Scientific Innovations of Next Decade

As humans we always get enthralled by future predictions. Many seers, astrologers, tarot readers and fortune tellers live by their profession as many queue in front of them willing to know what is in store for them.  We all know Nostradamus and have read about his “prophecies” about various global events, or at least their correlations. But that may not hold true when it comes to predicting what will be discovered or invented scientifically, say in next decade, which will change how we live and many things will become a thing of past.

Just think of it, could our parents tell, when they were kid, that they would speak to a person thousands of miles away looking at them at the same time. The communication technology has innovated and developed so fast that it was indeed unimaginable just a decade or so back.

The medical field has also advanced dramatically, especially in the last couple of decade that many fatal diseases are now manageable, if not treatable. At least we now know enough that we can prevent many of them.

So how can we predict what would be innovated or discovered in science in next decade?

Image source:denovodrugs.com

Thomson Reuters have come up with a list of ten top innovations of the next decade based upon the analysis of patents and scientific data. Based upon the citation ranking and global patent data they identified ten emerging scientific front and top ten patent fields. From this data they identified ‘hot spots’ of innovation that will breakthrough of tomorrow.

1. According to their prediction the solar energy would become the main source of energy on earth as technology of harvesting sun light and converting it to usable energy by masses will improve significantly.

2. Higgs Boson project has been in much discussion lately in general public as well as in scientific community. In next decade scientists will be able to apply this technology for teleporting thing at the speed of light.

What’s teleporting? It may sound really futuristic, but it is simple scan of your body to the subatomic level and then sending the scanned data to where you want to be transported. Once transported to the chosen destination, a computer would convert that data and build you back, that too in a fraction of a second. A life size 3-D hologram is already in practice which will make teleporting possible.

3. Next innovation would be digitization of everything everywhere as the world will be wired and connected digitally. This would be possible by improvements in semiconductors, cell free networks and 5G technology. However, the gap in rich and poor countries may create a significant hurdle for this to happen. In many countries even 2G is not accessible while other advanced countries already started talking of 5G.

4. The study suggests that use of RNA technology will advance enough in next decade to create a platform for diagnosis and treatment of diseases like diabetes. 

5. Genome mapping and screening would be possible at birth with advancement in nanotechnology and data analysis tools. 

6. The advancement in the treatment of cancer would lead to more efficient and less toxic chemotherapy. 

7. The decline in the mental ability of people due to various reasons i.e. dementia, would get reduced significantly.

8. The eco-friendly and green technology advancement would lead to biodegradable cellulose-based packaging in place of petrolium-based packaging  .

9. Today the air transportation is mostly fuel-based but in next decade it may become possible that electric based air transportation will rule the airspace.

10. According to food and agriculture organization (FAO) more than 800 million that is one in eight people in the world are suffering from chronic hunger. It is predicted that the food shortage may become the thing of past in next one decade. The advancement in biotechnology and agricultural research would enhance the food production to meet the global need. However, will it really reach to every mouth and stomach will remain to be seen.

So, cross your finger and look ahead for a bright horizon which is as far as a decade from now and many things that we can only dream of today will become part of our routine…. Amen!!