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.

Meet the under-35s shaping the future of biotech

Every year, MIT Technology Review puts together our 35 Innovators Under 35, a list of some of the brightest and best young minds working across science and technology. This year’s honorees include nine people transforming biotech, whose work spans everything from lifesaving innovations to groundbreaking longevity tech.

Their innovations include a “reprogramming” therapy that reverses vision loss, tiny brain electrodes inspired by Japanese art, and a personalized gene-editing treatment for a baby with a rare genetic disorder. There are even efforts to design new viruses with generative AI, which (hopefully) will produce new drugs or soak up pollution.

Get to know the biotech innovators behind these breakthroughs.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

Biotechnology is one of four categories in our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026, featuring young people worldwide doing groundbreaking work in science and technology. Meet the rest of them here, or explore the full list across the AI, computing and robotics, biotechnology, and climate and energy categories.

This founder is making cheaper, cleaner steel

The steel industry isn’t exactly known for innovation. Very little has changed about purifying iron ore since the process was invented and commercialized in the 1850s. But Laureen Meroueh, founder of Hertha Metals, has an idea that could change that.

Meroueh may have found a way to clean up steelmaking without driving up the price. Her new furnace turns iron ore into refined liquid steel in a single step and swaps coal for natural gas. Together, those changes slash emissions by at least half, she says, and cut costs by 25% compared with steelmaking as usual.

Here’s how she plans to make steel cleaner without making it more expensive.

—Bridget Reed Morawski

Laureen Meroueh is one of the climate change and energy honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Anthropic says it has blocked potential plots to build biological weapons
The company identified five such cases. (NYT $)
+ And six cases of using AI to build software for conventional weapons (BBC)
+ Governments are also using Claude for surveillance.(Axios)
+ While Russia-linked hackers used it to automate attacks on Ukraine. (Quartz)
+ The threats were revealed in a new Anthropic report. (Guardian)
+ Bill Gates says AI needs new guardrails. (MIT Technology Review)

2 California has banned addictive social media features for under-16s
The law prohibits infinite scroll and autoplay. (Guardian)
+ It also introduces new rules for AI and companion chatbots. (Reuters $)
+ It’s the first law of its kind in the US. (NYT $)
+ Social media encourages the worst AI boosterism. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Two AI researchers have left Anthropic and Google over safety risks
They left a day after Jacob Coxon’s viral departure from Anthropic. (NBC News)
+ Elon Musk called their concerns a “setup” and a “psyop.” (Guardian)
+ AI fears are pushing Congress toward tougher regulation. (WSJ $)

4 Sam Altman is pitching OpenAI’s cyber defenses to power companies
The meetings followed reports of AI attacks on critical systems. (Politico $)
+ Altman also told staff that OpenAI is open to slowing down AI. Bloomberg $)

5 After years of fighting AI, music labels are starting to embrace it
Universal is partnering with ElevenLabs on an AI remix platform.(Gizmodo)
+ AI is complicating definitions of creativity. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Chinese drugmakers are challenging US dominance in weight-loss drugs
They’re developing hundreds of GLP-1 treatments for global markets. (WSJ $)

7 Electric air taxis have begun official test flights in Texas
They’re the first flights under the White House’s new pilot program. (Verge)

8 Chinese drones are helping to rescue survivors of Nepal’s floods
They’re delivering food and airlifting bodies from flood-hit areas. (Ars Technica)

9 NASA and IBM have built an AI model to map the moon
It could help locate ice and identify safer landing sites. (Register)

10 One man is on a quest to digitally preserve America’s public restrooms
His Restroom Archive is a museum-style repository of 3D scans. (404 Media)

Quote of the day

“I didn’t ask Facebook to build a profile of my family—I posted a video of me singing in the car with my kids.” 

—Kalie Roberts, a travel content creator, says in an Instagram reel that Meta AI used years of Facebook posts to piece together her children’s identities and pinpoint where her family lives.

One more thing

Chinese tech workers are starting to train their AI doubles—and pushing back

In April, a GitHub project called Colleague Skill struck a nerve by claiming to “distill” a worker’s skills and personality—and replicate them with an AI agent. Though the project was a spoof, it prompted a wave of soul-searching among otherwise enthusiastic early adopters.

A number of tech workers told MIT Technology Review that their bosses are already encouraging them to document their workflows for automation via tools like OpenClaw. Many now fear that they are being flattened into code and losing their professional identity.

In response, some are fighting back with tools designed to sabotage the automation process. Read the full story on their battle with clone workers.

—Caiwei Chen

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)

+ Worried about Flock cameras? These guys designed a car to fool them.
+ Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera has captured a galactic merger’s dazzling final phase.
+ An exquisitely preserved 66-million-year-old bird feather was found in a fossilised dinosaur dropping.
+ A plucky preservationist travelled 1,700 miles and made 52 calls from a rare phone box to keep it in service.

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.

God told them to sell crypto. Their investors lost everything.

When Eli Regalado first heard God speak to him, he wondered whether he was hallucinating. According to Eli and his wife, Kaitlyn, He told them to get married, buy a house, and start having kids. Then in 2021, divine guidance steered them in an unexpected new direction: crypto.

That October, the Regalados later testified in court, they received holdings in a little-known digital coin. “Take this to my people for a wealth transfer,” Eli heard God say. Over time, they came to believe that He wanted them to launch their own coin.

