Trends Identified
Advanced materials and nanotechnology
Nanomaterials are materials manufactured and used at an infinitesimal scale, on the order of one billionth of a metre, which behave differently from their larger counterparts, for example in terms of resistance, conductivity or chemical reactivity. They encompass a wide range of organic and inorganic materials, including nanocrystals and nanocomposites. Nanotechnology is a general-purpose technology with multiple applications, which has the potential to revolutionize many industrial sectors. Its applications include: (a) Water remedation and purification, for example through nanofiltration membranes used to treat wastewater in water-scarce countries; (b) Increasing the heat resistance of materials and the Flexibility and performance of electrodes in lithium-ion batteries; (c) Precise control of the release of agrochemicals, improving seed germination and reducing toxicity in the agriculture process, increasing agricultural yields and reducing environmental impacts; (d) Nanoelectronics include devices and materials that reduce weight and power consumption of electronic devices, for example the production of small electronic circuits, enhanced memory storage and faster computer processors; and (e) Medical applications such as the use of gold nanoparticles in the detection of targeted sequences of nucleic acids, and of nanoparticles as a delivery mechanism for medications.
2018
Technology and Innovation Report 2018
UNCTAD
Renewable energy technologies
Using smart grids, big data and IoT technologies can help to reduce energy consumption, balance energy demand and supply, and ensure and improve the management of energy distribution, while increasing the role of renewable sources by allowing households to feed surplus energy from solar panels or wind turbines into the grid. The real-time information provided by smart grids helps utility companies to respond better to changes in demand, power supply, costs and emissions, and to avert major power outages (UNCTAD, 2015d:23). Zenatix, a Delhibased start-up, for example, uses smart meters and temperature sensors to help households and offices reduce energy consumption through message-based alerts, saving Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology nearly $30,000 annually.23 Renewable energy technologies can provide electricity in remote and isolated rural areas inaccessible to centralized grid systems (UNCTAD, 2017c); and costs have declined dramatically, especially for solar power, which is now cost-competitive with coal and natural gas. The cost of solar cells has dropped by a factor of more than 100 in the last 40 years, from $76.67/watt in 1977 to $0.029/kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2017 (Clark, 2017). Solar energy is now the cheapest generation technology in many parts of the world.24
2018
Technology and Innovation Report 2018
UNCTAD
Satellites and drones
Communication satellites have been used for Internet access in rural areas and developing countries since the early days of the Internet, and the industry has remained viable as a result of technical progress in launch technology (public and private), antennas, solar power, radios and other electronics, as well as tuning of TCP/IP protocols to account for the quartersecond latency due to the orbital altitude. It has been suggested that these technologies have progressed to the point where high-altitude platform stations (HAPSs) and lower orbit satellites are now viable as well. HAPSs are non-rigid airships, drones or balloons that hover or circulate around 15–30 km in the stratosphere (UNCTAD, 2014a). HAPSs have lower transmission delay (latency), but their signal cover (footprint) tends to be lower compared to other technologies (ibid.:38). An example of a project that offers broadband Internet using satellite communications is the Google Project Loon (ibid.), which uses HAPSs to create an aerial wireless network with up to 3G-like speeds.
2018
Technology and Innovation Report 2018
UNCTAD
Blockchain
A blockchain is a form of exchange that is permanent and transparent between parties, which does not rely on a central authority (Mulligan, 2017). The premise of the exchange is that each party on a blockchain has access and means to verify the entire database. Further, all transactions are visibly recorded across a distributed peer-to-peer network (Mainelli, 2017). Applications include the following: (a) “Smart contracts”25 are a form of a trusted third party which can automate transactions such as licencing, revenue collection and social transfers, significantly lowering costs. (b) approximately 1.5 billion people who lack it, which would otherwise leave them vulnerable to legal, political, social and economic exclusion.26 Blockchain has been used in identity management, which aids in validating individual identities. For example, Estonia offers citizens a digital identity card based on blockchain, which allows citizens to access public, financial and social services, as well as pay taxes.27 (c) Blockchain is increasingly being used in land and property registration, to validate government related property transactions, reduce paperwork and potentially to reduce property fraud. Examples of countries that are using blockchain for land registration are Ghana,28 Georgia and Sweden.29 (d) Blockchain has been piloted with WFP30 through a humanitarian aid project of cash and food assistance transactions in Jordanian and Syrian refugee camps. The aims are to reduce overhead, improve security and speed up aid in remote areas. (e) In trade finance, which is characterized by many stakeholders and largely paper-based documentation, blockchain can simplify processes, reduce settlement times, errors, fraud and disputes, and increase trust between all parties to a transaction. A group of banks has partnered with blockchain service provider IBM on implementing a new blockchain-based global system for trade finance. Similarly, IBM has teamed with another set of banks to build and host a new blockchain-based system for providing SMEs with trade finance.
2018
Technology and Innovation Report 2018
UNCTAD
AI for Molecular Design - Machine-learning algorithms are speeding up the search for novel drugs and materials
Want to design a new material for solar energy, a drug to fight cancer or a compound that stops a virus from attacking a crop? First, you must tackle two challenges: finding the right chemical structure for the substance and determining which chemical reactions will link up the right atoms into the desired molecules or combinations of molecules. Traditionally answers have come from sophisticated guesswork aided by serendipity. The process is extremely time-consuming and involves many failed attempts. A synthesis plan, for instance, can have hundreds of individual steps, many of which will produce undesired side reactions or by-products or simply not work at all. Now, though, artificial intelligence is starting to increase the efficiency of both design and synthesis, making the enterprise faster, easier and cheaper while reducing chemical waste. In AI, machine-learning algorithms analyze all known past experiments that have attempted to discover and synthesize the substances of interest—those that worked and, importantly, those that failed. Based on the patterns they discern, the algorithms predict the structures of potentially useful new molecules and possible ways of manufacturing them. No single machine-learning tool can do all this at the push of a button, but AI technologies are moving rapidly into the real-world design of drug molecules and materials.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
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