Breakthrough technology applications in 2017

NBC News, a news site of the American commercial radio and television network NBC, has just voted on a number of breakthrough technology applications in 2017 based on predictions by famous American scientists.

The era of the carunmanned

Professor Carlo Ratti, PhD, works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs the experimental project “Touchless City”. According to him, this year, self-driving cars will make a big difference in public and private transportation, greatly affecting our lifestyle and daily activities. We can type on computers, read books, eat, sleep, even have sex, he said.

Google's Waymo self-driving car. Photo: Alphabet Inc

Race to commercialize aerospace

American scientist Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon, said that President-elect Donald Trump is very interested in the aerospace field, so the US will have a commercial space race. British investor Richard Branson will speed up the testing of the Virgin Galactic 2 spacecraft to form a space tourism industry. China will develop a new generation rocket Long March 7 to build its own space station, sending unmanned spacecraft to the Moon.

Virtual reality technologyascend to the throne

Dr. Julie Brefcynski-Lewis from the Blanchette Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University predicts that this year, virtual reality (VR) technology will achieve breakthrough advances and have a great impact on science. She has in-depth research on the applications of positron emission tomography (PET), a diagnostic imaging method using computed tomography (CT) that is considered a very valuable diagnostic tool in cancer. Currently, PET/CT is a very valuable and effective combined diagnostic method widely used in detecting cancer, cardiovascular, neurological, infectious diseases, etc.

Gene technology will help humans resist viruses

Genetics professor George Church (Harvard Medical School) said that 2017 will witness great strides in reading and “editing” human genes. From there, we can create genes that can resist all types of viruses, prevent and fight cancer. For the ecosystem, safe and effective experiments on genetic strategies can control pathogens (mosquitoes, insects, mice, etc.). Genetic engineering will also be applied to reverse the aging and extinction processes. In addition, data will be encoded in a super compact way and stored in DNA chains.

Artificial intelligence is popular in the family

Dr. Kate Darling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, predicts that artificial intelligence will be applied to household products based on cloud computing technology. Housekeeping robots will perform some simple tasks such as playing music, turning on lights, reading aloud, answering puzzles, etc.

Satellites help forecastmore accurate weather

Professor Tracey Holloway (University of Wisconsin) predicts that 2017 will be a big step forward in monitoring the Earth from space. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are working together on a new geostationary satellite called GOES-16, launched in October 2016. From 2017, GOES-16 will provide almost continuous data, helping to make weather forecasts, emergency responses, etc. more accurately.

According to TPO