Flowers play a key role in most landscapes, from urban to rural areas. There might be dandelions poking through the cracks in the pavement, wildflowers on the highway median, or poppies covering a hillside. We might notice the time of year they bloom and connect that to our changing climate. Perhaps we are familiar with their cycles: bud, bloom, wilt, seed. Yet flowers have much more to tell in their bright blooms: The very shape they take is formed by local and global climate conditions.  The form of a flower is a visual display of its climate, if you know what to look for. In a dry year, its petals’ pigmentation may change. In a warm year, the flower might grow bigger. The flower’s ultraviolet-absorbing pigment increases with higher ozone levels. As the climate changes in the future, how might flowers change?  Anthocyanins are red or indigo pigments that supply antioxidants and photoprotectants, which help a plant tolerate climate-related stresses such as droughts.© 2021 SULLIVAN CN, KOSKI MH An artistic research project called Plant Futures imagines how a single species of flower might evolve in response to climate change between 2023 and 2100—and invites us to reflect on the complex, long-term impacts of our warming world. The project has created one flower for every year from 2023 to 2100. The form of each one is data-driven, based on climate projections and research into how climate influences flowers’ visual attributes.  More ultraviolet pigment protects flowers’ pollen against increasing ozone levels.MARCO TODESCO Under unpredictable weather conditions, the speculative flowers grow a second layer of petals. In botany, a second layer is called a “double bloom” and arises from random mutations.COURTESY OF ANNELIE BERNER Plant Futures began during an artist residency in Helsinki, where I worked closely with the biologist Aku Korhonen to understand how climate change affected the local ecosystem. While exploring the primeval Haltiala forest, I learned of the Circaea alpina, a tiny flower that was once rare in that area but has become more common as temperatures have risen in recent years. Yet its habitat is delicate: The plant requires shade and a moist environment, and the spruce population that provides those conditions is declining in the face of new forest pathogens. I wondered: What if the Circaea alpina could survive in spite of climate uncertainty? If the dark, shaded bogs turn into bright meadows and the wet ground dries out, how might the flower adapt in order to survive? This flower’s potential became the project’s grounding point. 
The author studying historical Circaea samples in the Luomus Botanical Collections.COURTESY OF ANNELIE BERNER Outside the forest, I worked with botanical experts in the Luomus Botanical Collections. I studied samples of Circaea flowers from as far back as 1906, and I researched historical climate conditions in an attempt to understand how flower size and color related to a year’s temperature and precipitation patterns.  I researched how other flowering plants respond to changes to their climate conditions and wondered how the Circaea would need to adapt to thrive in a future world. If such changes happened, what would the Circaea look like in 2100?  We designed the future flowers through a combination of data-driven algorithmic mapping and artistic control. I worked with the data artist Marcin Ignac from Variable Studio to create 3D flowers whose appearance was connected to climate data. Using Nodes.io, we made a 3D model of the Circaea alpina based on its current morphology and then mapped how those physical parameters might shift as the climate changes. For example, as the temperature rises and precipitation decreases in the data set, the petal color shifts toward red, reflecting how flowers protect themselves with an increase in anthocyanins. Changes in temperature, carbon dioxide levels, and precipitation rates combine to affect the flowers’ size, density of veins, UV pigments, color, and tendency toward double bloom. 2025: Circaea alpina is ever so slightly larger than usual owing to a warmer summer, but it is otherwise close to the typical Circaea flower in size, color, and other attributes. 2064: We see a bigger flower with more petals, given an increase in carbon dioxide levels and temperature. The bull’s-eye pattern, composed of UV pigment, is bigger and messier because of an increase in ozone and solar radiation. A second tier of petals reflects uncertainty in the climate model. 2074: The flower becomes pinker, an antioxidative response to the stress of consecutive dry days and higher temperatures. Its size increases, primarily because of higher levels of carbon dioxide. The double bloom of petals persists as the climate model’s projections increase in uncertainty. 2100: The flower’s veins are densely packed, which could signal appropriation of a technique leaves use to improve water transport during droughts. It could also be part of a strategy to attract pollinators in the face of worsening air quality that degrades the transmission of scents. 2023—2100: Each year, the speculative flower changes. Size, color, and form shift in accordance with the increased temperature and carbon dioxide levels and the changes in precipitation patterns. In this 10-centimeter cube of plexiglass, the future flowers are “preserved,” allowing the viewer to see them in a comparative, layered view.COURTESY OF ANNELIE BERNER Based in Copenhagen, Annelie Berner is a designer, researcher, teacher, and artist specializing in data visualization.

