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The 10 Breakthrough Technologies Issue

March/April 2022

From the end of passwords to a super-strong magnet for fusion power plants, this issue explores 10 emerging technologies that will shape our world.

Features

Categorized in Humans and technology
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2022
Categorized in Biotechnology
How Pfizer made an effective anti-covid pill
A covid pill could cut serious illnesses and help prevent the next pandemic. But it's expensive and in short supply.
Categorized in Artificial intelligence
This is the reason Demis Hassabis started DeepMind
A year after it took biologists by surprise, AlphaFold has changed how researchers work and set DeepMind on a new course.
Categorized in Computing
The hacker-for-hire industry is now too big to fail
This is a big moment of turbulence and change for the hacking business. But the demand is here to stay.
Categorized in Biotechnology
How tracking coronavirus variants will prepare us for the next global public health threat
Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is helping us spot new variants and figure out how to respond. What else could it help us do?
Categorized in Space
Space is all yours—for a hefty price
Commercial spaceflight is now officially a thing. But is it a transcendent opportunity for the masses, or just another way for rich people to show off?
Categorized in Climate change
A hole in the ground could be the future of fusion power
MIT’s startup Commonwealth has a new powerful magnet that could finally make fusion power a reality.
Categorized in Biotechnology
The new malaria vaccine might not be perfect, but it will save countless lives
It could lead to advances that fight other parasitic infections.
Categorized in Tech policy
Why the balance of power in tech is shifting toward workers
A record number of tech worker unions formed in the US last year. They’re part of a global effort.
Categorized in Climate change
Carbon removal factory
A large plant that captures carbon from the air could help create an industry the world needs to avoid dangerous levels of warming this century.

Also in this issue
- True innovation requires big tech, academia and government to work together
  To tackle truly big problems, the government must act as an engine for academia and industry.
  
  Categorized in Tech policy
- What the history of AI tells us about its future
  IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue was eclipsed by the neural-net revolution. Now, 25 years on, the machine may get the last laugh.
  
  Categorized in Artificial intelligence
- How big technology systems are slowing innovation
  The great IT revolution is no longer promoting economic dynamism. It’s preventing it.
  
  Categorized in Tech policy
- The metaverse is a new word for an old idea
  To understand what we are—and should be—building, we need to look beyond Snow Crash.
  
  Categorized in Humans and technology
- From the archives: How we covered fusion power
  A trio of cover stories through the decades traces our on-again, off-again affair with fusion power.
  
  Categorized in From the archives

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