Compile
Compile | Ran Xu
On February 23rd, the famous science and technology magazine "MIT Science and Technology Review" published the annual "Top Ten Breakthrough Technologies" (10).
This list has been established for 2 1 year. With their foresight, the scientists and entrepreneurs on the list uniquely predicted the vigorous development of autonomous driving, new energy, cancer genes, artificial intelligence and other fields. This list is a rare weather vane in the field of science and technology, and it is also a sentry tower for many institutions to industrialize scientific research content.
Among them, there are many high-tech technologies, which can change all aspects of our lives and make our lives gradually intelligent and scientific.
For example, the recently popular CRISPR gene editing crop technology was included in the list of breakthrough technologies as early as 20 16. Brain-computer interface, which has been deeply studied in recent years, entered the reviewer's sight at 200 1.
Today, through the eyes of cutting-edge scientists, let us further understand the list released this year and imagine the technology industry after 2022.
0 1
COVID-19 took oral medication.
With the recurrence of epidemic situation in COVID-19 and the gradual escalation of virus mutation, it is difficult to get rid of the threat of COVID-19 completely by vaccination, and it usually takes 2-3 injections to be effective.
At the same time, it also needs a lot of manpower and material resources and a large number of medical personnel from relevant government departments in many countries around the world, which undoubtedly greatly increases government expenditure and enterprise costs.
Is there any way to break the current epidemic prevention deadlock?
Yes By developing COVID-19 oral drugs, people can significantly reduce the possibility of serious hospitalization by taking drugs at home.
It not only reduces the government's expenditure, but also reduces the time and energy wasted by people's repeated vaccination and unpredictable infection risks, thus achieving multiple goals.
Pfizer, Merck and other companies have seen the advantages of oral drugs in COVID-19 and developed a small molecule drug called Paxlovid. 202 1, 65438+2, 14, Pfizer analyzed the treatment data, and proved that for high-risk inpatients, paciclovir can reduce the mortality rate by 89%, and the effect is amazing.
Therefore, popular oral drugs are the key research of pharmaceutical companies, countries and people, and countries all over the world will inevitably invest a lot of money to establish corresponding research and development institutions to promote the research of oral drugs.
02
Malaria vaccine
20 15 Tu Youyou won the nobel prize for artemisinin. Artemisinin is famous internationally because it can effectively treat a very terrible disease-malaria.
How terrible is it? Over the years, the global malaria epidemic is still very serious, and about 40% of the global population lives in malaria-endemic areas.
Malaria is the most serious disease in Africa. About 500 million people in this country live in malaria-endemic areas. About 654.38 billion people worldwide have clinical symptoms of malaria every year, 90% of them live in the African continent, and more than 2 million people die of malaria every year.
Therefore, the research and development of malaria vaccine is imminent.
202 1 10, the World Health Organization approved the first malaria vaccine-RTS vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The results showed that the infection rate of malaria in all ages decreased significantly. The younger the age, the stronger the protection, and the effective rate of preventing infection is even as high as 46%.
However, the vaccine still has some limitations: it can only be put into use in infancy and early childhood for prevention and treatment.
Maybe one day in the future, when the technology develops again, we will be able to welcome a new "adult version" of malaria vaccine.
03
AI protein Folding
Protein has always been the top priority of scientists' research.
For example, COVID-19, which has been full of people's lives recently, has also set foot in this field. The glycoprotein on the surface of COVID-19 can induce immune response, and scientists can study the mRNA vaccine by studying this glycoprotein.
In fact, a lot of research on immunity and antibody is closely related to protein. Studying the formation of protein Fold will be the key to open the door to biology in the future.
At the end of 2020, DeepMind released a research report saying that protein folding can be predicted by using deep learning model, and the results are highly consistent with the real protein structure. This scientific and technological progress shocked biologists.
The development of this research is the key to the revolutionary creation of biology. It can not only be applied to epidemic diseases, tumors, vaccines and other issues closely related to people's health. It is also applicable to the study of any living body.
The collision between biology and computer will play an unimaginable role and value in the future.
04
There is no password.
There is a certain risk of leakage in traditional passwords, and the security performance is low.
Therefore, Google, Microsoft and other companies have studied many methods of logging in without password, which greatly simplifies the tedious password memory process in the data age.