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. From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase In this era of AI slop, the idea that generative AI tools like Midjourney and Runway could be used to make art can seem absurd.  But amid all the muck, there are people using AI tools with real consideration and intent. Some of them are finding notable success as AI artists: They are gaining huge online followings, selling their work at auction, and even having it exhibited in galleries and museums. Read the full story.
—Grace Huckins This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.
Take our quiz: How much do you know about antimicrobial resistance? This week we had some terrifying news from the World Health Organization: Antibiotics are failing us. A growing number of bacterial infections aren’t responding to these medicines—including common ones that affect the blood, gut, and urinary tract. Get infected with one of these bugs, and there’s a fair chance antibiotics won’t help.You’ve probably heard about antimicrobial resistance before, but how much do you know about it? Here’s our attempt to put the “fun” in “fundamental threat to modern medicine.” Test your knowledge here! —Jessica Hamzelou This article appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. 2025 climate tech companies to watch: Envision Energy and its “smart” wind turbines Envision Energy, one of China’s biggest wind turbine makers, has expanded into batteries, green hydrogen, and industrial parks designed to run heavy industry on clean power.With flagship projects in Inner Mongolia and new ventures planned abroad, the company is testing whether renewables can decarbonize sectors that electricity alone can’t reach. Read the full story.Envision Energy is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.

The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 ICE is beefing up its surveillance capabilities It’s recently bought iris-scanning technology, spyware and location tracking software. (WP $)+ Viral ICE videos are shaping how Americans feel about the agency. (Vox)+ Protestors in Chicago are fighting back after mass arrests in the city. (New Yorker $) 2 OpenAI has stopped people from generating videos of MLK JrAfter some people used Sora to create “disrespectful depictions” of the civil rights activist. (TechCrunch)+ It’s not the first time AI’s depiction of public figures has been criticized. (The Information $)3 A teenager is suing the owners of “nudifying” app ClothOffA classmate used an image of the New Jersey student to generate fake nudes. (WSJ $)+ Meet the 15-year-old deepfake victim pushing Congress into action. (MIT Technology Review) 4 Amazon’s Ring camera arm is signing deals with law enforcementIt’s working with Flock Safety and Axon to share footage with criminal investigations. (CNBC)+ A division of ICE has used Flock’s AI-powered surveillance network. (404 Media)+ How Amazon Ring uses domestic violence to market doorbell cameras. (MIT Technology Review) 5 Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as diesel carsA new report has found that pollution levels are well above official estimates. (The Guardian)+ What to expect if you’re expecting a plug-in hybrid. (MIT Technology Review) 6 South Korea is prohibiting its citizens from travelling to CambodiaIt says hundreds of its nationals have been kidnapped and forced into scam complexes. (FT $)+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)
7 What it’s like to be trans online in 2025The internet once helped trans people to connect—now it’s being weaponized against them. (The Verge) 8 Generative AI will make you the star of adsCompanies have to make returns on all that AI investment somehow. (NY Mag $)
9 San Francisco’s AI companies are pushing up housing pricesRents are rising in a city already renowned for a staggeringly high cost of living. (NYT $) 10 Samsung is making a tri-folding phoneBut attendees at the event it’s being shown off at won’t be allowed to touch it. (Bloomberg $) Quote of the day “Grandma will be thrown off the Internet because Junior illegally downloaded a few songs on a visit.” —US broadband provider Cox Communications details a potential scenario in a legal case filed by major record labels, which have accused Cox of failing to disconnect people who are illegally downloading music, Ars Technica reports. 
One more thing An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scaryUntil now, AI-generated videos of people have tended to have some stiffness, glitchiness, or other unnatural elements that make them pretty easy to differentiate from reality.For the past several years, AI video startup Synthesia has produced these kinds of AI-generated avatars. But back in April 2024, it launched a new generation, its first to take advantage of the latest advancements in generative AI, and they are more realistic and expressive than anything we’ve seen before.  We tested it out by making an AI clone of Melissa Heikkilä, our former senior AI reporter. Read the full story and check out the synthetic version of Melissa.
We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + As support winds down for Windows 10 this week, did you know its blue Windows icon desktop image was taken from a real photograph? Take a look behind the scenes.+ Rest in power Ace Frehley, Kiss cofounder and undisputed guitar hero.+ A week spent eating along France’s 385-mile food trail? Yes please.+ As we get into the Halloween spirit, dare you tour America’s spookiest cities?

