MIT Technology Review names 10
technologies that will change the World
By
Gizmag Team
23:56 April 20, 2010
What technologies that will change the World (Photo: Stephan
Uhlmann, CC license)
Here we are in the Information Age. Never
before has the flow of ideas, innovation and new technologies been so
strong, so much so that it's hard to imagine what the world will be like
in 10, 20 or 50 years time. So which of today's fledgling technologies
will have a fundamental impact on the way we live our lives in the
future? MIT’s Technology Review has turned its attention to
this question with the release of its annual list of 10 emerging
technologies and it makes thought provoking reading.
Technology Review 2010 TR10 - technologies likely to change
the world
Media Release:
- Solar fuel. Joule Biotechnologies’ Noubar Afeyan has created
genetically engineered microorganisms that can turn
sunlight into ethanol or diesel — a feat that could allow
biofuels to compete with fossil fuels on both cost and scale.
- Mobile 3-D. Recent box-office hits like
Avatar and Up have added to the growing popularity of 3-D
movies. Julien Flack of Dynamic Digital Depth is leading the charge
to take 3-D mainstream not only on TVs, but also smart phones and
mobile devices, through a technology that can convert existing 2-D
content to 3-D on the fly.
- Dual-action antibodies. Genentech’s Germaine Fuh has found a
promising way to fight conditions like cancer and AIDs through
dual-action antibodies that give patients two drugs for the price of
one, offering the promise of drugs that work better and cost less.
- Real-time search. Amit Singhal is leading Google’s quest to
mine social networks for up-to-the-second search results that offer
the same relevance and quality of traditional Web searches.
- Light-trapping photovoltaics. By depositing nanoparticles of
silver on the surface of a thin-film cell, Kylie Catchpole of the
Australian National University has found a way to boost the cells’
efficiency — an advance that could help make solar power more
competitive with fossil fuels.
- Engineered stem cells. James Thomson of Cellular Dynamics
and the University of Wisconsin has potentially revolutionized the
way we screen drugs and study disease by providing a way to make —
in the test tube — any kind of cell from patients with different
diseases.
- Social TV. People are already trying to combine their social
networks with TV, using laptops and smart phones to comment on live
events like the Oscars or the Olympics. MIT’s Marie-José Montpetit
is working on social TV — a way to seamlessly combine the active
experience of social networks with the more passive experience of
traditional TV viewing.
-
Green concrete. The production of cement is responsible for
about 5 percent of global carbon emissions. Novacem’s Nikolaos
Vlasopoulos has created a cement that is a carbon “sink” rather than
a source. His innovation could greatly reduce the global carbon
emissions that result from cement production.
-
Implantable electronics. Tufts University’s Fiorenzo Omenetto is
developing implantable electronic devices that can be used to
deliver drugs, stimulate nerves, monitor biomarkers, and more. And
once they’ve done their job, they almost completely dissolve away.
- Cloud programming. At the University of California,
Berkeley, Joseph Hellerstein is creating better software for
building cloud applications, and this could herald a new wave of
applications for social media analysis, enterprise computing, or
sensor networks monitoring for earthquake warning signs.
What do you think? Anything missing - advances
in
nanomedicine perhaps, or the
advent of personal flight? Let us know in the comments section.
More info on each of the
2010
TR10 (and previous years) is now online and will be featured in the
May/June edition of Technology Review.
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