Magazine

The Body issue

November/December 2025

Genetically optimized babies, new ways to measure aging, and embryo-like structures made from ordinary cells: This issue explores how technology can advance our understanding of the human body— and push its limits.

Read the issue

Features

Categorized in Biotechnology and health
The race to make the perfect baby is creating an ethical mess
A new field of science claims to be able to predict aesthetic traits, intelligence, and even moral character in embryos. Is this the next step in human evolution or something more dangerous?
Categorized in Biotechnology and health
The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures
Scientists hope to prevent deaths from climate change, but heat and cold are more complicated than we thought.
Categorized in Biotechnology and health
The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna
Scientists are creating the beginnings of bodies without sperm or eggs. How far should they be allowed to go?
Categorized in Biotechnology and health
How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we can reverse it
When used correctly, they can help us unpick some of the mysteries of our biology, and our mortality.

Also in this issue
- This startup thinks slime mold can help us design better cities
  Mireta wants to translate slime mold’s superpowers into algorithms that might help improve transit times, alleviate congestion, and more.
  
  Categorized in Biotechnology and health
- New noninvasive endometriosis tests are on the rise
  The tests could help people with the condition, who often suffer for many years undiagnosed.
  
  Categorized in Biotechnology and health
- 3 Things Stephanie Arnett is into right now
  MIT Technology Review’s visuals editor shares the birding app, journaling system, and book series capturing her attention lately.
  
  Categorized in Culture
- AI could predict who will have a heart attack
  Cardiologists often struggle to assess heart attack risk. New startups using AI could help.
  
  Categorized in Biotechnology and health
- Job titles of the future: AI embryologist
  Scientists are using AI to better predict embryo health in real time.
  
  Categorized in Biotechnology and health
- Dispatch: Partying at one of Africa’s largest AI gatherings
  Nyalleng Moorosi is part of a movement aimed at involving more African voices in AI policymaking.
  
  Categorized in Artificial intelligence
- How do our bodies remember?
  The more we move, the more our muscle cells begin to make a memory of that exercise.
  
  Categorized in Biotechnology and health
- An Earthling’s guide to planet hunting
  Earth’s turbulent atmosphere makes it hard to detect new planets from the ground. Astronomer Rebecca Jensen-Clem is working out how to find them anyway.
  
  Categorized in Profile
- AI is changing how we quantify pain
  Artificial intelligence is helping health-care providers better assess their patients’ discomfort.
  
  Categorized in Biotechnology and health
- From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase
  Like many nascent artistic movements, generative AI art has been widely criticized. But some artists are nevertheless pushing the creative limits of these new tools.
  
  Categorized in Artificial intelligence
- Meet the man building a starter kit for civilization
  Marcin Jakubowski is compiling a DIY set of society’s essential machines and making it open-source.
  
  Categorized in Culture
- Can we repair the internet?
  Three new books propose remedies that run the gamut from government regulation to user responsibility.
  
  Categorized in Book Review
- Flowers of the future
  A new research project, Plant Futures, envisions how a flower might respond to climate change over time.
  
  Categorized in Field Notes
- Inside the archives of the NASA Ames Research Center
  The center hosts the world’s largest wind tunnel and a rich history of aerospace innovation, preserved in a striking visual archive in the heart of Silicon Valley.
  
  Categorized in Space

Updated

Magazine

The Body issue

Features

The race to make the perfect baby is creating an ethical mess

The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures

The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna

How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we can reverse it

This startup thinks slime mold can help us design better cities

New noninvasive endometriosis tests are on the rise

3 Things Stephanie Arnett is into right now

AI could predict who will have a heart attack

Job titles of the future: AI embryologist

Dispatch: Partying at one of Africa’s largest AI gatherings

How do our bodies remember?

An Earthling’s guide to planet hunting

AI is changing how we quantify pain

From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase

Meet the man building a starter kit for civilization

Can we repair the internet?

Flowers of the future

Inside the archives of the NASA Ames Research Center

Past issues

The latest iteration of a legacy

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