Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending March 28, 2014)

 

A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.

Gene Therapy’s Big Comeback
Gene therapy is attracting investors once again: companies have raised $618 million since the beginning of 2013, Forbes reports.
—Susan Young Rojahn, biomedicine editor

Tusk Message Technology: Zoo Keepers Manage Elephant Enclosure with Smartphones
Techno-zoo-ology—let’s keep this going!
—J. Juniper Friedman, editorial assistant

The Brutal Ageism of Tech
This story in The New Republic about ageism in Silicon Valley is really interesting and, frankly, completely depressing.
—Rachel Metz, IT editor, Web and social media

Nakamoto’s Neighbor: My Hunt for Bitcoin’s Creator Led to a Paralyzed Crypto Genius
Meet the “brilliant Forrest Gump of cryptographic history” who still owes the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto 10 bitcoins.
—Tom Simonite, senior editor, IT

Watching Team Upworthy Work Is Enough to Make You a Cynic. Or Lose Your Cynicism. Or Both. Or Neither.
If Upworthy makes you want to punch someone in the face, apparently you’re just old and bitter. Like me.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief

‘The Technology Is Out There,’ but Satellites Don’t Track Jets
Why don’t satellites track jets? How hard would it really be? In the wake of the Malaysian jet disappearance, this NY Times piece gives a good explainer of what would be possible and why it’s not actually done.
—David Talbot, chief correspondent

A Social Media Storm Descends on Taiji, the Japanese Town at the Center of a Dolphin Slaughter
This immersive Newsweek report on an annual “dolphin drive” in Japan details “the latest example of how social activism is being transformed by technology.”
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer