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. 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.
This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. . 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.
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. Laureen Meroueh is one of the climate change and energy honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list. 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 weaponsThe 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-16sThe law prohibits infinite scroll and autoplay. (Guardian)+ It also introduces new rules for AI and companion chatbots. ( $)+ 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 risksThey 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 companiesThe meetings followed reports of AI attacks on critical systems. (Politico $)+ Altman also told staff that OpenAI is open to slowing down AI.
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