25 Things You Need to Know About the Future
Explaining the challenges and technologies that will shape the next few decades.
Part II: The Next Industrial Wave
Part II of 25 Things You Need to Know About the Future turns to manufacturing and farming in order to identify future developments in our productive systems and technologies. From the Bronze Age to the Iron Age to the Steam Age and beyond, time and again our dominant means of making things have determined how we live. Part II therefore examines key manufacturing developments including nanotechnology, 3D printing and synthetic biology . . .
Chapter 6: 3D Printing
3D Printing creates real, solid objects from digital data, and could hence do for manufacturing what the PC and the Internet have already done for information processing and communications. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
Chapter 7: Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology -- or "nanotech" -- is the science of understanding and manipulating materials on a nanometre scale. This makes nanotech an incredibly diverse field, with applications in electronics, medicine, new materials development, agriculture, environmental management and far more. The publically-accessible online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
Chapter 8: Genetic Modification
A revolution in the biosciences is likely to dominate the 21st century. This chapter focuses on the genetic modification (GM) of existing plants, animals and microscopic organisms. The online references used in compiling it comprised:
Chapter 9: Synthetic Biology
Right at the cutting-edge of the biosciences, synthetic biology applies an engineering mentality to biology in order to create new or radically different living things. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
Chapter 10: Vertical Farming
Vertical farms are future skyscrapers in which we will grow crops and even raise animals. This will allow food to be produced in future cities close to where most people actually live. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
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