Everyone has a rehearsed answer to the worst interview question, "What's your biggest weakness?" Mine is that I say no to myself too much. It's a bit of a humblebrag, but it captures a truth about me: I'm a systems thinker who immediately runs feasibility assessments, lists, timelines and budgets whenever an idea appears. Throughout my more than 20-year career as a science and tech journalist, I have lived in a near-constant tug-of-war between ambition and reality. Learning to balance the two has helped me survive in this industry and ultimately led me to MIT Technology Review.
This past spring, I joined the team of journalists behind MIT Technology Review to take the reins of the print magazine. Readers may have noticed changes already, including a return to regular lists and infographics. The bigger shift is just beginning. We are giving ourselves permission to experiment and to be a little audacious, because I still have plenty of ideas and sometimes need a reminder to stop blocking myself and simply do the thing.
That spirit drives this issue. We wanted to end 2026 with stories about impossible ideas, from living on the moon to uploading our brains. Losing sight of ambition is easy when the world's problems feel like whack-a-mole. Scientists and engineers who refuse to give up on daring goals, such as synthetic blood or decoding animal speech, remind us that technology should make life better, safer, healthier and more joyful. When we make things worse, as with forever chemicals, traffic deaths and AI that encourages dangerous behavior, we must dig in, assess the damage and work to fix it.
Critics often call the fight against climate change a fool's errand, just as they might dismiss an AI kill switch, practical fusion power or room-temperature superconductors. Yet after three years of showing readers how to chip away at humanity's biggest existential threats, I have learned that focusing on what we cannot do only makes the darkness darker. This issue is for those with the audacity to try and who refuse to let anyone, themselves included, tell them no.
Source: MIT Technology Review · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing