EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

I thought I had run out of ideas to update my blog when I found this interesting website which presents every year the 10 technologies its research team think are most likely to change the way humans live. Here you are the 2008 proposal:

1) Modeling Surprise: 'Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help manage surprising events.' (Horvitz, 2008)

2) Probabilistic Chips: 'A little uncertainty in chips could extend battery life in mobile devices--and maybe the duration of Moore's Law, too.' (Palem, 2008)

3) NanoRadio: Alex Zettl's tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics. (Service, 2008)

4) Wireless Power: Physicist Marin Soljacic is working toward a world of wireless electricity. (Chu, 2008)

5) Atomic Magnetometers: John Kitching's tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it's never gone before. (Bourzac, 2008)

6) Offline Web Applications: 'Computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.' (Lynch, 2008)

7) Graphene Transistors: A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors. (Bullis, 2008)

8) Connectomics: Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the web of neural circuits. (Singer, 2008)

9) Reality Mining: Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn about human behavior. (Greene, 2008)

10) Cellullolityc Enzimes: Frances Arnold is designing better enzymes for making biofuels from cellulose. (Goho, 2008)