Since 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) annually compiles a list of 10 technologies that will become breakthrough this year and publishes it in its publication.
This time, the editors decided to invite Bill Gates billionaire and founder of Microsoft to compile the top 10.
As he himself noted, it was very difficult for him to choose only 10 things, since in fact there are much more significant achievements.
10. Burger without a cow
According to rough estimates, by 2050 there will be 9.8 billion people on Earth, and the amount of meat consumed will increase by 70% compared to 2005.
Given the cost of natural resources necessary for the production of meat, our planet may not stand it. This is where the meat made in the laboratory comes to the rescue.
For its production, the fibers of the muscle tissue of animals that are grown in bioreactors are used. At the moment, this is already a reality, but scientists still can’t give such meat a normal taste, but are already close to a solution.
9. Sanitation without sewage
Now about 2.3 billion people around the world do not have access to normal sewage systems, which forces them to dump waste products into the environment.
This not only leads to pollution, but also contributes to the spread of viruses and parasites, which can cause diarrhea and cholera.
Creating an affordable toilet with a recycling function will solve these problems, and now scientists are actively working on it.
It is noteworthy that Bill Gates himself had a hand in this project: back in 2011, he launched a contest to create a toilet, in which the waste will be immediately processed and several independent teams presented quite viable prototypes and ideas.
8. Carbon Dioxide Catcher
An excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is one of the causes of possible global warming. To avoid it, it is necessary already in this century to get rid of 1 trillion tons of gas in the atmosphere, which is very expensive.
That is why in recent years, projects aimed at a cheaper and practical solution to the problem are gaining popularity.
For example, the Carbon Engineering startup Harvat climatologist David Keith is creating synthetic fuels in which carbon dioxide acts as a key element. Bill Gates, by the way, is an investor in this startup.
7. Smoothly speaking virtual assistants
Virtual assistants like Siri or Alice are a huge achievement, but you can’t call it ideal yet. Despite all the advanced technology, virtual assistants adequately recognize a limited set of commands, but I want more.
Of course, it’s too early to talk about the level of intelligent machines like TARS from Interstellar, but Google Duplex is already able to receive phone calls from any spammers or book a table for you in a restaurant on its own.
6. ECG on the wrist
Modern fitness trackers remain quite limited devices in terms of tracking health: a weakened strap or incorrect movement can give an erroneous picture.
Nevertheless, ECG sensors have already begun to be built into bracelets: back in 2017, such a strap for the Apple Watch was created. The problem is that wrist gadgets have only 1 built-in sensor, while in a full-fledged ECG apparatus there are 12 of them.
Most experts (including Bill Gates) agree that this will change soon and that fitness bracelets will be able to diagnose heart problems without visiting the clinic.
5. Individual Cancer Vaccines
Cancerous tumors have unique mutations that scientists have already learned to recognize. Leading doctors are now working to teach this medicine.
If everything works out, then when administered to a person, the vaccine will command the body’s immune system to destroy the cancer cells, correctly determining their type.
Unlike chemotherapy, which causes great harm to healthy cells, the medicine will fight exclusively with patients.
4. Intestinal probe in tablet
Modern methods of screening the stomach with an endoscope are uncomfortable, especially when it comes to newborns.
The engineer Guillermo Tierney from Boston plans to soon solve this problem by creating devices for checking intestines the size of a pill. Miniature microscopes will be built into them, and a filiform wire will be used to power and transfer the image to an external monitor.
These capsules will allow you to take pictures of the intestine without discomfort and even conduct a tissue biopsy.
3. Prediction of premature infants
According to statistics, every 10th baby is born prematurely, so scientists have long been trying to develop a methodology for predicting the birth of such children.
Bioengineer Stephen Quake of Stanford University is already close to a breakthrough: its development will help identify the risk of premature birth by a blood test, and this procedure will cost only about $ 10 per test.
2. A new wave of nuclear energy
IV generation fission reactors, which began to appear last year, are notable for their small size and enormous power, which until recently seemed something beyond.
A conventional nuclear reactor produces about 1,000 megawatts of energy, while next-generation apparatuses can produce tens of thousands of megawatts. This reduces not only the cost, but also the damage to the environment.
1. Flexible robots
One of the main problems of robotics is the inability of machines to work correctly with the environment and objects in it. A robot can move an object a thousand times from place to place, but if you move this object, the robot will take air with its mechanical limbs.
So far, no one has managed to come up with a technology that could teach technology to see and understand the physics of objects, but soon everything can change.
So, the Dactyl startup engineers managed to get the mechanical arm to rotate the cube in a randomly simulated environment, which is a significant jerk to the target.