MIT Technology Review

Your waterproof hiking boots, lipstick, nonstick frying pans, and dental floss all could contain PFAS, also referred to as forever chemicals. PFAS (which stands for “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances”) are a family of upwards of 15,000 human-made and incredibly durable chemical compounds that have been used in countless industrial and consumer applications for decades. And they’re not only in our household items. Over the course of 50 years, these compounds have found their way into our drinking water and soil. They’re everywhere, even in our blood. And as you may have guessed, PFAS are called forever chemicals because once they’re present in the environment, they do not degrade or break down. They accumulate, are transferred throughout the watershed, and ultimately persist. PFAS have been linked to increased risks of kidney and testicular cancer, decreased infant birthweights, and high blood pressure. And that’s only what we know about now: researchers continue to grapple with the full impacts of PFAS on human and environmental health. There’s some hopeful news, though. Now, scientists are showing these damaging compounds can be beat. https://trib.al/DyZcvHM

Sick of spending all your time staring at your devices and scrolling endlessly? Here’s how to strike a healthier balance. https://trib.al/gcJQRWB

In the AI arms race, all the major players say they want to go nuclear. Over the past year, the likes of Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have sent out a flurry of announcements related to nuclear energy. Some are about agreements to purchase power from existing plants, while others are about investments looking to boost unproven advanced technologies. These somewhat unlikely partnerships could be a win for both the nuclear power industry and large tech companies. Tech giants need guaranteed sources of energy, and many are looking for low-emissions ones to hit their climate goals. For nuclear plant operators and nuclear technology developers, the financial support of massive established customers could help keep old nuclear power plants open and push new technologies forward. But building new reactors takes time. https://trib.al/efGIk5d

Thank you to all of our wonderful hosts, speakers, and attendees for another fantastic #EmTechMIT. Over three days, leaders from Cloudflare, Project Liberty, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Google, Adobe, and more explored how to navigate with confidence in times of uncertainty. Don’t miss the next opportunity to learn from innovative technology luminaries at our signature conference for AI leadership. #EmTechAI returns to the heart of the MIT campus in April 2026. Presale tickets are available through November 7, and MIT Technology Review social media followers can save an extra 10% when they register with this link: https://lnkd.in/e9AuWvgz

Rodney Brooks, cofounder and CTO of Robust.AI and cofounder of iRobot, explained his three laws of #robotics at #EmTechMIT. 1. The visual appearance of a robot makes a promise about what it can do and how smart it is. It needs to deliver or slightly over deliver on that promise or it will not be accepted. 2. When robots and people coexist in the same spaces, the robots must not take away from people’s agency, particularly when the robots are failing, as inevitably they will at times. 3. Technologies for robots need 10 or more years of steady improvement beyond lab demos of the target tasks to mature to low cost and to have their limitations characterized well enough that they can delivery 99.9% of the time. What do you think of Brooks’s laws of robotics? Do you agree or disagree?

The rise of automation could be what makes or breaks data teams’ efficiency. 67% of organizations surveyed by MIT Technology Review Insights already use AI-powered data management tools, with the rest planning adoption within two years. Read more: https://lnkd.in/esiXSbKF In partnership with Databricks

What's Next in Tech is MIT Technology Review's free weekly LinkedIn newsletter. In this week's edition, find out how AGI became one of the most consequential conspiracy theories of our time. https://lnkd.in/eQXU943q

Materials like cement can have outsize climate impacts, and cleaning them up will require major innovation. https://trib.al/gnnZqtV