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• More Large-Scale Invisibility Cloaks, This Time From China and Beyond

  Big, cheap invisibility cloaks are suddenly beginning to emerge thanks to some simple optical short cuts that physicists have discovered

  

• The Strangeness of Facebook Home

  Facebook’s new interface for smartphones is at odds with how the world uses computers.

• Apple’s New Mobile OS Is All about Ive

  With its new mobile OS, Apple looks to longtime design head Jonathan Ive, and takes a few cues from competitors.

  For Apple, there’s a lot riding on iOS 7, the newest version of its mobile software and the first refresh overseen by veteran industrial design head Jonathan Ive. To satisfy as many people as possible, it seems, Apple took inspiration from several different sources—including competitors.

• Corning’s Gorilla Glass Is Coming to Cars Next

  The strong glass that is used in 1.5 billion consumer electronic devices worldwide could soon help make more fuel-efficient, quieter cars.

  Corning’s durable Gorilla Glass is used in the displays of iPhones and other mobile devices; it can be found in 1.5 billion electronic devices today. But the next market for the lightweight material might be literally larger: replacing some of the standard glass used on the windows of automobiles.

• EIA Says Worldwide Shale Oil And Gas Potential Is Huge

  A surge in oil and gas production from shale rock has transformed energy in the United States, helping reverse declines in oil production and prompting a massive shift from coal to natural gas electricity production that has led to a significant drop in carbon dioxide emissions (since burning coal releases more carbon dioxide than burning natural gas). A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration lends support to the idea that a similar transformation could take place outside the United States. 

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• China Reveals First Space-Based Quantum Communications Experiment

  The “Chinese Quantum Science Satellite” will launch in 2016 and aim to make China the first space-faring nation with quantum communication capability

  

• Other People's Breakthrough Technologies

  Another take on the biggest innovations to pay attention to.

  Putting together this publication’s annual 10 Breakthrough Technologies list, which comes out each spring, is a long and involved process. So I’m exceedingly curious about what other people come up with when they take on roughly the same question, which is “what are the most important technologies to watch in the coming years?” One such report is now out from researchers with the McKinsey consulting company who identify 12 technologies that they think will be the most “disruptive” over the next decade.

• The Avatar Will See You Now

  Medical centers are testing new, friendly ways to reduce the need for office visits by extending their reach into patients’ homes.

  Most patients who enter the gym of the San Mateo Medical Center in California are there to work with physical therapists. But a few who had knee replacements are being coached by a digital avatar instead.

• Google Irks Developers with Ruling on Facial-Recognition Apps

  Developers complain that by banning facial recognition for Glass, Google is hindering doctors, police, and others.

  The popular rap on Google Glass facial-recognition technology is that it’s a tool for creeps and stalkers. But Google’s decision to ban both facial-recognition and voiceprint technology from its high-tech eyewear also puts the brakes on promising services, like those that could help medical staff rapidly retrieve patient records.

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• Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week Ending 8 June 2013)

  The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint server

  Big Pharma, Little Science? A Bibliometric Perspective On Big Pharma’s R&D Decline

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• Google, Facebook Founders Express Fears Over NSA Access to Verizon Data

  The founders of Google and Facebook say the NSA’s access to Verizon call records is too broad.

  In online posts today the leaders of Google and Facebook both said they didn’t know anything about the National Security Agency using a program called PRISM to access their users’ data. While neither Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg nor Google’s Larry Page did anything to explain what data they provided to the NSA via other means, they both clearly registered concerns over the tactics the agency was revealed this week to have used to get phone-record data from Verizon customers.

• NSA Data-Scooping: A Coming Backlash in Europe?

  The same big U.S. Internet companies that reportedly handed over data wholesale to the NSA have been promising compliance with tough EU privacy standards.

  Most European nations have long had stronger privacy laws than those in the United States. As a result U.S. Internet companies doing business there–incluiding Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and AOL–have signed on to so-called “safe harbor” principles, promising a European level of privacy protection. Now, of course, it appears they’ve also been providing gobs of data about some overseas customers to the U.S. National Security Agency (see “NSA Surveillance Reflects a Broader Interpretation of the Patriot Act”).

• NSA Surveillance Reflects a Broader Interpretation of the Patriot Act

  Privacy advocates have warned for years about the kinds of surveillance revelations that were aired this week.

  Of the two big U.S. government surveillance projects that came to light this week, the one that might seem less startling—the fact that the National Security Agency gathers Verizon’s U.S. call records—troubled privacy activists more than the report that the NSA can get user data such as e-mails and photographs held by Internet companies including Google and Facebook.

• Stories from Around the Web (Week Ending June 7, 2013)

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

  The Great VC Coin Rush: At the Bitcoin Convention
  There has been lots of coverage, from us and others, about the potential importance of bitcoins. Even so I enjoyed how this piece got into the culture of bitcoin.
  —Brian Bergstein, deputy editor

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• The World as Free-Fire Zone

  How drones made it easy for Americans to kill a particular person anywhere on the planet.