In this era of AI slop, the idea that generative AI tools like Midjourney and Runway could be used to make art can seem absurd: What possible artistic value is there to be found in the likes of Shrimp Jesus and Ballerina Cappuccina? But amid all the muck, there are people using AI tools with real consideration and intent. Some of them are finding notable success as AI artists: They are gaining huge online followings, selling their work at auction, and even having it exhibited in galleries and museums.  “Sometimes you need a camera, sometimes AI, and sometimes paint or pencil or any other medium,” says Jacob Adler, a musician and composer who won the top prize at the generative video company Runway’s third annual AI Film Festival for his work Total Pixel Space. “It’s just one tool that is added to the creator’s toolbox.”  One of the most conspicuous features of generative AI tools is their accessibility. With no training and in very little time, you can create an image of whatever you can imagine in whatever style you desire. That’s a key reason AI art has attracted so much criticism: It’s now trivially easy to clog sites like Instagram and TikTok with vapid nonsense, and companies can generate images and video themselves instead of hiring trained artists. Henry Daubrez created these visuals for a bitcoin NFT titled The Order of Satoshi, which sold at Sotheby’s for $24,000.COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Henry Daubrez, an artist and designer who created the AI-generated visuals for a bitcoin NFT that sold for $24,000 at Sotheby’s and is now Google’s first filmmaker in residence, sees that accessibility as one of generative AI’s most positive attributes. People who had long since given up on creative expression, or who simply never had the time to master a medium, are now creating and sharing art, he says. 
But that doesn’t mean the first AI-generated masterpiece could come from just anyone. “I don’t think [generative AI] is going to create an entire generation of geniuses,” says Daubrez, who has described himself as an “AI-assisted artist.” Prompting tools like DALL-E and Midjourney might not require technical finesse, but getting those tools to create something interesting, and then evaluating whether the results are any good, takes both imagination and artistic sensibility, he says: “I think we’re getting into a new generation which is going to be driven by taste.”  Kira Xonorika’s Trickster is the first piece to use generative AI in the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection.COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Even for artists who do have experience with other media, AI can be more than just a shortcut. Beth Frey, a trained fine artist who shares her AI art on an Instagram account with over 100,000 followers, was drawn to early generative AI tools because of the uncanniness of their creations—she relished the deformed hands and haunting depictions of eating. Over time, the models’ errors have been ironed out, which is part of the reason she hasn’t posted an AI-generated piece on Instagram in over a year. “The better it gets, the less interesting it is for me,” she says. “You have to work harder to get the glitch now.” Beth Frey’s Instagram account @sentientmuppetfactory features uncanny AI creations.COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Making art with AI can require relinquishing control—to the companies that update the tools, and to the tools themselves. For Kira Xonorika, a self-described “AI-collaborative artist” whose short film Trickster is the first generative AI piece in the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection, that lack of control is part of the appeal. “[What] I really like about AI is the element of unpredictability,” says Xonorika, whose work explores themes such as indigeneity and nonhuman intelligence. “If you’re open to that, it really enhances and expands ideas that you might have.” But the idea of AI as a co-creator—or even simply as an artistic medium—is still a long way from widespread acceptance. To many people, “AI art” and “AI slop” remain synonymous. And so, as grateful as Daubrez is for the recognition he has received so far, he’s found that pioneering a new form of art in the face of such strong opposition is an emotional mixed bag. “As long as it’s not really accepted that AI is just a tool like any other tool and people will do whatever they want with it—and some of it might be great, some might not be—it’s still going to be sweet [and] sour,” he says.

It is a yellow blob with no brain, yet some researchers believe a curious organism known as slime mold could help us build more resilient cities. Humans have been building cities for 6,000 years, but slime mold has been around for 600 million. The team behind a new startup called Mireta wants to translate the organism’s biological superpowers into algorithms that might help improve transit times, alleviate congestion, and minimize climate-related disruptions in cities worldwide. Mireta’s algorithm mimics how slime mold efficiently distributes resources through branching networks. The startup’s founders think this approach could help connect subway stations, design bike lanes, or optimize factory assembly lines. They claim its software can factor in flood zones, traffic patterns, budget constraints, and more. “It’s very rational to think that some [natural] systems or organisms have actually come up with clever solutions to problems we share,” says Raphael Kay, Mireta’s cofounder and head of design, who has a background in architecture and mechanical engineering and is currently a PhD candidate in materials science and mechanical engineering at Harvard University.
As urbanization continues—about 60% of the global population will live in metropolises by 2030—cities must provide critical services while facing population growth, aging infrastructure, and extreme weather caused by climate change. Kay, who has also studied how microscopic sea creatures could help researchers design zero-energy buildings, believes nature’s time-tested solutions may offer a path toward more adaptive urban systems. Officially known as Physarum polycephalum, slime mold is neither plant, animal, nor fungus but a single-­celled organism older than dinosaurs. When searching for food, it extends tentacle-like projections in multiple directions simultaneously. It then doubles down on the most efficient paths that lead to food while abandoning less productive routes. This process creates optimized networks that balance efficiency with resilience—a sought-after quality in transportation and infrastructure systems.
