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Top 10 Emerging Technologies

By Joe Walz

Top 10 Emerging Technologies

--By Joe Walz, USAF Academy cadet, CSTI Intern

 

MIT recently published in the March/April issue of Technology Review their annual “10 Emerging Technologies.” Considered the “go-to” source for impactful new technologies, the magazine chooses ten innovations every year with the potential to bring major changes to various technological fields in science and in health. The highlighted technologies range from miniature to massive, from inexpensive to efficient, and from simple to intelligent. They are very different from one another, but all have the ability to change the world. These technologies are listed below:

 

1) Biological Machines – A life-size cyborg beetle capable of surveying and transmitting signals to the controller without detection. This miniature machine flies like a real beetle giving the controller the ability take off, turn, or even stop midflight.

 

2) Racetrack Memory – This memory chip uses currents and nanowires to write and read data in less than a nanosecond. With millions of these in parallel, racetrack memory has the potential to store vast amounts of data in seconds.

 

3) $100 Genome – This tiny electronic chip hopes to unravel the human genome and sort it in only 8 hours while keeping the cost less than $100. With this technology, medical treatments could be tailored to a patient’s unique genetic profile. 

 

4) Traveling-Wave Reactor – Intellectual Ventures, a nuclear reaction research company, has patented a method of producing nuclear energy capable of running for years without excess uranium or maintenance costs. The reactor reduces the risk of weapons proliferation because it requires almost no U-235, the element currently used in nuclear weapons. 

 

5) Paper Diagnostic Tests – These slips of paper, when exposed to blood or urine, will change color and provide evidence for infectious diseases or chronic conditions. 

 

6) Liquid Battery – A method of storing energy which uses three liquids of differing densities to store unprecedented amounts of energy within a conventionally sized battery.  

 

7) Intelligent Software – This software is akin to artificial intelligence. The program takes your verbal inputs and helps the user complete tasks automatically rather than collect information. 

8) Nanopiezotronics – Microscopic wires that produce an electrical current when bent may be enough to power small electronic devices. These wires could be woven into clothing or used in a variety of sensor systems and never have to be re-charged.

 

9) HashCache – HashCache makes internet affordable across the globe by slashing RAM and electricity requirements by a factor of 10.  

 

10) Software Defined Networking – A system that allows for much faster networks and internet by allocating certain bandwidth as video and other as different types of networking.

 

Learn more at Technology Review