  Editor’s Note: This story relies upon anonymous sources who could not have spoken on the record without prosecution or other serious repercussions. The author revealed their identities to MIT Technology Review.

• Contact Lens Computer: Like Google Glass, without the Glasses

  Soft contact lenses could display information to the wearer and provide continuous medical monitoring.

  For those who find Google Glass indiscreet, electronic contact lenses that outfit the user’s cornea with a display may one day provide an alternative. Built by researchers at several institutions, including two research arms of Samsung, the lenses use new nanomaterials to solve some of the problems that have made contact-lens displays less than practical.

• Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending June 7, 2013)

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

• Facebook to Refresh Ads In Effort to Boost Their Relevance

  Facebook is simplifying its ad formats, which could mean less annoying targeted ads are in the offing.

• A Global Alliance for Sharing Genomic Data

  A common framework for analyzing and sharing genomic information could speed medical progress.

  Nearly 70 organizations in research, health care, and disease advocacy have agreed to take part in a global alliance dedicated to standardizing and sharing genomic and clinical data.

• Correlation Is Main Concern Over Data Verizon Gives NSA

  What the NSA can do with Verizon’s data on phone calls depends on the other sources it can be combined with.

  One of the most interesting things about the data on phone calls being provided to the NSA by Verizon on its business customers, as revealed by the Guardian last night, is what it doesn’t include.

• Researchers, Using Light to Activate Neurons, Make Mice Obsessive-, or Not

  Mind-control optogenetics experiments in mice give new clarity to the neural circuitry that underlines repetitive behaviors.

  Two teams of researchers have pinpointed some of the neural circuitry that underlies compulsive grooming behaviors. The discoveries, reported in Science on Thursday, could guide new treatments for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, and other conditions that exhibit symptoms of repetitive and compulsive actions.

• Former FCC Chairman: Let’s Test an Emergency Ad Hoc Network in Boston

  Outgoing FCC chairman, Harvard scholar make a pitch for private networks to aid public safety.

  As the Boston Marathon bombings unfolded, thousands of anxious people in the region pulled out their mobile phones to connect with friends and family—and found that calls couldn’t be placed or received. Rumors that officials had shut down these mobile networks for security reasons weren’t true. The system was simply overloaded at a time when people needed it most.

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• A Password So Secret, You Don’t Consciously Know It

  Researchers work to develop passwords so secret that only your unconscious mind knows them.

  Some efforts to replace traditional letter-and-number passwords rely on gestures, wearable devices, or biometrics. An approach in the works from research-and-development company SRI International and Stanford and Northwestern takes a different tack: passwords that you know but don’t know you know.

• Human-Scale Invisibility Cloak Unveiled

  Researchers demonstrate an invisibility cloak that can be scaled to almost any size and say it could be used to hide orbiting satellites

  

• Can “Infinite Variation” Be Mass-Produced Using 3-D Printing?

  Shapeways looks to software to bring down production costs and time to market in its 3-D printing factory in New York City.

  The East River waterfront of Queens, New York, once was a busy manufacturing hub. Pepsi had a bottling plant there, Swingline produced staplers, and Eagle Electric made circuits and switches.

• Even with Cord-Cutting and the Web, the TV Audience is Massive

  Although we have more ways to entertain ourselves than ever, it’s proving hard to unseat television as the most popular mass medium.

• Thinking of Running an Open Innovation Contest? Think Again.

  Open competitions can help find an optimal solution to a well-understood problem, but they are a poor way to innovate.

  Open innovation contests are gaining popularity with companies. The thinking is that since not all the smart people work for your company, and technology is developing so rapidly, why not hold a contest to get the best minds competing to innovate for you? While 99 percent of the entries will fail, those entries aren’t on your company’s income statement. And when that 1 percent succeeds by pulling off a true breakthrough, then your company will be the big winner.

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• New Science of Cosmography Reveals 3D Map of the Local Universe

  The three-dimensional structure of the local universe may one day become as familiar as our local geography thanks to a new generation of maps that reveal our neighbourhood’s rich complexity and our place within it

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Machine Learning and Risk Prediction in the ICU

  A Boston startup wants to bring smart analytics to critical care in order to help doctors spot and treat at-risk patients.

  The intensive care unit (ICU) is one of the most data-intense rooms in a hospital, but the information streaming out of heart monitors, ventilators, and pressure sensors is generally not integrated and analyzed to enable a deeper understanding of the patient’s condition. To change this, Boston-area startup Etiometry is building a clinical-decision support system that can interpret large volumes of real-time patient data and provide doctors with a snapshot view of actionable information.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• An Operating System for the Commercial Drone Era Drone operating system

  As commercial uses of drones emerge, startups create software that could help the devices take flight.

  At Boeing, Jonathan Downey once worked on the development of the A160 Hummingbird, an unmanned helicopter used by the U.S. military.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Plastic from Grass

  Engineers seek a cheaper biodegradable polymer.

