Top ten emerging technologies of 2020

Scientific American shares its top ten list of emerging technologies identified by a group of experts they convened with the World Economic Forum. To make the list, they write, the technology "must have the potential spur progress in societies and economies by outperforming established ways of doing things" and be ready for prime time in the next three to five years. The list is below with more detail at Scientific American:

1. MICRONEEDLES COULD ENABLE PAINLESS INJECTIONS AND BLOOD DRAWS
2. SUN-POWERED CHEMISTRY CAN TURN CARBON DIOXIDE INTO COMMON MATERIALS
3. VIRTUAL PATIENTS COULD REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE
4. SPATIAL COMPUTING COULD BE THE NEXT BIG THING
5. DIGITAL MEDICINE CAN DIAGNOSE AND TREAT WHAT AILS YOU
6. ELECTRIC AVIATION COULD BE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK
7. LOW-CARBON CEMENT CAN HELP COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE
8. QUANTUM SENSORS COULD LET AUTONOMOUS CARS 'SEE' AROUND CORNERS
9. GREEN HYDROGEN COULD FILL BIG GAPS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY
10. WHOLE-GENOME SYNTHESIS WILL TRANSFORM CELL ENGINEERING

image: Hugo Gersnback in "The Isolator" (Science and Invention, July 1925)