Our most-read stories of the year

We published hundreds of stories in 2024, about AI, climate tech, biotech, robotics, space, and more. We put out six new issues of our magazine, on themes including food, play, and hidden worlds. We launched two newsletters, to share tech industry analysis from our editor in chief and to walk people through the basics of AI. And we celebrated a big birthday: MIT Technology Review turned 125 in 2024.

As 2024 comes to a close, we wanted to look back at the MIT Technology Review stories that resonated most with you, our readers. In this edition of What’s Next in Tech, we’re counting down ten of our most-read stories this year.

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10. The race to get next-generation solar technology on the market

A startup called Swift Solar is racing to produce commercially viable solar cells that layer the traditional silicon with materials called perovskites.?

Stacking these two materials, which absorb different wavelengths of sunlight, allows solar panels to reach higher efficiencies and produce more electricity per panel. That means perovskite tandem solar cells could reduce costs and boost the amount of renewable electricity on the grid. The promise is significant. But companies and scientists have been tinkering with the technology for over a decade without any commercial deployment. As a solar material, perovskites are fickle—they’re sensitive to water, heat, and light. And some researchers warn time may be running out.?

9. This grim but revolutionary DNA technology is changing how we respond to mass disasters

In the past, identifying victims of mass casualty events has been a long and tedious process. Families have often had to wait weeks, if not months, to confirm the loss of a loved one. And historically, DNA testing has been the longest, most challenging process of all—potentially taking years to make a positive identification.

But new rapid DNA analysis is now changing the field. The grim yet revolutionary technology is allowing investigators to positively identify victims in a matter of hours, giving families some semblance of the closure they deserve much more quickly than ever before. Unfortunately, it’s also a preview of how we’ll live in a future marked by increasingly frequent and catastrophic mass-casualty disasters.

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

Despite it being over 100 years old, radio technology is still critical in almost all aspects of modern warfare—including in the drones that have come to dominate the Russia-Ukraine war. But before the war, there was a frightening vacuum of expertise. Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, who has been obsessed with radios since childhood, stepped in to fill it. Now, the unlikely hero is 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.

7. The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers.

Plug-in hybrids are supposed to be the best of both worlds—the convenience of a gas-powered car with the climate benefits of an EV. But this data suggests that they are not nearly as climate-friendly as you would expect. The reason why? Their drivers.

6. Supershoes are reshaping distance running

Most major brands offer multiple versions of "supershoes," high-performance footwear that help athletes run more efficiently (and therefore faster). Since 2020, runners wearing so-called advanced footwear technology have broken all road and outdoor track world records in distances from 5,000 meters to the marathon—a concentration unlike any in the sport’s modern history. But critics say these shoes place too much emphasis on gear at the expense of runners’ ability.

5. It’s time to retire the term “user”

People have been called “users” for a long time; it’s a practical shorthand enforced by executives, founders, operators, engineers, and investors ad infinitum. Often, it is the right word to describe people who use software: a user is more than just a customer or a consumer. Sometimes a user isn’t even a person; corporate bots are known to run accounts on Instagram and other social media platforms, for example. But “users” is also unspecific enough to refer to just about everyone. It can accommodate almost any big idea or long-term vision. We use—and are used by—computers and platforms and companies. Though “user” seems to describe a relationship that is deeply transactional, many of the technological relationships in which a person would be considered a user are actually quite personal. That being the case, is “user” still relevant?

4. Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.

For many people, covid is an illness that blusters in and out of our lives as cases spike and recede. But for tens of millions of others, a case of covid is the beginning of a chronic and sometimes debilitating illness that persists for months or even years.? What makes individuals with long covid different from those who get infected and recover? According to a paper published in January 2024, an often overlooked part of the immune system is unusually active in these people.

A team of researchers from Switzerland compared protein levels in blood samples taken from patients who had never had covid, those who had recovered from covid, and those who had developed long covid. They found that people with long covid exhibit changes in a suite of proteins involved in the complement system, which helps the immune system destroy microbes and clear away cellular debris.

3. What is AI?

Artificial intelligence is the hottest technology of our time. But what is it, exactly? No one can agree. This story from MIT Technology Review's Will Douglas Heaven offers one of the most in-depth explorations of the field, digging into the technology’s history, untangling competing perspectives from titans of industry, and making clear why you need to care.

2. Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.?

Despite all their runaway success, nobody knows exactly how—or why—large language models work. And that’s a problem. Figuring this out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

1. 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Every year, MIT Technology Review's reporters and editors look for promising technologies poised to have a real impact on the world. We consider dozens of advances across the fields of AI, biotech, computing, and climate. These are the ten that we thought mattered most in early 2024.

Our list of the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025 is coming soon. Sign up for The Download, our daily newsletter to be among the first to discover each item on next year’s list.

Image: Sarah Rogers / MITTR | Illustration Jun Ioneda