The future is approaching faster than you might imagine. These new technologies will alter the way we live, care for our bodies, and assist us in preventing a global catastrophe.
The modern world is one where technology advances at an unstoppable rate. Sometimes it seems like there are new inventions and technologies that will forever alter our futures every single day. But it is simple to lose sight of the incredible ways in which the world is developing amid the constant barrage of announcements about brand-new, massive technological advancements and cool gadgets.
For instance, there are artificial intelligence programmes that can create images from nothing more than a written prompt and write poems from scratch. There are robots that can read your thoughts, 3D-printed eyes, and new holograms.
All of this only scratches the surface of what is available, so we have put together a list of the most intriguing emerging technologies, which you can find below.
01: Necrobotics
Future technologies can sometimes lead to amazing advancements that have the power to alter the course of history, but they can also be incredibly unsettling.
This is one way of putting the concept of necrobotics, which, as the name implies, entails transforming the dead into robots. Although this sounds like the plot of a spooky horror movie, Rice University is investigating this technology.
Researchers gave a dead spider the ability to pick up other objects and transformed it into a gripper that resembles a robot. They take a spider and inject air into it to accomplish this. This works because spiders force their own type of blood, called haemolymph, into their limbs to cause them to extend.
Although this idea is still in its infancy, it may one day lead to a time when dead animals are used to advance science. It all seems very Einsteinian!
02: Sand batteries
Not every technology advancing our future needs to be complex; some are straightforward but incredibly powerful.
Some Finnish engineers have developed one of these technologies by figuring out how to transform sand into a massive battery.
These engineers filled a 4 x 7 metre steel container with 100 tonnes of sand. After that, wind and solar energy were used to warm up all of the sand.
A neighbourhood energy provider can then disperse this heat to warm up nearby buildings. In this manner, energy can be long-term stored.
This entire process is made possible by a theory called resistive heating. Here, the friction of electrical currents heats the material.
The electricity passing through them warms sand and any other non-super conductor, producing heat that can be converted into energy.
03: Catapulting satellites into space
Who would have thought that an improvised catapult would be the best means of launching satellites into space! Okay, so it is much more intelligent than a catapult, but the technology is similar.
A prototype system called SpinLaunch is used to launch satellites or other payloads into space. Instead of using the conventional method of using chemical fuel found in conventional rockets, it achieves this by using kinetic energy. With this technology, payloads could be spun at 8,000 km/h and 10,000 G before being launched into space using a big launch tube.
Payloads will still need to be launched into orbit using small rocket engines, but SpinLaunch claims this system will save fuel and infrastructure by an amazing 70%.
The business and NASA have a contract, and the system is currently being tested.
04: Xenotransplantation
Even though it seems like a bad idea, one of the most recent medical procedures is making quick progress: inserting a pig’s heart into a human.
Surgery could be revolutionised by the practise of xenotransplantation, which involves implanting, implementing, or infusing human organs, tissues, or cells from an animal source.
The transplantation of a pig’s heart into a human is one of the most frequently done procedures so far. Currently, this has succeeded twice. But only one of the patients made it past a few months of life, and the other is still being monitored.
Gene editing must be done prior to the surgery in order to implant the heart into the patient. It is necessary to add human genes and remove some genes from the heart, mainly those related to immune acceptance and genes that stop the heart’s tissue from growing too quickly.
These operations are currently risky, and their outcomes are uncertain. However, xenotransplants, which give animal hearts or tissues to humans who need them, may become commonplace in the near future.
05: AI image-generation
The world of art is a new industry to add to the list as artificial intelligence continues to perform tasks just as well as humans. OpenAI researchers have developed software that can produce images using only verbal prompts.
You can search for “a dog wearing a cowboy hat singing in the rain” and find a tonne of completely unique pictures that fit the bill. Even the artistic style in which your request is returned is your choice. But there are still problems with the technology, like when we gave it bad instructions for drawing cartoon characters.
The team behind the Dall-E technology is currently working on its second iteration and has further development planned. The creation of art exhibitions, quick, original illustrations for business purposes, and, of course, a revolution in the way memes are made on the internet are all possible uses for this technology in the future.
Midjourney is a piece of technology that generates gothic masterpieces using only a short text instruction. We actually are residing in the future.
06: Brain reading robots
The application of brain reading technology has significantly advanced in recent years and is no longer a sci-fi trope. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) tested one of the most intriguing and useful uses we’ve seen so far.
These researchers have succeeded in developing a method for tetraplegic patients (those who are unable to move either their upper or lower body) to communicate with the outside world. Their inventions include a robot arm, a brain-computer interface, and a machine-learning algorithm.
During tests, the robot arm would carry out easy tasks like navigating a barrier. Using an EEG cap, the algorithm would then decipher brain signals and determine when the arm had made a move that the brain had deemed improper, such as moving too closely to the obstacle or moving too quickly.
The algorithm can then be modified over time to take into account personal preferences and brain signals. Future developments could include brain-controlled wheelchairs or devices to help tetraplegic patients.
07: 3D printed bones
The 3D printing industry promises everything from low-cost home construction to reasonably priced durable armour, but one of the most intriguing applications of the technology is the creation of 3D printed bones.
