[forwards4all] The top 10 emerging technologies for 2013

 

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The top 10 emerging technologies for 2013
New challenges need new technologies to tackle them. Here, the World Economic Forum�s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies identifies the top 10 most promising technology trends that can help to deliver sustainable growth in decades to come as global population and material demands on the environment continue to grow rapidly. These are technologies that the Council considers have made development breakthroughs and are nearing large-scale deployment. OnLine Electric Vehicles (OLEV): Wireless technology can now deliver electric power to moving vehicles. 3-D printing and remote manufacturing: Three-dimensional printing allows the creation of solid structures from a digital computer file, potentially revolutionizing the economics of manufacturing if objects can be printed remotely in the home or office. Energy-efficient water purification: Water scarcity is a worsening ecological problem in many parts of the world due to competing demands from agriculture, cities and other human uses. Where freshwater systems are over-used or exhausted, desalination from the sea offers near-unlimited water but a considerable use of energy � mostly from fossil fuels � to drive evaporation or reverse-osmosis systems. Carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion and use: One of the most promising approaches uses biologically engineered photosynthetic bacteria to turn waste CO2 into liquid fuels or chemicals, in low-cost, modular solar converter systems Enhanced nutrition to drive health at the molecular level: Even in developed countries millions of people suffer from malnutrition due to nutrient deficiencies in their diets. Remote sensing: The increasingly widespread use of sensors that allow often passive responses to external stimulae will continue to change the way we respond to the environment, particularly in the area of health. Precise drug delivery through nanoscale engineering: Pharmaceuticals that can be precisely delivered at the molecular level within or around a diseased cell offer unprecedented opportunities for more effective treatments while reducing unwanted side effects. Organic electronics and photovoltaics: Organic electronics � a type of printed electronics � is the use of organic materials such as polymers to create electronic circuits and devices. Fourth-generation reactors and nuclear-waste recycling: Spent-fuel recycling and breeding uranium-238 into new fissile material � known as Nuclear 2.0 � would extend already-mined uranium resources for centuries while dramatically reducing the volume and long-term toxicity of wastes, whose radioactivity will drop below the level of the original uranium ore on a timescale of centuries rather millennia. Self-healing materials: One of the defining characteristics of living organisms is their inherent ability to repair physical damage. A growing trend in biomimicry is the creation of non-living structural materials that also have the capacity to heal themselves when cut, torn or cracked.
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