Think of the enormous challenges facing the planet: managing climate change, reducing energy consumption, maintaining food production, or improving global health. Many of these challenges involve overlapping problems, opening the door to interrelated solutions. So it’s no wonder the United Nations has designated “partnerships” as its 17th Sustainable Development Goal .
That interrelationship takes center stage in this 10th edition of “The 10 Most Promising Emerging Techniques Today,” prepared by Scientific American and the World Economic Forum. As governments and industries accelerate their commitments to decarbonization, we will see a number of novel approaches in low-emission transportation, residential and commercial infrastructure, or industrial processes. Two of those techniques, making ‘green’ ammonia and growing crops designed to produce their own fertilizer, will improve agricultural sustainability. In remote areas, 3D printing with indigenous materials will make it possible to build stronger houses without spending as much energy.
Health is on everyone’s mind, so this year’s list highlights the rise of sensors to detect COVID-19 and other diseases through breath, as well as wireless devices to measure biomarkers that facilitate diagnosis and monitoring of chronic diseases. New results in the field of genomics could allow us to increase the “duration of health”, and the manufacture of drugs on demand will lead to personalized medicines, while helping to solve the current supply problems associated with the production on demand. big scale.
To keep everything under control, the number of devices that make up the Internet of Things is growing rapidly. Those devices will be connected more globally by orbiting nanosatellites and will be powered by wireless signals. The future has never been so interconnected.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Increasing decarbonisation
Major commitments to address climate change will give rise to new techniques. By Bernard S. Meyerson
AGRICULTURE Self-fertilizing
crops
Plants that produce their fertilizer, instead of obtaining it from the ground. By Wilfried Weber and Carlo Ratti
BIOCHEMISTRY
Breath sensors to diagnose diseases
Blowing is considerably faster than drawing blood.
By Rona Chandrawati and Daniel E. Hurtado
ENGINEERING
Manufacture of drugs on demand
Manufacture of drugs where and when they are needed. By Elisabeth O’Day and Mine Orlu
COMPUTING
Power Extracted from Wireless Signals
5G technology will help power the Internet of Things. By Joseph Constantine
GENOMIC
Bioengineering for better aging
We must increase the duration of health, not just life. By Wilfried Weber and P. Murali Doraiswamy
CHEMISTRY
Green ammonia
How to reduce the carbon footprint of fertilizer production. By Javier García Martínez and Sarah E. Fawcett
BIOINFORMATICS
Wireless devices to measure biomarkers
Non-invasive monitoring of chronic diseases. By Joseph Constantine
MATERIALS
Houses printed with local materials
Earth replaces concrete. By Bernard S. Meyerson and Carlo Ratti