Tricalcium phosphate, a substance with characteristics similar to those of human bones, is used by the company Ossiform, a specialist in medical 3D printing, to make patient-specific replacements of various bones.
It’s surprisingly simple to utilise these 3D-printed bones. An MRI can be performed in a hospital and sent to Ossiform, which then develops a 3D model of the required patient-specific implant. Once the design has been approved by the surgeon, it can be printed and used during surgery.
The use of tricalcium phosphate allows the body to remodel the implants into vascularized bone, which makes these 3D printed bones unique. In other words, they will make it possible for the bone it is replacing to fully regain its previous function. The implants have a porous structure with large pores and canals for cells to attach to and reform bone in order to achieve the best possible integration.
08: Digital “twins” that track your health
People can walk into the medbay and have their entire body digitally scanned for signs of illness and injury in Star Trek, where many of our ideas for future technology first appeared. The creators of Q Bio claim that by doing that in real life, health outcomes would be improved and the workload of doctors would be reduced.
The US company has developed a scanner that can detect hundreds of biomarkers in just one hour, including hormone levels, fat deposits in the liver, signs of inflammation, and various cancers. It plans to use this information to create a digital twin, or 3D digital representation of a patient’s body, which can be tracked over time and updated with each new scan.
Jeff Kaditz, CEO of Q Bio, hopes it will usher in a new era of preventative, personalised medicine in which the enormous amounts of data collected not only assist physicians in prioritising which patients need to be seen most urgently but also in the development of more advanced methods of illness diagnosis. Check out this interview with him.
09: Energy storing bricks
The red bricks used to construct homes can now store energy thanks to technological advancements.
A process has been developed by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, US, that can transform the inexpensive and easily accessible building material into “smart bricks” that can store energy like batteries.
The scientists assert that walls made of these bricks “could store a substantial amount of energy” and can “be recharged hundreds of thousands of times within an hour” despite the fact that the research is still in the proof-of-concept stage.
The scientists created a process to turn red bricks into a specific kind of energy storage device known as a supercapacitor.
In order to do this, conducting coatings known as Pedot were applied to samples of fired bricks. These coatings then turned the fired bricks into “energy storing electrodes” by allowing them to permeate through their porous structure.
The red pigment in the bricks, iron oxide, aided in the process, according to the researchers.
10: Self-healing ‘living concrete’
By combining sand, gel, and bacteria, scientists have created what they call living concrete.
According to researchers, this building material is more environmentally friendly than concrete, which is the second most consumed material on Earth after water, and has structural load-bearing capabilities as well as the ability to self-heal.
The University of Colorado Boulder team thinks their work paves the way for the development of future buildings that could “heal their own cracks, suck up dangerous toxins from the air, or even glow on command.”
11: Internet for everyone
How else would you read sciencefocus.com? Despite the fact that we seem to be unable to function without the internet, only about half of humanity is currently online. There are many causes for this, including social and economic ones, but for some people, a lack of a connection makes the internet inaccessible.
While Facebook abandoned plans to do the same using drones, Google is slowly working to find a solution by using helium balloons to beam the internet to inaccessible areas, which means startups like Hiber are stealing a march. By launching their own network of shoebox-sized microsatellites into low Earth orbit, they have adopted a different strategy. These satellites wake up a modem plugged into your computer or other device when they fly over and deliver your data.
Organisations like The British Antarctic Survey already use their satellites, which orbit the Earth 16 times per day, to provide internet access to the most remote parts of the planet.
12: Car batteries that charge in 10 minutes
Fast charging for electric vehicles is thought to be essential to their uptake because it allows drivers to stop at a petrol station, fully charge their car in the time it takes to get a coffee and use the loo, and do so in less time than a regular break.
Rapidly charging lithium-ion batteries, however, can damage the batteries, according to US researchers at Penn State University. This is due to the fact that rapid charging at lower temperatures does not result in a smooth flow of lithium ions, which are particles of lithium, from one electrode to another in order to charge the device and hold the energy ready for use.
However, they have discovered that lithium spikes and heat damage could be avoided if the batteries could heat to 60°C for just 10 minutes before rapidly cooling back down to room temperature.
Their self-heating battery uses a thin nickel foil to create an electrical circuit that heats up in less than 30 seconds, warming the interior of the battery. The cooling system built into the car would be used to perform the quick cooling that would be required after the battery is charged.
They were able to fully charge an electrical vehicle in 10 minutes, according to their study, which was published in the journal Joule.
13: Artificial neurons on silicon chips
In order to mimic and replicate the electrical properties of the neurons in our nervous system, scientists have discovered a way to attach artificial neurons onto silicon chips.
“Until now, neurons have been like black boxes, but we have managed to open the black box and peer inside,” said Professor Alain Nogaret from the University of Bath, who oversaw the project.
Because it offers a reliable method to accurately replicate the electrical characteristics of real neurons, “our work is paradigm-changing.
However, considering that our neurons only require 140 nanowatts of power, it is wider than that. This is one billionth the power needed by a microprocessor, which was previously used in earlier attempts to create synthetic neurons.
Due to how little power it uses, researchers hope that their work will one day be incorporated into medical implants to treat diseases like heart failure and Alzheimer’s.