The organism’s ability to find the shortest path between multiple points while maintaining backup connections has made it a favorite among researchers studying network design. Most famously, in 2010 researchers at Hokkaido University reported results from an experiment in which they dumped a blob of slime mold onto a detailed map of Tokyo’s railway system, marking major stations with oat flakes. At first the brainless organism engulfed the entire map. Days later, it had pruned itself back, leaving behind only the most efficient pathways. The result closely mirrored Tokyo’s actual rail network. Since then, researchers worldwide have used slime mold to solve mazes and even map the dark matter holding the universe together. Experts across Mexico, Great Britain, and the Iberian peninsula have tasked the organism with redesigning their roadways—though few of these experiments have translated into real-world upgrades. Historically, researchers working with the organism would print a physical map and add slime mold onto it. But Kay believes that Mireta’s approach, which replicates slime mold’s pathway-building without requiring actual organisms, could help solve more complex problems. Slime mold is visible to the naked eye, so Kay’s team studied how the blobs behave in the lab, focusing on the key behaviors that make these organisms so good at creating efficient networks. Then they translated these behaviors into a set of rules that became an algorithm. Some experts aren’t convinced. According to Geoff Boeing, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis, such algorithms don’t address “the messy realities of entering a room with a group of stakeholders and co-visioning a future for their community.” Modern urban planning problems, he says, aren’t solely technical issues: “It’s not that we don’t know how to make infrastructure networks efficient, resilient, connected—it’s that it’s politically challenging to do so.” Michael Batty, a professor emeritus at University College London’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, finds the concept more promising. “There is certainly potential for exploration,” he says, noting that humans have long drawn parallels between biological systems and cities. For decades now, designers have looked to nature for ideas—think ventilation systems inspired by termite mounds or bullet trains modeled after the kingfisher’s beak.  Like Boeing, Batty worries that such algorithms could reinforce top-down planning when most cities grow from the bottom up. But for Kay, the algorithm’s beauty lies in how it mimics bottom-up biological growth—like the way slime mold starts from multiple points and connects organically rather than following predetermined paths.  Since launching earlier this year, Mireta, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has worked on about five projects. And slime mold is just the beginning. The team is also looking at algorithms inspired by ants, which leave chemical trails that strengthen with use and have their own decentralized solutions for network optimization. “Biology has solved just about every network problem you can imagine,” says Kay. Elissaveta M. Brandon is an independent journalist interested in how design, culture, and technology shape the way we live.

We gave our new C2S-Scale 27B model a task: Find a drug that acts as a conditional amplifier, one that would boost the immune signal only in a specific “immune-context-positive” environment where low levels of interferon (a key immune-signaling protein) were already present, but inadequate to induce antigen presentation on their own. This required a level of conditional reasoning that appeared to be an emergent capability of scale; our smaller models could not resolve this context-dependent effect.To accomplish that, we designed a dual-context virtual screen to find this specific synergistic effect. The virtual screen involved two stages:Immune-Context-Positive: We provided the model with real-world patient samples with intact tumor-immune interactions and low-level interferon signaling.Immune-Context-Neutral: We provided the model with isolated cell line data with no immune context.We then simulated the effect of over 4,000 drugs across both contexts and asked the model to predict which drugs would only boost antigen presentation in the first context, to bias the screen towards the patient-relevant setting. Out of the many drug candidates highlighted by the model, a fraction (10-30%) of drug hits are already known in prior literature, while the remaining drugs are surprising hits with no prior known link to the screen.From prediction to experimental validationThe model’s predictions were clear. It identified a striking “context split” for the kinase CK2 inhibitor called silmitasertib (CX-4945). The model predicted a strong increase in antigen presentation when silmitasertib was applied in the “immune-context-positive” setting, but little to no effect in the “immune-context-neutral” one. What made this prediction so exciting was that it was a novel idea. Although CK2 has been implicated in many cellular functions, including as a modulator of the immune system, inhibiting CK2 via silmitasertib has not been reported in the literature to explicitly enhance MHC-I expression or antigen presentation. This highlights that the model was generating a new, testable hypothesis, and not just repeating known facts.A prediction, however, is only valuable if it can be validated in clinical application. The real test is first in the lab, and eventually, in the clinic.For the next phase of our project, we took this hypothesis to the lab bench and tested it in human neuroendocrine cell models — a cell type that was completely unseen by the model during training. The experiments demonstrated:Treating the cells with silmitasertib alone had no effect on antigen presentation (MHC-I).Treating the cells with a low dose of