Articles by Technology Review from May 2015

Giving power companies the ability to invest in electric-vehicle charging infrastructure could bolster the EV market.Lawmakers in Washington state this month passed a bill that opens up the electric-v...

China has rapidly cleaned up its coal plants. Now comes the hard part.When William Latta first came to China, in 2005, he intended to look for companies to acquire for the French power giant Alstom. H...

We may be heading toward a new food economy thats more competitive and innovative.For years, the most important food technologies were all about scale. How could we feed a fast-growing population at l...

We may be heading toward a new food economy thats more competitive and innovative.For years, the most important food technologies were all about scale. How could we feed a fast-growing population at l...

Advances in robotics make it possible to automate tasks such as processing poultry and vegetables.It is less striking than Deep Blues victory over chess champ Garry Kasparov, but Richard van der Linde...

Wireless companies and a few ambitious startups are racing to make your cell-phone calls better.While apps have turned smartphones into digital Swiss Army knives that can do everything from tracking y...

Mozilla helped an open Web flourish in the 2000s. Now its struggling to play a meaningful role on mobile devices.In Silicon Valley, most pioneers pursue big ideas and giant personal fortunes with equa...

Companies are competing to turn data into advice on how to farm better, and attracting investments from the likes of Google Ventures and Monsanto.For more on how technology is changing food, please re...

Facebook teams with researchers to transfer your smiles and frowns into virtual reality.Virtual reality is set to get a vital dash of social reality....

Bitcoins most influential developer has proposed a controversial fix that would help it handle more transactions.In a test of Bitcoins ability to adapt to its own growing popularity, the Bitcoin commu...

Scientists launch a microscopic quest to find out what were really made of.How many types of cells are there in the human body? Textbooks say a couple of hundred. But the true number is undoubtedly fa...

The worlds poor could benefit from a system that is blanketing half Earths surface with a signal that provides free access to Wikipedia and other useful websites.What do you get if you cross a satelli...

Startup Crystal claims it can help you write better e-mails by mining recipients online data for clues to their personality.It can be hard to figure out just what to say in an e-mail to someone you do...

In a first-of-its-kind endeavor, electricity-starved Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are trying to get power from a lakeand avert catastrophe.This video is a companion to Lake Kivus Great ...

Dropbox, the provider of online data storage, is adding productivity features as it wades into the corporate market dominated by Microsoft and Google.The file-storage service Dropbox has grown to 300 ...

Researchers say combining bacteria with nanoscale semiconductors opens a new path toward efficient artificial photosynthesis.Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say that by combinin...

Bitcoin doesnt have to replace government-backed money to improve the way we do business online.Boosters of Bitcoin commonly call the digital currency the future of money. But even if it doesnt turn o...

A few Tesla drivers are rewriting the programming in the Model S to make the car do interesting new things.Tesla Motors Model S isnt just a symbol of enthusiasm for electric driving; its also a sign o...

The iPhone could become a new tool in genetic studies.Of all the rumors ever to swirl around the worlds most valuable company, this may be the first that could involve spitting in a plastic cup....

Tesla launches a stationary battery aimed at companies with variable electricity rates and homes with solar panels.Seeking to expand its business beyond electric vehicles, Tesla Motors will sell stati...

The 3,500 apps available for the Apple Watch show the devices promise and pitfalls.Nobody needs an Apple Watch, or any kind of smart watch, really; we havent quite figured out what to do with these th...