Text by Jeff Photos by VCG Translation by Leo

Top 10 Emerging Technologies in 2017

Text by Jeff Photos by VCG Translation by Leo

As children, we may have had a dream of what the future world would look like: harvesting clean water from the air, high-tech farming with amazingly high crop yields, identifying cancer without the need of invasive operations, converting carbon dioxide to fuel from artifi cial leaves and the list goes on. The good news is that a recent roundup of the top 10 emerging technologies published during the 2017 Summer Davos in June shows us that those dreams are no longer beyond our reach.

令人期待的十大科技

我們也許曾經(jīng)幻想過(guò)這樣一個(gè)未來(lái)：飲用水可以從空氣中直接提取、高科技的農(nóng)場(chǎng)畝產(chǎn)驚人、醫(yī)生無(wú)需動(dòng)刀就能確定癌變性質(zhì)、人工樹葉能將二氧化碳直接轉(zhuǎn)化成燃料……一個(gè)在2017年夏季達(dá)沃斯經(jīng)濟(jì)論壇上發(fā)布的本年度全球十大新興技術(shù)榜單告訴我們，這樣的未來(lái)似乎已經(jīng)不再遙遠(yuǎn)。

01

Harvesting clean water from the air: Extracting water from the air is not something new, though existing technologies generally require high moisture and a lot of electricity. The problem is becoming more tractable as a group of researchers from the Massachusetts lnstitute of Technology (MlT) and the University of California, Berkeley, have successfully achieved air-to-water conversion with an approach that uses porous crystals and requires no electricity whatsoever.

空氣中提取飲用水：從空氣中提取水的技術(shù)其實(shí)并不新鮮，但現(xiàn)有技術(shù)需要高含水量的空氣以及大量電力。這個(gè)現(xiàn)狀正在改變，來(lái)自麻省理工學(xué)院和加州大學(xué)伯克利分校的一個(gè)科研團(tuán)隊(duì)成功利用多孔晶體做到無(wú)需電力就實(shí)現(xiàn)從空氣到水的轉(zhuǎn)換。

02

Non-invasive biopsies for identifying cancer: Ultrasensitive blood tests known as liquid biopsies promise to signifi cantly improve cancer diagnosis and care.

無(wú)創(chuàng)技術(shù)診斷癌癥 ：被稱為“液體活檢”的超靈敏血液檢查可大幅降低癌癥診斷與護(hù)理難度。

03

Deep learning for visual tasks: Al now matches or exceeds the ability of experts in medicine and other fi elds to interpret what they see. Thanks to deep learning, an emerging fi eld of artifi cial intelligence, computer-vision systems are being developed for a range of applications, such as making self-driving cars safer, medical diagnosis, damage assessment by insurers, prediction of crop yields, and monitoring of water levels.

人工智能深度學(xué)習(xí)：在一張圖像面前，人工智能的觀察分析能力正在超越醫(yī)生等人類專家的解讀。得益于深度學(xué)習(xí)（deep learning）這個(gè)新興人工智能領(lǐng)域，計(jì)算機(jī)視覺技術(shù)開始廣泛地應(yīng)用在無(wú)人駕駛、醫(yī)療診斷、保險(xiǎn)索賠損害評(píng)估和水位、作物產(chǎn)量監(jiān)控等領(lǐng)域。

04

Converting carbon dioxide to fuels from artifi cial leaves: Many investigators have contributed over the years to the development of a form of artifi cial photosynthesis in which sunlightactivated catalysts split water molecules to yield oxygen and hydrogen. This hydrogen is then employed in a reduction reaction that converts CO2into hydrocarbons. The process enables the creation of a closed system in which carbon dioxide emitted by combustion is transformed back into fuel instead of adding to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

人工樹葉直產(chǎn)燃料：用陽(yáng)光活化催化劑來(lái)把水分子分解成氧和氫，然后用氫將二氧化碳轉(zhuǎn)換為烴類。在這樣的封閉系統(tǒng)內(nèi)，燃燒產(chǎn)生的二氧化碳將被轉(zhuǎn)化回燃料而不是排放到大氣中。

05

Using the Human Cell Atlas to personalise healthcare: This international project has been set up to help identify every cell type in every tissue; exactly which genes, proteins and other molecules are active in each type and what processes control that activity; where the cells are located exactly; how the cells normally interact with one another; and what happens to the body's functioning when genetic or other aspects of a cell undergo change, among other details. The fi nal product of the project will be immeasurably valuable for improving and personalising healthcare.

