Trends Identified
AI That Can Argue and Instruct - New algorithms will enable personal devices to learn any topic well enough to debate it
Today’s digital assistants can sometimes fool you into believing they are human, but vastly more capable digital helpers are on their way. Behind the scenes, Siri, Alexa and their ilk use sophisticated speech-recognition software to figure out what you are requesting and how to provide it, and they generate natural-sounding speech to deliver scripted answers matched to your questions. Such systems must first be “trained”—exposed to many, many examples of the kinds of requests humans are likely to make—and the appropriate responses must be written by humans and organized into highly structured data formats.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Implantable Drug-Making Cells - Releasing drugs directly into patients’ bodies as they are needed is fast becoming feasible
Many people with diabetes prick their fingers several times a day to measure blood sugar levels and decide on the insulin doses they need. Implants of pancreatic cells that normally make insulin in the body— so-called islet cells—can render this cumbersome process unnecessary. Likewise, cellular implants could transform treatment of other disorders, including cancer, heart failure, hemophilia, glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease. But cellular implants have a major drawback: recipients must take immunosuppressants indefinitely to prevent rejection by the immune system. Such drugs can lead to serious side effects, including an increased risk of infection or malignancies.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Lab-Grown Meat - Meat produced without killing animals is heading to your dinner table
Imagine biting into a juicy beef burger that was produced without killing animals. Meat grown in a laboratory from cultured cells is turning that vision into a reality. Several start-ups are developing lab-grown beef, pork, poultry and seafood—among them Mosa Meat, Memphis Meats, SuperMeat and Finless Foods. And the field is attracting millions in funding. In 2017, for instance, Memphis Meats took in $17 million from sources that included Bill Gates and agricultural company Cargill.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Electroceuticals - Nerve-stimulating therapies could soon replace drugs for many chronic conditions
Electroceuticals—devices that treat ailments with electrical impulses—have a long history in medicine. Think pacemakers for the heart, cochlear implants for the ears and deep-brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. One of these approaches is poised to become more versatile, dramatically improving care for a host of conditions. It involves delivering signals to the vagus nerve, which sends impulses from the brain stem to most organs and back again. New uses of vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) have become possible in part because of research by Kevin Tracey of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and others showing that the vagus nerve emits chemicals that help to regulate the immune system. The release of a specific neurotransmitter in the spleen, for instance, quiets immune cells involved in inflammation throughout the body. These findings indicated that VNS might be beneficial for disorders beyond ones marked by disturbed electrical signaling, such as autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. It could be a boon for patients with those conditions because existing drugs often fail or cause serious side effects. VNS may be easier to tolerate because it acts on a specific nerve, whereas drugs generally travel throughout the body, potentially disrupting tissues beyond those targeted for treatment.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Gene Drive - A genetic tool that can alter—and potentially eliminate—entire species has taken a dramatic leap forward
Research into a genetic engineering technology that can permanently change the traits of a population or even an entire species is progressing rapidly. The approach uses gene drives—genetic elements that pass from parents to unusually high numbers of their offspring, thereby spreading through populations rather quickly. Gene drives occur naturally but can also be engineered, and doing so could be a boon to humanity in many ways. The technology has the potential to stop insects from transmitting malaria and other terrible infections, enhance crop yields by altering pests that attack plants, render corals resistant to environmental stress, and keep invasive plants and animals from destroying ecosystems. Yet investigators are deeply aware that altering or even eliminating a species could have profound consequences. In response, they are developing rules to govern the transfer of gene drives from the laboratory into future field tests and wider use.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Plasmonic Materials - Light-controlled nanomaterials are revolutionizing sensor technology
Writing in Scientific American in 2007, Harry A. Atwater of the California Institute of Technology predicted that a technology he called “plasmonics” could eventually lead to an array of applications, from highly sensitive biological detectors to invisibility cloaks. A decade later various plasmonic technologies are already a commercial reality, and others are transitioning from the laboratory to the market. These technologies all rely on controlling the interaction between an electromagnetic field and the free electrons in a metal (typically gold or silver) that account for the metal’s conductivity and optical properties. Free electrons on a metal’s surface oscillate collectively when hit by light, forming what is known as surface plasmon. When a piece of metal is large, the free electrons reflect the light that hits them, giving the material its shine. But when a metal measures just a few nanometers, its free electrons are confined in a very small space, limiting the frequency at which they can vibrate. The specific frequency of the oscillation depends on the size of the metal nanoparticle. In a phenomenon called resonance, the plasmon absorbs only the fraction of incoming light that oscillates at the same frequency as the plasmon itself does (reflecting the rest of the light). This surface plasmon resonance can be exploited to create nanoantennas, efficient solar cells and other useful devices.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Algorithms for Quantum Computers - Developers are perfecting programs meant to run on quantum computers
Quantum computers exploit quantum mechanics to perform calculations. Their basic unit of computation, the qubit, is analogous to the standard bit (zero or one), but it is in a quantum superposition between two computational quantum states: it can be a zero and a one at the same time. That property, along with another uniquely quantum feature known as entanglement, can enable quantum computers to resolve certain classes of problems more efficiently than any conventional computer can. This technology, while exciting, is notoriously finicky. A process called decoherence, for example, can disrupt its function. Investigators have determined that stringently controlled quantum computers that have a few thousand qubits could be made to withstand decoherence through a technique known as quantum error correction. But the largest quantum computers that laboratories have demonstrated so far—the most notable examples are from IBM, Google, Rigetti Computing and IonQ—contain just tens of quantum bits. These versions, which John Preskill of the California Institute of Technology named noisy intermediatescale quantum (NISQ) computers, cannot perform error correction yet. Nevertheless, a burst of research on algorithms written specifically for NISQs might enable these devices to perform certain calculations more efficiently than classic computers.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Augmented Reality Everywhere - Coming soon: the world overlaid with data
Virtual reality (VR) immerses you in a fictional, isolated universe. Augmented reality (AR), in contrast, overlays computer-generated information on the real world in real time. As you look at or wear a device equipped with AR software and a camera—be it a smartphone, a tablet, a headset or smart glasses—the program analyzes the incoming video stream, downloads extensive information about the scene and superposes on it relevant data, images or animations, often in 3-D.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Advanced Diagnostics for Personalized Medicine - A new generation of tools could help end one-size-fits-all therapeutics.
For most of the 20th century all women with breast cancer received similar treatment. Therapy has since become more individualized: breast cancers are now divided into subtypes and treated accordingly. Many women whose tumors produce estrogen receptors, for instance, may receive drugs that specifically target those receptors, along with standard postsurgery chemotherapy. This year researchers took a step closer to even more personalized treatment. They identified a significant fraction of patients whose tumors possess characteristics that indicate they can safely forgo chemo—and avoid its often serious side effects.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Power
As Harvard University political scientist Joseph Nye has pointed out, power in geopolitics will shift from West to East. And in business and society, power will shift from the centre to the margins, in both the West and East. While shifts in power occurred in the past, we need to watch the particulars of the upcoming shifts: the return of the East as leaders in science and technology, not just as major economies; and the empowerment of marginal actors, such as social minorities and new platform businesses, who may grow into influential actors and even take on lead roles one day.
2017
Foresigth
Singapore, The Centre for Strategic Futures