At the same time, this research can also make users' information more secure in the era of big data.
05
Equity certificates have replaced monetary calculation.
Cryptographic currency is a decentralized peer-to-peer payment system based on open source public blockchain. In order to ensure the safety of users' assets and prevent hackers from invading, the two top cryptocurrencies in the world, Bitcoin and Ethereum, both use POW algorithm, but these calculations require a lot of electricity.
In 20021year, the electricity consumption of bitcoin network exceeded 100 TWh (note: 1 TWh = 1 100 million kwh), which was more than the annual electricity consumption of Finland.
Proof of equity can reduce a lot of energy consumption. In the first half of 2022, Ethereum is planning to gradually shift from the workload proof algorithm to the use of proof of rights and interests to ensure the safety of users.
Experts predict that the transformation of Ethereum can save 99.95% electricity consumption, greatly promote the process of global environmental protection, and will be used by more cryptocurrencies in the future.
06
Comprehensive analysis of artificial intelligence data
We know that there are often uncertainties in a single data. If a large number of data can be effectively synthesized, more accurate calculation results can be obtained. For example, driverless technology requires a comprehensive analysis of a large number of road and road condition data.
At present, companies such as Syntegra and Datagen are promoting this technology and are committed to obtaining better data to apply to various production practices.
07
Long-term power grid energy storage battery
Low-carbon energy saving has always been an important topic in the direction of environmental protection. People are constantly exploring new renewable energy and clean energy. Cheap and durable iron-based batteries have become one of the new choices for people.
Last year, ESS in Oregon and Form Energy in Massachusetts both chose to use iron-based batteries as the main energy source of the new power grid.
Iron-based batteries not only have good electricity storage performance, but also benefit from the fact that iron is an enriched element on the earth, and the cost of manufacturing iron-based batteries is lower, which can greatly reduce the expenses of related enterprises and become a win-win choice for enterprises and environmental protection.
08
Carbon removal plant
At present, global warming has become an urgent problem in the field of environmental protection. In order to slow down the greenhouse effect, many companies put a lot of energy into dealing with the problem of excess carbon dioxide. For example, Climeworks is trying to remove excess carbon dioxide from the air.
Although this company can capture 4000 tons of carbon dioxide every year, it is only the tip of the iceberg when looking at the carbon dioxide emitted by global transformation. Therefore, more countries and enterprises are investing in energy conservation and emission reduction, while building larger factories to slow down the greenhouse effect.
With the establishment of carbon capture technology and related factories, the earth's ecological environment is moving towards sustainable development. Carbon emission reduction is one of the key points that must be considered in the future development of mankind.
09
Tracking of COVID-19 mutation
Recently, Omicron mutants have attracted worldwide attention. On June 4th, 2022, 65438+ WHO said that 128 countries and regions reported the discovery of Omicron mutant.
In June, 2022, 5438+ 10, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the cases of Omicron infection accounted for 99.9% of the new cases in the United States.
With the changes in COVID-19, it becomes more and more difficult to treat. This is because COVID-19 is often in the process of "upgrading", the escape ability of vaccines is gradually enhanced, and the intensity and speed of infection are also increasing.
These uncertain virus strain variations are likely to lead to the second and third pandemics in COVID-19.
Therefore, studying the changing trend of COVID-19 can effectively predict the possible epidemic development trend in the future.
10
Practical fusion reactor
1April 25, 986, a nuclear leak occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. As of 1992, more than 7,000 people have died in this nuclear pollution accident, and the trees within 7 kilometers around are gradually dying. The whole European continent is shrouded in the shadow of nuclear pollution.
Therefore, ITER, Tokamak energy and general fusion all hope to realize nuclear fusion power generation in the next 10 year.
If researchers can achieve controlled and sustained "nuclear fusion on the sun" on the earth, then maybe one day our earth will have unlimited energy, which will also reduce various environmental pollution on the earth.
Concluding remarks
These technologies are the most valuable and cutting-edge research in the field of science and technology at present, and also indicate people's vision for future development. Every step of predecessors in the field of science and technology is a guiding light for future scientists and technicians.
The balance between science and technology and environment is an opportunity and challenge for human society.