The Regalados created INDXcoin, which they promoted through family, friends, and contacts in evangelical Christian circles. In all, more than 500 people handed over more than $3 million. But within a year, the project collapsed. Investors lost it all, leaving many to wonder where the funds went and whether they had fallen victim to an elaborate fraud.

Read the full story on the collapse of a pastor’s “God-driven” cryptocurrency.

—Katia Savchuk

This article is part of the Big Story series, the home of MIT Technology Review’s most important and ambitious reporting. You can read the rest of the series here. 

The story was produced in partnership with Type Investigations and with support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

This road map could help us decide whether to deploy solar geoengineering

Scientists have spent half a century exploring whether we could counteract climate change by releasing reflective particles into the stratosphere, mimicking the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions. But even after hundreds of studies, we still don’t know how well it would work or what else it might do—and there’s no systematic plan for clearing up that uncertainty.

Reflective, a research organization, has now attempted to fill that gap. The San Francisco nonprofit has published a detailed road map of the experiments, studies, and infrastructure that it says would be needed to make informed decisions about the use of solar geoengineering, MIT Technology Review can reveal.

Find out what it would take to make informed decisions about solar geoengineering.

—James Temple

This founder is teaching chips how to recycle (their energy)

Throughout the history of the computer chip, engineers have treated waste heat as an inevitable cost of a calculation. Hannah Earley, however, thinks it’s a design choice.

Earley, 31, is cofounder and CTO of Vaire Computing, which builds chips that recycle energy usually thrown away as heat, a strategy known as reversible computing. The approach could make data centers (and our laptops and phones) much more energy efficient.

Last year, Vaire announced a key breakthrough: a chip with a resonator that recovered more energy than it lost, even after the energy needed to power the component was taken into account.

Here’s how she plans to bring an old idea about energy-efficient computers into the future.

—Eshan Raul

Hannah Earley is one of the computing and robotics honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the rest of them here, or explore the full list across the biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.

Can the US battery market untangle from China?

—Casey Crownhart

The US energy storage market is growing at a record pace, which could shore up the grid and cut emissions. Crucially, this is all happening with the help of cheap Chinese batteries, which the Trump administration is trying to phase out.

Reducing reliance on any single source of crucial energy technology makes sense. But the tension raises a broader question for me: how much should countries take advantage of cheap, available tech, and how much should they cut themselves off from foreign sources to develop their own, even if it costs more?

Dive into the difficult choices facing America’s booming battery market.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate tech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 OpenAI’s agents used at least 10 websites for unauthorized communications
Researchers found they bypassed restrictions on posting online.(Reuters $)
+ The company faces a Senate probe into the Hugging Face breach. (Axios)
+ Its hacking issues may indicate cultural problems. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Another Anthropic model hacked a real system during testing
A misconfigured environment gave it internet access. (CBS News)
+ The January incident went undetected until last month. (Reuters $)
+ AI agents are not your “coworkers.” (MIT Technology Review)

3 Apple has entered the foldable phone market with the $1,999 iPhone Duo
It opens into a 7.6-inch display and launches October 23. (NPR)
+ Apple is betting its design and privacy will give it an edge. (Reuters $)
+ And that foldables can solve the smartphone’s sameness problem. (NPR $)
+ Samsung responded with a campaign touting its foldable lead. (CNBC)
+ In China, Apple enters a crowded market dominated by Huawei. (SCMP)

4 US prosecutors have called Huawei a criminal enterprise at trial
They accuse the company of stealing American technology. (Reuters $)
+ And helping Iran snoop on its citizens. (AP News)
+ The trial could impact Trump’s upcoming meeting with Xi. (WSJ $)

5 California is warming to nuclear power after decades of opposition
The state may extend Diablo Canyon and lift its ban on new reactors. (NYT $)
+ China is betting on big nuclear reactors. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Chinese professionals are becoming gig workers training AI
Lawyers and engineers are training models for extra income. (Rest of World)
+ Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The new Apple Watch can listen to conversations happening nearby
Apple says users must opt in, but others cannot. (Wired $)

8 Pink noise during sleep could help the brain clear away waste
Timed bursts boosted brain fluid flow in a small study. (New Scientist $)

9 A lost supercontinent may have triggered the explosion of life
Gondwana’s formation fueled volcanic activity and warmed the planet. (404 Media)

10 GTA VI has sparked a debate over whether virtual romance is cheating
Players can date, have sex with, and shower gifts on virtual partners. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“We must work to crush any dissent to Doom’s vision of public safety.” 

—A Seattle policy adviser dressed as Doctor Doom protests the city’s expanding network of Flock and Axon surveillance systems at a Public Safety Committee meeting, 404 Media reports.

One more thing

Digging for clues about the North Pole’s past

In the past, getting to the North Pole involved a treacherous trip through ice many meters thick. But last year, a research vessel encountered open water and thin ice, which created an easy passage. It provided a reminder of how quickly the Arctic is changing. 

Now scientists are digging deep below the seabed to find out if the Arctic Ocean was ever ice-free—and what that could mean for the future of Earth’s northernmost waters. 

Explore what they hope to discover. 

—Tim Kalvelage

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)

+ Dutch kids have been declared the world’s happiest (again). Here’s why.
+ Travel through music history by picking a country and decade on Radiooooo.
+ These 16 majestic aerial photos reveal wildlife from perspectives you rarely see.
+ A Toronto cafe is pushing croissant engineering to new heights with its egg-shaped, custard-filled “Crogg.”