Today’s edition of The Download collects reporting from MIT Technology Review on how policy and technological change are reshaping research, energy, food and defense. The newsletter leads with reporting on the effects of the Trump administration on the US scientific community. Since January, the administration has fired top government scientists, targeted universities and academia, and made substantial funding cuts to science and technology infrastructure. Responses from six recent Innovators Under 35 cohorts describe both positive and negative impacts and illustrate the complexities of building labs, companies, and careers under this political climate. This reporting is part of the America Undone series examining threats to the foundations of US science and innovation.
MIT Technology Review highlights its 2025 Innovators Under 35 climate and energy honorees, including Ethiopian-born Iwnetim Abate. Abate, now an assistant professor at MIT in materials science and engineering, grew up with unreliable electricity and pursued research shaped by that experience. His work includes sodium-ion batteries, which could be cheaper alternatives to lithium-based systems, and an experimental path to produce ammonia by harnessing heat and pressure below the Earth’s surface. The profile frames Abate as one of the climate and energy honorees and links to the broader Innovators Under 35 list and the innovator of the year announcement.
The newsletter also covers a range of other stories. Texas implemented a two-year ban on lab-grown or cultivated meat on September 1, and companies Wildtype Foods and Upside Foods sued state officials the next day. The must-reads roundup highlights social platforms’ failures to curb violent videos, NASA’s finding of possible life-related rocks on Mars, a California bill to regulate Artificial Intelligence companion chatbots, corporate shifts in wealth among tech leaders, the ousted CDC director’s upcoming Senate testimony, advances in asteroid defense, Saudi Arabia’s large solar builds, CRISPR work on diabetes, oyster reef restoration, and critiques of Bluesky. A separate feature examines a high-powered microwave as a possible countermeasure to drone swarms. Lighter items and cultural links round out the newsletter.