interferon alone had a modest effect.Treating the cells with both silmitasertib and low-dose interferon produced a marked, synergistic amplification of antigen presentation.Remarkably, in our lab tests the combination of silmitasertib and low-dose interferon resulted in a roughly 50% increase in antigen presentation, which would make the tumor more visible to the immune system.The model’s in silico prediction was confirmed multiple times in vitro. C2S-Scale had successfully identified a novel, interferon-conditional amplifier, revealing a new potential pathway to make “cold” tumors “hot,” and potentially more responsive to immunotherapy. While this is an early first step, it provides a powerful, experimentally-validated lead for developing new combination therapies, which use multiple drugs in concert to achieve a more robust effect.This result also provides a blueprint for a new kind of biological discovery. It demonstrates that by following the scaling laws and building larger models like C2S-Scale 27B, we can create predictive models of cellular behavior that are powerful enough to run high-throughput virtual screens, discover context-conditioned biology, and generate biologically-grounded hypotheses.Teams at Yale are now exploring the mechanism uncovered here and testing additional AI-generated predictions in other immune contexts. With further preclinical and clinical validation, such hypotheses may be able to ultimately accelerate the path to new therapies.Getting started with C2S-Scale 27BThe new C2S-Scale 27B model and its resources are available today for the research community. We invite you to explore these tools, build on our work and help us continue to translate the language of life.

In association withAvelia Used in aviation, book and claim offers companies the ability to financially support the use of SAF even when it is not physically available at their locations. As companies that ship goods by air or provide air freight related services address a range of climate goals aiming to reduce emissions, the importance of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) couldn’t be more pronounced. In its neat form, SAF has the potential to reduce life cycle GHG emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel. In this exclusive webcast, leaders discuss the urgency for reducing air freight emissions for freight forwarders and shippers, and reasons why companies should use SAF. They also explain how companies can best make use of the book and claim model to support their emissions reduction strategies. Learn from the leaders
What book and claim is and how companies can use it Why SAF use is so important How freight-forwarders and shippers can both potentially utilise and contribute to the benefits of SAF Featured speakers Raman Ojha, President, Shell Aviation. Raman is responsible for Shell’s global aviation business, which supplies fuels, lubricants, and lower carbon solutions, and offers a range of technical services globally. During almost 20 years at Shell, Raman has held leadership positions across a variety of industry sectors, including energy, lubricants, construction, and fertilisers. He has broad experience across both matured markets in the Americas and Europe, as well as developing markets including China, India, and Southeast Asia.  
Bettina Paschke, VP ESG Accounting, Reporting & Controlling, DHL Express. Bettina Paschke leads ESG Accounting, Reporting & Controlling, at DHL Express a division of DHL Group. In her role, she is responsible for ESG, including, EU Taxonomy Reporting, and Carbon Accounting. She has more than 20 years’ experience in Finance. In her role she is driving the Sustainable Aviation Fuel agenda at DHL Express and is engaged in various industry initiatives to allow reliable book and claim transactions. Christoph Wolff, Chief Executive Officer at Smart Freight Centre. Christoph Wolff is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Smart Freight Centre, leading programs focused on sustainability in freight transport. Prior to this role, Christoph served as the Senior Advisor and Director at ACME Group, a global leader in green energy solutions. With a background in various industries, Christoph has held positions such as Managing Director at European Climate Foundation and Senior Board Advisor at Ferrostaal GmbH. Christoph has also worked at Novatec, Solar Millennium AG, DB Schenker, McKinsey & Company, and served as an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management. Christoph holds multiple degrees from RWTH Aachen University and ETH Zürich, along with ongoing executive education at the University of Michigan. Watch the webcast. This discussion is presented by MIT Technology Review Insights in association with Avelia. Avelia is a Shell owned solution and brand that was developed with support from Amex GBT, Accenture and Energy Web Foundation. The views from individuals not affiliated with Shell are their own and not those of Shell PLC or its affiliates. Cautionary note | Shell Global This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. It was researched, designed, and written by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. Depending on jurisdiction and local laws, Shell may offer the sale of Environmental Attributes (for which subject to applicable law and consultation with own advisors, buyers might be able to use such Environmental Attributes for their own emission reduction purposes) and/or Environmental Attribute Information (pursuant to which buyers are helping subsidize the use of SAF and lower overall aviation emissions at designated airports but no emission reduction claims may be made by buyers for their own emissions reduction purposes). Different offerings have different forms of contracts, and no assumptions should be made about a particular offering without reading the specific contractual language applicable to such offering.