

SpaceX launched 23 more of its Starlink internet satellites today (Oct. 30) from Florida's Space Coast.

Can 'failed stars' have planets? James Webb Space Telescopes offers clues

Robert Lea published 30 October 24

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered brown dwarfs at the heart of planet-forming disks in the Orion nebula. The discovery could help reveal if these "failed stars" can have planets.

NASA's solar-sailing spacecraft has a bent boom and is still tumbling in Earth orbit (photo)

By Mike Wall published 25 October 24

The technology-demonstrating Advanced Composite Solar Sail System has a bent boom in Earth orbit, but NASA says it shouldn't be a big deal.

Breakthrough coming? Iceland could get solar power from space in 2030

By Tereza Pultarova published 24 October 24

A British startup plans to supply solar power from space to Icelanders by 2030, in what could be the world's first demonstration of the novel renewable energy source.

• 2 NASA astronaut snaps spooky photo of SpaceX Dragon capsule from ISS
• 3 Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin endorses Trump for president
• 4 Astrophotographer captures comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS growing an anti-tail (photos)
• 5 SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida (video, photos)

Spaceflight

Both Harris and Trump have records on space policy − an international affairs expert examines where they differ when it comes to the final frontier

By Thomas G. Roberts published 28 October 24

The next president of the United States could be the first in that office to accept a phone call from the Moon and hear a woman’s voice on the line.

Artemis 2 astronauts train for emergencies with Orion spacecraft ahead of 2025 moon launch (photos)

By Elizabeth Howell published 28 October 24

How do you get ready for a moon mission? The Artemis 2 astronauts practiced a day in space ahead of their historic liftoff in 2025 to see what living in the Orion spacecraft is like.

Science & Astronomy

7 hidden gem horror films for Halloween — and their cosmic counterparts

By Robert Lea last updated 29 October 24

In time for Halloween, we present seven terrifying cosmic monsters — and to meet your thirst for scares, we've added must-watch horror movies to this witches brew.

November full moon 2024: Last supermoon of the year joins the Pleiades

By Jesse Emspak last updated 29 October 24

November's full Beaver Moon will occur on Nov. 15 and will shine near the well-known Pleiades star cluster in the Taurus constellation.

Meet the team

Tariq malik.

Editor-in-Chief

Brett Tingley

Managing Editor

Dr. Mike Wall

Spaceflight Editor

Monisha Ravisetti

Astronomy Editor

Dr. Daisy Dobrijevic

Reference Editor

Jason Parnell-Brookes

Skywatching & Cameras Editor

Dr. Elizabeth Howell

Staff Writer

Senior Writer

Josh Dinner

Writer, Content Manager

Alexander Cox

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Senior Producer

Search For Life

Saturn's moon Titan may have a 6-mile-thick crust of methane ice — could life be under there?

By Robert Lea published 30 October 24

A 6-mile-thick shell of methane ice on Saturn's moon Titan could assist in the hunt for life signs arising from this moon's vast subsurface ocean.

The 'Black Knight' satellite conspiracy: Uncovering the 120-year-old alien mystery

By David Crookes last updated 28 October 24

According to conspiracy theorists, the Black Knight satellite is an alien spacecraft orbiting Earth. Here's what's really going on.

Does alien life need a planet to survive? Scientists propose intriguing possibility

By Paul Sutter published 26 October 24

While such organisms may or may not exist in the universe, the research has important implications for future human endeavors in space.

Skywatching

Space pictures see our space image of the day.

By Space.com Staff last updated 30 October 24

Space.com's image of the day rounds up the most awe-inspiring space photos right here, with a new image everyday.

Spooky space: 12 haunting images of our cosmos

By Hanneke Weitering last updated 30 October 24

Here are some of the most spine-chilling space photos to scare your pants off this Halloween.

Halloween night sky 2024: See Venus, Saturn and maybe some eerie fireballs!

By Joe Rao last updated 30 October 24

Reference Don't miss these celestial treats this Halloween!

Entertainment

6 reasons not to buy in the Black Friday sales

By Mina Frost published 29 October 24

While there are mistakes to avoid and reasons not to buy in the Black Friday sales, here's our advice to make the most of the shopping event.

Who's in your commercial? Capital One ad stars (unnamed) astronaut

By Robert Z. Pearlman published 29 October 24

A banker, an athlete and an astronaut walk onto a stage... No, that is not the setup for a joke, but rather the premise behind a new commercial starring a veteran NASA space traveler.

'Venom: The Last Dance' is a fun and fitting farewell to Tom Hardy's alien antics (review)

By Jeff Spry published 28 October 24

A review of Sony Pictures' "Venom: The Last Dance," a tight and focused final edition to Tom Hardy's alien symbiote trilogy spin-off from the Spiderman universe.

