What will be the greatest invention in the 2010s? by @_trendspotter
Answer by Christoph Möller:
In vitro meat – fully lab cultured meat, that was never part of an animal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_…
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/arch…That could be used as replacement for the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock. Cruelty free inexpensive meat for consumption. We won't have to kill animals any longer, could produce more food for poorer countries and we can save our planet from destruction. And it could be used for future space missions.
And of course human enhancement by GRIN technology
(Genetics, Robotics, Information-, and Nano technologies)Artificial photosynthesis – converts carbon dioxide with sunlight and water into oxygen, that could slow down global warming and help the transportability of energy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art…Solar fuel – fuel produced from sunlight through artificial photosynthesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol…Space-based solar power – collection of solar power in space, beam to earth where needed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spa…Xenotransplantation – animal organs for transplantation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen…Artificial uterus – for extracorporeal pregnancy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art…3D Bioprinting – 3D printing human organs, as part of tissue engineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tis…Programmable Organisms – designing a life on a computer, printing it out as synthetic life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syn…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syn…Agricultural robots and more domestic robots
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agr…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hou…Nanorobotics created by nanotechnology engineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan…Metamaterial solar cells – that exhibit optical properties that are not found in naturally occurring materials
http://www.technologyreview.com/…Atmospheric electricity – as renewable power source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atm…Gamification of science or health
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_…
http://www.imedicalapps.com/2011…Quantum Computing – practical commercial availablilty of quantum computers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qua…Memcomputing – may even supercede quantum computing
http://www.technologyreview.com/…Atomtronics – electronic circuits replaced by the use of atoms (even more powerful than Spintronics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ato…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spi…Renewable fuel cells based on Carbazole – a possible hydrogen car breakthrough
http://www.elektor.com/news/carb…"Physical Internet" – to replace conventional logistics
http://newswire.uark.edu/article…Human augmentation / Human enhancement – enhancing human capacities with technology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hum…Bionic contact lens – to create virtual displays for augmented reality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio…Ambient intelligence – as part of ubiquitous computing, Internet of Things and Web of Things
Ambient intelligence is a vision on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and computing that was originally developed in the late 1990s for the time frame 2010–2020.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amb…
Strong AI – (much more than 10 years further down the road…) artificial intelligence that matches or exceeds human intelligence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Str…In terms of future health trends take a look at this excellent TED talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_…—–
on the horizon:Pulling the greenhouse gas CO2 (carbon dioxide) out of thin air
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/0…Storing CO2 underground and extracting electricity
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/featur…Harvesting electricity from CO2
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1…Making fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere
http://news.uga.edu/releases/art…Plants provide blueprint for cheap hydrogen production
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworl…Making electricity from CO2 and hydrogen with bacteria
http://gm.asm.org/index.php/comp…Pulling petrol out of thin air
http://www.independent.co.uk/new…Pulling ammonia out of thin air for fuel of the future
http://www.newscientist.com/arti…Making steel without greenhouse-gas emissions
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/20…
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworl…New Battery Design Could Help Solar and Wind Energy Power the Grid
http://www6.slac.stanford.edu/ne…Building electronics from the ground up
http://www.sc.edu/news/newsartic…Transistors without Semiconductors
http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/…Improved information processing
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/20…Storing solar energy for years – generate heat on demand
http://www.chalmers.se/en/news/P…Solar cells created from trees
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/r…Solar-cells created from cotton
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/03…A greener, more sustainable source for plastics
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_re…
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1…Solar-cells based on quantum dots
http://www.mit.edu/newsoffice/20…Solar-cells based on nanowires
http://phys.org/news/2013-04-nan…Flexible or wearable solar-cells – to power flexible electronics
http://science.psu.edu/news-and-…
http://sphelarpower.com/news/30Transparent electrodes created with nanowires – for flexible electronics
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/r…Flexible electronics – based on three-dimensional form of graphene
http://www.nature.com/news/graph…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2…Stretchable power sources – to power flexible electronics
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/…
http://www.northwestern.edu/news…Peel-and-stick solar cells
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_re…Solar panels a few atoms thick
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworl…
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/abou…Spray-on solar cells
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_…Solar panels as inexpensive as paint
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/rele…Hydrogen from sunlight
http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current…
http://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/p…Paint-on semiconductors – to bring down electronics cost
http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/mult…Indium gallium arsenide transistors – as alternative to silicon
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/r…
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/20…Self-healing circuits
http://www.caltech.edu/content/c…Computers that never crash
http://www.newscientist.com/arti…Electric cars that recharge through their tires
http://www.greencarcongress.com/…Packaging that monitors food freshness
http://www.tue.nl/en/university/…Material that cools buildings in full sunlight
http://news.stanford.edu/news/20…Lifelike cooling for sunbaked windows
http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpres…Laser cooling
http://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsRele…Portable water purification system, could bring clean water to rural poor
http://phys.org/news/2013-05-nan…Using magnets to kill cancer cells
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-mag…Electro-magnetic technique to deliver life-saving drugs to the brain – could help patients who suffer from neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s
http://news.fiu.edu/2013/04/new-…Reversing memory loss – to help people with disorders such as Alzheimer
http://www.uthouston.edu/media/s…Personalized medicine – creating medicine out of your own body
http://www.technologyreview.com/…ex-vivo surgery – organs (with tumors) operated outside the body
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/1…Food source from non-food plants – could help feed a global population
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/article…3D printing drugs – based on drag-and-drop DNA and DNA "Lego bricks"
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_sum…
http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpres…3D printed human embryonic stem cells
3-D Printed Human Embryonic Stem Cells Created for First Time"4-D" printing
http://www.fastcompany.com/30061…Heart cells as "biological pacemakers"
http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Abou…Virtual body double gets ill so you don't have to
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/headli…Biological wires that carry electricity
http://mbioblog.asm.org/mbiosphe…Analog circuits from living bacteria
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/20…Organs-on-chips and Labs-on-chips
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/…
http://engineering.illinois.edu/…Using DNA as "biological Internet"
https://engineering.stanford.edu…Printable 'bionic' ear melds electronics and biology
http://www.princeton.edu/enginee…Implantable Electronics
http://researchnews.osu.edu/arch…Merging the biological, electronic
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/…Isolating and manipulating specific memories at the level of single brain cells
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k…—–
Bonus:A look back at the MIT Technology Review Emerging Technologies of the past decade, here some areas that are currently heavily explored:
Natural Language Processing (forecasted by TR in 2001)
http://www.technologyreview.com/…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat…today available in Google Voice Search (since 2008), Apple Siri (since 2011)
Brain-Machine Interface (forecasted by TR in 2001)
http://www.technologyreview.com/…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bra…today available for example by BrainGate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHwFISNU3j4
Quoraception 