  Nearly all the plastics sold today come from petroleum and aren’t biodegradable. But researchers at Metabolix in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are genetically engineering switchgrass to produce a biodegradable polymer that can be extracted directly from the plant.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• As Data Floods In, Massive Open Online Courses Evolve

  As online education companies track students’ behavior and experiment with different delivery methods, assumptions about effectiveness are being challenged.

  In 2012, education startups attracted millions of students—and a surge of interest from universities and the media—by offering massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Now some core features of these wildly popular courses are being dissected, enabling the course providers to do some learning of their own. As these companies analyze user data and experiment with different features, they are exploring how to customize students’ learning experiences, and they are amassing a stock of pedagogical tricks to help more students finish their courses.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• How a Simple Google Search Unmasked a Chinese Cyber Espionage Network

  In a new book, a leading researcher tells how cyber forensic work investigates militarization and espionage.

  Cyber warfare and espionage has been a top national security concern for several years, with senior U.S. officials recently accusing the Chinese military (see “Pentagon Points Finger at Chinese Army Over Computer Attacks”).  But for all the sophistication of these attacks, there have been growing indications that the attackers are often amateurish (see “Exposé of Chinese Data Thieves Reveals Sloppy Tactics”).

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Autonomy in Cars Progresses, But Regulators Struggle to Keep Up

  The federal government is scrambling to deal with the rapid pace of IT-driven innovation in cars.

  The U.S. Department of Transportation’s first policy statement on the safety aspects of automation in cars reflects the fact that technology advances in vehicles are outpacing the usual regulatory process.

  
  
  
  
  
  

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• Islands and the CounterIntuitive Effect They Have on Tsunamis

  Computer simulations show that, far from protecting coastal communities, islands can dramatically amplify the damaging impact of tsunamis.

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Wearable Computing Pioneer Says Google Glass Offers "Killer Existence"

  Thad Starner thinks people will soon crave the ultrafast communication that Google Glass makes possible.

  Few gadgets have generated as much excitement and hostility as Google Glass, a voice-activated computer-monitor combo worn on eyeglass frames. Now being tested by early adopters, Glass is an ambitious attempt to advance “wearable computing.” It’s also a milestone for Thad Starner, a Georgia Tech professor who has been building and wearing head-mounted computers since 1993. A decade ago, he showed Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin a clunky version of such a device; in 2010 they hired Starner to be a technical lead for Project Glass. He met recently with MIT Technology Review IT editor Rachel Metz.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Cheap Batteries for Backup Renewable Energy

  A battery made of cheap materials could store power when it’s windy for use when it’s not.

  Investors recently chipped in $15 million to fund battery startup EOS Energy Storage, a company that says its batteries could eventually compete with natural-gas power plants to provide power during times of peak demand.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Marketers Must Hate Gmail’s New People-Focused Inbox

  Gmail’s redesign, which filters automated e-mails and newsletters, is a marketer’s worst nightmare.

  
  
  
  
  
  

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• Bell Labs Invents Lensless Camera

  A new class of imaging device with no lens and just a single light sensitive sensor could revolutionise optical, infrared and millimetre wave imaging

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Technology That Knows When to Hand You a Hankie

  Happy? Sad? A startup called Beyond Verbal has developed technology that can understand how you’re feeling just by listening to your voice.

  Yuval Mor might make it possible for your stereo to set the mood automatically, simply by listening to the sound of your voice.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Samsung Says New Superfast “5G” Works with Handsets in Motion

  Samsung has made some bold claims about its “5G” technology, but experts await published confirmation.

  When Samsung announced two weeks ago that it had prototyped a new wireless technology that could transmit data far faster, many researchers were skeptical, because the high-frequency signal is easily blocked and would be hard to work in moving handsets (see “Crazy-Fast Wireless Tested in New York”).

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Microsoft and IBM Researchers Develop a Lie Detector for the Cloud

  A way to check whether calculations have been tampered with could make cloud computing more reliable, and boost privacy.

  It is now common for all kinds of data—from personal photos to business documents—to be stored on third-party servers. But despite increased use of outside commodity “cloud computing” equipment, confidence that a third-party service is using your data appropriately is still based more on old-fashioned trust than on technology. As digital break-ins at Twitter and LinkedIn in recent months show, even the biggest services aren’t immune to attack, and this is a big challenge to companies looking to outsource calculations related to sensitive data.

  
  
  
  
  
  

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• Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week Ending 1 June 2013)

  The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint server

  Ultra-Weak Long-Range Interactions Of Solitons Observed Over Astronomical Distances

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Disney's Electronic Wristband Illustrates Why Big Companies Push Contactless Wallets

  An electronic WristBand will track people around Disney World; contactless wallets like Google’s allow similar data collection in the real world.

  Disney just announced an electronic wristband for visitors to its theme parks that neatly illustrates why companies like Google and cellphone networks are pushing the idea of using contactless technology in phones for payments, tickets, boarding passes and more. The short answer? They want data.

  
  
  
  
  
  

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