Leonid meteor shower 2024: When, where and how to see it

By Daisy Dobrijevic last updated 30 October 24

Reference The Leonid meteor shower is active between Nov. 3 and Dec. 2 and will peak on Nov. 16, producing up to 15 meteors per hour.

What is the speed of light?

By Vicky Stein last updated 29 October 24

Reference The speed of light puts a speed limit on matter, lets us peer back into the history of our universe, and has deep implications for physics and space travel.

What is the theory of general relativity? Understanding Einstein's space-time revolution

By Nola Taylor Tillman, Meghan Bartels, Scott Dutfield last updated 29 October 24

Reference Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is based on the idea that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, which is felt as gravity.

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Featured Story

The surprising barrier that keeps us from building the housing we need.

Sure, there's too much red tape, but there is another reason why building anything is so expensive: The construction industry's "awful" productivity.

New and Popular

Introducing: the ai hype index, how refrigeration ruined fresh food, these companies are creating food out of thin air.

The quest to figure out farming on Mars

Inside a fusion energy facility, an easier-to-use technique for storing data in dna is inspired by our cells , the arrhythmia of our current age, the food issue.

If we’re going to live on Mars we’ll need a way to grow food in its arid dirt. Researchers think they know a way.

A new crop of biotech startups are working on an alternative to alternative protein.

Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past

Researchers, farmers, and global agricultural institutions are embracing long-neglected crops that promise better nutrition and more resilience to the changing climate.

The weeds are winning

As the climate changes, genetic engineering will be essential for growing food. But is it creating a race of superweeds?

Nearly everything on the American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration. In her new book, Nicola Twilley reflects on what it means to be entirely dependent on artificial cooling.

Most Popular

Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping ukraine’s drone defense.

Since Russia’s invasion, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov has become an influential, if sometimes controversial, force—sharing expert advice and intel on the ever-evolving technology that’s taken over the skies. His work may determine the future of Ukraine, and wars far beyond it.

People are using Google study software to make AI podcasts—and they’re weird and amazing

NotebookLM is a surprise hit. Here are some of the ways people are using it. 

Why OpenAI’s new model is such a big deal

The bulk of LLM progress until now has been language-driven. This new model enters the realm of complex reasoning, with implications for physics, coding, and more.

Two Nobel Prize winners want to cancel their own CRISPR patents in Europe

There’s a surprise twist in the battle to control genome editing.

Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island

A once-shuttered nuclear plant could soon return to the grid.

A tiny new open-source AI model performs as well as powerful big ones

The results suggest that training models on less, but higher-quality, data can lower computing costs.

2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch

Why a ruling against the internet archive threatens the future of america’s libraries.

The decision locks libraries into an ecosystem that is not in readers' interests. Congress must act.

Geoffrey Hinton, AI pioneer and figurehead of doomerism, wins Nobel Prize

The award recognizes foundational contributions to deep learning, a technology that Hinton has since come to fear.

OpenAI released its advanced voice mode to more people. Here’s how to get it.

The company says the updated version responds to your emotions and tone of voice and allows you to interrupt it midsentence.

Beyond gene-edited babies: the possible paths for tinkering with human evolution

CRISPR will get easier and easier to administer. What does that mean for the future of our species?

Roblox is launching a generative AI that builds 3D environments in a snap

It will make it easy to build new game environments on the platform, even if you don’t have any design skills.

Why virologists are getting increasingly nervous about bird flu

Avian flu in dairy cows could stick around on US farms forever, and is raising the risk of outbreaks in mammals—including humans—around the world.

The UK is done with coal. How’s the rest of the world doing?

The country’s final coal-fired power plant just shut down, marking a major milestone for the notoriously polluting fossil fuel.

Chatbots can persuade people to stop believing in conspiracy theories

AI is skilled at tapping into vast realms of data and tailoring it to a specific purpose—making it a highly customizable tool for combating misinformation.

The latest from

Palmer Luckey’s vision for the future of mixed reality

War is a catalyst for change, an expert in AI and warfare told me in 2022. At the time, the war in Ukraine had just started, and the  military AI business was booming . Two years later, things have only ramped up as geopolitical tensions continue to rise.

Silicon Valley players are poised to benefit. One of them is Palmer Luckey, the founder of the virtual-reality headset company Oculus, which he sold to Facebook for $2 billion. After Luckey’s highly public ousting from Meta, he founded Anduril, which focuses on drones, cruise missiles, and other AI-enhanced technologies for the US Department of Defense. The company is now valued at $14 billion. My colleague James O’Donnell  interviewed  Luckey about his new pet project: headsets for the military. 

