The number of technical discoveries within the past 10 years are too numerous to count. From leisure to medicine, here are some amazing innovations, inventions and discoveries you should be be aware of that will alter the course of our future:GrapheneCRISPRRNA vaccines3D printingVirtual Reality & Augmented RealityVTOL / Reusable rocket enginesArtificial Intelligence (AI)
Graphene
Graphene is made up of layers of carbon only one atom thick enough amounts to be useful practically only came about in the latter half of the 2000s. It is extremely tough, can conduct electricity and is almost transparent. Graphene will allow humans to produce extremely durable materials as soft as cloth and as clear as your sunglasses that can support electronics. It is sure to be a game changer in the future.
CRSPR
“CRISPR” is an acronym for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”. But you don’t have to be a scientist to understand its significance. The latest version of CRSPR was created in 2016, and this portion of DNA allows us to essentially “unzip” a strand of DNA, insert a piece of custom-made DNA, and “re-zip” the DNA. Devastating diseases such as HIV, cancer and muscular dystrophy could become things of the past.
RNA vaccines
When the Covid pandemic began in late 2019, the world held its collective breath for a solution. The solution made possible in 2020 with the development of the first approved vaccine. An mRNA (messenger Ribonucleic acid) vaccine uses genes to help the body respond to a disease. This is particularly useful with viruses as they are notoriously resistant to treatment. In addition to treating Covid, these vaccines have the potential to help cure other diseases as well, such as cancer, HIV, rabies and the common cold.
3D Printing
Everyone is familiar with printers capable of producing copies on paper. These copies, however, are limited to 2D space (2 dimensions – length and width). 3D printers make it possible to print in 3D (3 dimensions – length, width and height) simultaneously from a computer file. The file can be drawn using software, or generated from the scan or photo of an existing object. The uses of this technology are truly boundless, but currently it is primarily being used in the engineering and health industries. Ancient Japanese vase perfectly recreated through 3D scanning and 3D printing
Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality
Goggles have existed as peripheral devices for computers for quite some time, especially for use with video games. However, it is only within thepast few years that their technology has improved enough so that they can be used with these two new technologies. Virtual reality refers to a 3D environment that exists wholly within a computer. Using special goggles and dedicated controls, the user can navigate the digital world while being able to look in any direction. Augmented reality involves using GPS to superimpose a virtual world on the real world, Items in reality can then be “labelled” with matching information, allowing the user to see information that is not visible in the real world. Both discoveries are finding training, practical and entertainment applications in numerous fields.
VTOL / Reusable rocket engines
VTOL stands for vertical takeoff and landing. We are all used to seeing rockets take off vertically, but it is only within the past few years that we have begun to see them land in the same fashion. When SpaceX conducted the first successful test of this technology in 2020, the major achievement wasn’t only landing the rocket, but the fact that rockets would now be reusable after years of being discarded into the ocean after launch. Besides the monetary savings, the technology shortens the time between launches considerably, allowing more launches within the same given time frame, and the possibility of inserting satellites into orbit with greater frequency and at lower cost.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Science Fiction has become reality. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is intelligence exhibited by machines. Though the idea has been part of our lexicon since Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, improvements in the algorithms used by computers have taken this idea to new levels within the past decade.Computers no longer simply “play chess”, but instead are able to use human-like reasoning to solve problems. The most widely used application for this new technology is language understanding, as is common in any software that translates human speech to text or another language.
Conclusion
The next decade is likely to produce even more amazing technical discoveries. As computing power increases exponentially, so too will the capability of humans to create and innovate. The discoveries of the next ten years will not be confined to the technical fields. Instead, this new technology will be available to everyone, and affect the daily lives of every human on the planet.
- Is there a limit to computing power?All signs point to “no”; with the discovery of quantum computing, calculating power is on track to be many times more powerful than even the most powerful computers we have today.
- Can VTOL rockets take us to Mars?Yes! SpaceX is currently testing a rocket large enough to take the first humans to the “red planet” some time in the next 20 years.
- What is one practical use of augmented realtiy?You only need to use Google Maps to experience this amazing discovery. The “live” feature on Google Maps superimposes information about businesses as you view them through your phone’s camera. Google Translate also allows the live translation of street signs into almost any language.
- Are RNA vaccines safe?They are very safe; the genetic material used in the vaccines is not the kind of RNA that can affect human genetics on a permanent basis.
