The Download: investigating deaths at the US border’s “virtual wall”
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. The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch peo…
She died at the San Diego border. A surveillance camera was in plain sight
She had only walked for a couple of hours, and already she was lost. It was early afternoon on Sept. 14, 2025, when 30-year-old Graciela Gómez Hernández crossed the border from the eastern edge of Tijuana into So…
The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die?
When José Morales Bernal crossed the border into the United States on April 8, 2024, the day before his 32nd birthday, it should have triggered a chain of technological alerts and human responses. As he walked thr…
4 ways to address the failures we found along the US border’s “virtual wall”
MIT Technology Review today published our investigation into how many people have died near the “virtual wall” of surveillance towers that the US government has installed along the US-Mexico border. We found cases of…
How we made the first comprehensive map of deaths along the US border’s “virtual wall”
Our 15-month investigation into death and surveillance along the US-Mexico border began with a simple question: Why did so many people die near government surveillance towers meant to help track and apprehend them? This …
Don't call it an SUV: The Ferrari Purosangue review
Unlike previous Ferrari four-seaters, this one is better for humans than cargo.
T. rex teeth indicate it ran as warm as an elephant
Isotope ratios provide a hint that the giants were actively managing temperatures.
Learning another language may be one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy
Research suggests that bilingualism can offer cognitive benefits.
Rings around a tiny body have changed over the past decade
Chariklo is only about 250 km across, but it has two rings, and they’re changing.
AI hallucination of Chinese nuclear components almost led to US military attack
But the military’s overall use of AI seems to be accelerating.