Luckey is increasingly convinced that the military, not consumers, will see the value of mixed-reality hardware first:  “You’re going to see an AR headset on every soldier, long before you see it on every civilian,” he says. In the consumer world, any headset company is competing with the ubiquity and ease of the smartphone, but he sees entirely different trade-offs in defense.  Read the interview here . 

The use of AI for military purposes is controversial.  Back in 2018, Google pulled out of the Pentagon’s Project Maven, an attempt to build image recognition systems to improve drone strikes, following staff walkouts over the ethics of the technology. (Google has since  returned to offering services  for the defense sector.) There has been a long-standing campaign to ban autonomous weapons, also known as “killer robots,” which powerful militaries such as the US have refused to agree to.  

But the voices that boom even louder belong to an influential faction in Silicon Valley, such as Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, who has called for the military to adopt and invest more in AI to get an edge over adversaries. Militaries all over the world have been very receptive to this message.

That’s good news for the tech sector.  Military contracts are long and lucrative, for a start. Most recently, the Pentagon purchased services from Microsoft and OpenAI to do search, natural-language processing, machine learning, and data processing, reports  The Intercept . In the interview with James, Palmer Luckey says the military is a perfect testing ground for new technologies. Soldiers do as they are told and aren’t as picky as consumers, he explains. They’re also less price-sensitive: Militaries don’t mind spending a premium to get the latest version of a technology.

But there are serious dangers in adopting powerful technologies prematurely in such high-risk areas.  Foundation models pose serious national security and privacy threats by, for example, leaking sensitive information, argue researchers at the AI Now Institute and Meredith Whittaker, president of the communication privacy organization Signal, in a  new paper . Whittaker, who was a core organizer of the Project Maven protests, has said that the push to militarize AI is really more about enriching tech companies than improving military operations. 

Despite calls for stricter rules around transparency, we are unlikely to see governments restrict their defense sectors in any meaningful way beyond voluntary ethical commitments. We are in the age of AI experimentation, and militaries are playing with the highest stakes of all. And because of the military’s secretive nature, tech companies can experiment with the technology without the need for transparency or even much accountability. That suits Silicon Valley just fine. 

Now read the rest of The Algorithm

Deeper learning.

How Wayve’s driverless cars will meet one of their biggest challenges yet

The UK driverless-car startup Wayve is headed west. The firm’s cars learned to drive on the streets of London. But Wayve has announced that it will begin testing its tech in and around San Francisco as well. And that brings a new challenge: Its AI will need to switch from driving on the left to driving on the right.

Full speed ahead:  As visitors to or from the UK will know, making that switch is harder than it sounds. Your view of the road, how the vehicle turns—it’s all different. The move to the US will be a test of Wayve’s technology, which the company claims is more general-purpose than what many of its rivals are offering. Across the Atlantic, the company will now go head to head with the heavyweights of the growing autonomous-car industry, including Cruise, Waymo, and Tesla.  Join Will Douglas Heaven on a ride in one of its cars to find out more . 

Bits and Bytes

Kids are learning how to make their own little language models Little Language Models is a new application from two PhD researchers at MIT's Media Lab that helps children understand how AI models work—by getting to build small-scale versions themselves. ( MIT Technology Review ) 

Google DeepMind is making its AI text watermark open source Google DeepMind has developed a tool for identifying AI-generated text called SynthID, which is part of a larger family of watermarking tools for generative AI outputs. The company is applying the watermark to text generated by its Gemini models and making it available for others to use too. ( MIT Technology Review ) 

Anthropic debuts an AI model that can “use” a computer The tool enables the company’s Claude AI model to interact with computer interfaces and take actions such as moving a cursor, clicking on things, and typing text. It’s a very cumbersome and error-prone version of what some have said  AI agents  will be able to do one day. ( Anthropic ) 

Can an AI chatbot be blamed for a teen’s suicide? A 14-year-old boy committed suicide, and his mother says it was because he was obsessed with an AI chatbot created by Character.AI. She is suing the company. Chatbots have been touted as cures for loneliness, but critics say they actually worse isolation.  ( The New York Times ) 

Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity are promoting scientific racism in search results The internet’s biggest AI-powered search engines are featuring the widely debunked idea that white people are genetically superior to other races. ( Wired ) 

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2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: First Solar and its advanced solar panels

The US manufacturer is opening new factories and betting that a special material will make its thin-film solar cells more efficient. 

2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: BYD and its affordable EVs

The electric-vehicle maker has set its sights on expanding beyond China and into lucrative new territories.