細(xì)胞圖譜定制健康：項(xiàng)目旨在確定每個(gè)組織中的細(xì)胞類型；準(zhǔn)確了解每種細(xì)胞類型中基因、蛋白質(zhì)和其他分子的活動(dòng)以及控制該活動(dòng)的過(guò)程；定位細(xì)胞；了解細(xì)胞如何相互作用；一個(gè)細(xì)胞的遺傳信息發(fā)生變化時(shí)人類身體功能會(huì)發(fā)生什么變化。該項(xiàng)目的最終產(chǎn)品對(duì)于個(gè)性化保健來(lái)說(shuō)意義重大。

06

Precision farming to increase crop yields: Combining sensors and imaging of every plant with real-time data analytics improves farm outputs.

精密農(nóng)業(yè)提高產(chǎn)量：在作物生長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中，通過(guò)傳感器與成像技術(shù)獲取實(shí)時(shí)數(shù)據(jù)分析，進(jìn)而提高農(nóng)業(yè)產(chǎn)量。

07

Affordable catalysts for green vehicles: Many commercial catalysts for hydrogen-fed fuel cells contain the precious metal platinum, which aside from being expensive, is too rare to support ubiquitous use in vehicles. Fortunately, efforts have been made to decrease dependency on platinum. Latest developments include a catalyst without platinum and some giving up metals altogether.

更便宜的新能源車 ：氫燃料電池中的催化劑含有價(jià)格昂貴的鉑，阻礙了技術(shù)發(fā)展。但是通過(guò)努力，目前對(duì)這種稀有并且昂貴的鉑金屬的依賴已經(jīng)降低。最新的進(jìn)展包括一種不含鉑的催化劑，一些催化劑甚至不含有金屬。

08

Genomic vaccines that fi ght diseases faster and better: Compared with manufacturing traditional vaccines (proteins), producing genomic vaccines are simpler and less expensive. Besides, genomic vaccines can be changed readily if a pathogen mutates and enable scientists to identify people who are resistant to a pathogen and isolate the antibodies that provide that protection.

基因疫苗更快更好：與傳統(tǒng)的疫苗相比，以基因?yàn)榛A(chǔ)的疫苗除了生產(chǎn)更為迅速和便宜之外，還能快速適應(yīng)病原體突變的情況，并幫助科學(xué)家辨識(shí)出哪些人群對(duì)于一種病原體有抵抗力，分離出能夠提供保護(hù)的抗體。

09

Sustainable design of communities: lnstead of just installing solar panels on buildings throughout the community, urban designers today aim to connect the whole neighbourhood into a sustainable system where energy is recycled, and resources are shared. Applying green construction to multiple buildings at once promises to dramatically reduce the amount of energy and water that the community as a whole consumes.

綠色建筑全面集結(jié)：環(huán)保居所的設(shè)計(jì)不只是為一座房子裝上太陽(yáng)能發(fā)電板，設(shè)計(jì)師們要將整個(gè)社區(qū)的房屋連接起來(lái)，打造能源循環(huán)、資源共享的可持續(xù)發(fā)展體系。將綠色建造一次應(yīng)用于多種建筑中，有潛力為我們所消耗能源和水的數(shù)量帶來(lái)革命性的改變。

10

Quantum computing is becoming more accessible: ln 2016, lBM provided the public access to the fi rst quantum computer in the cloud. To date, more than 20 academic papers have been published using this tool. Today, more than 50 start-ups and large corporations worldwide are focused on making quantum computing a reality.

量子計(jì)算漸入佳境：2016年，lBM為公眾提供渠道，接入第一臺(tái)提供云服務(wù)的量子計(jì)算機(jī)。這項(xiàng)行動(dòng)讓20多篇使用量子計(jì)算云服務(wù)的論文得以誕生，目前還有50多家創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)和全球大公司專注于讓量子計(jì)算機(jī)成為現(xiàn)實(shí)。