2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: LanzaJet and its next-generation jet fuel

The company plans to use ingredients including corn, sugarcane, and municipal waste to power future flights.

2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Kairos Power and its molten salt–cooled nuclear reactors

The company’s technology could usher in a new era of reactors that are cheaper and safer to operate.

2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Form Energy and its iron batteries

Form ramps up production of its cheap batteries for long-term storage that aim to make renewable energy more viable.

What's Next

MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future.

What’s next for drones

Police drones, rapid deliveries of blood, tech-friendly regulations, and autonomous weapons are all signs that drone technology is changing quickly.

What’s next for MDMA

The FDA is poised to approve the notorious party drug as a therapy. Here’s what it means, and where similar drugs stand in the US. 

What’s next for bird flu vaccines

If we want our vaccine production process to be more robust and faster, we’ll have to stop relying on chicken eggs.

What’s next in chips

How Big Tech, startups, AI devices, and trade wars will transform the way chips are made and the technologies they power.

What’s next for generative video

OpenAI's Sora has raised the bar for AI moviemaking. Here are four things to bear in mind as we wrap our heads around what's coming.

What’s next for offshore wind

New projects and financial headwinds will make 2024 a bumpy year for the industry.

What’s next for robotaxis in 2024

In addition to restoring public trust, robotaxi companies need to prove that their business models can compete with Uber and taxis.

What’s next for AI in 2024

Our writers look at the four hot trends to watch out for this year

What’s next for AI regulation in 2024? 

The coming year is going to see the first sweeping AI laws enter into force, with global efforts to hold tech companies accountable. 

What’s next for the world’s fastest supercomputers

Scientists have begun running experiments on Frontier, the world’s first official exascale machine, while facilities worldwide build other machines to join the ranks.

Innovators Under 35 2024

2024 innovator of the year: shawn shan builds tools to help artists fight back against exploitative ai.

Shan built Glaze and Nightshade, two tools that help artists protect their copyright.

This company is building AI for African languages

AI models can’t understand African languages. Lelapa AI is trying to change that.

Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment?

Researchers are using generative AI and other techniques to teach robots new skills—including tasks they could perform in homes.

Heat-storing batteries are scaling up to solve one of climate’s dirtiest problems

Starting next year, Antora’s new manufacturing plant will produce modular thermal batteries to help decarbonize heavy industries.

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

For $73, I bought genetically modified tomato seeds and a glowing petunia.

MIT Alumni News

All the latest from MIT Alumni News, the alumni magazine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Picture this

From the very beginning, Technology Review has used photography to help tell the story of MIT—and of science.

“I wanted to save lives”

Muyinatu Bell ’06 left MIT with a lofty goal: making sure everyone—regardless of body size, skin color, or address—has access to highly effective imaging tools that allow early detection of diseases.

How MIT’s Rad Lab rescued D-Day

After two British physicists invented a revolutionary gadget, MIT researchers used it to develop the radar devices that helped defeat the Nazis.

How fasting helps and harms the gut

Periodically abstaining from food helps intestinal stem cells regenerate and heal from injuries—but also increases cancer risk in mice.

An implantable sensor could prevent opioid deaths

The new device monitors vital signs to detect an overdose and then rapidly releases naloxone to counteract it.

The Renaissance man from Port Gamble Bay

An instinct for tinkering and a commitment to serving his community led Anthony Jones ’08 to carve out a career practicing both patent and Native law. His love of where he came from also led him back to the reservation he grew up on—and inspired art that honors his tribe’s cultural legacy. 

Cans + seawater + coffee = fuel

A fast, sustainable method for producing hydrogen gas.

Tiny batteries could power cell-size robots

The zinc-air batteries, which can generate up to a volt, are as thin as a human hair.

Why collagen lasts

MIT study explains why dinosaur collagen survived for millions of years.

Addressing climate change impacts

How business leaders view climate risk, and how they are planning to respond.

In partnership with Michigan Economic Development Corporation

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Every year, we look for promising technologies poised to have a real impact on the world. Here are the advances that we think matter most right now.

5 things we didn’t put on our 2024 list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies

Every year, we publish a new list of technologies we think matter most right now. Here’s what didn’t make the cut.

AI for everything: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT reached mass adoption in record time, and reset the course of an entire industry.

The first gene-editing treatment: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Sickle-cell disease is the first illness to be beaten by CRISPR, but the new treatment comes with an expected price tag of $2 to $3 million.

Enhanced geothermal systems: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Advanced drilling technology could unlock the potential of this carbon-free renewable energy source.

Exascale computers: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Computers capable of crunching a quintillion operations per second are expanding the limits of what scientists can simulate.