Top 10 Emerging Technologies in 2017

2017-09-03 10:58:53TextbyJeffPhotosbyVCGTranslationbyLeo

空中之家 2017年9期

Text by Jeff Photos by VCG Translation by Leo

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

我們也許曾經幻想過這樣一個未來：飲用水可以從空氣中直接提取、高科技的農場畝產驚人、醫生無需動刀就能確定癌變性質、人工樹葉能將二氧化碳直接轉化成燃料……一個在2017年夏季達沃斯經濟論壇上發布的本年度全球十大新興技術榜單告訴我們，這樣的未來似乎已經不再遙遠。

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其實并不新鮮，但現有技術需要高含水量的空氣以及大量電力。這個現狀正在改變，來自麻省理工學院和加州大學伯克利分校的一個科研團隊成功利用多孔晶體做到無需電力就實現從空氣到水的轉換。

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

無創技術診斷癌癥：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理難度。

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.

人工智能深度學習：在一張圖像面前，人工智能的觀察分析能力正在超越醫生等人類專家的解讀。得益于深度學習（deep learning）這個新興人工智能領域，計算機視覺技術開始廣泛地應用在無人駕駛、醫療診斷、保險索賠損害評估和水位、作物產量監控等領域。

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.

人工樹葉直產燃料：用陽光活化催化劑來把水分子分解成氧和氫，然后用氫將二氧化碳轉換為烴類。在這樣的封閉系統內，燃燒產生的二氧化碳將被轉化回燃料而不是排放到大氣中。

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.

細胞圖譜定制健康：項目旨在確定每個組織中的細胞類型；準確了解每種細胞類型中基因、蛋白質和其他分子的活動以及控制該活動的過程；定位細胞；了解細胞如何相互作用；一個細胞的遺傳信息發生變化時人類身體功能會發生什么變化。該項目的最終產品對于個性化保健來說意義重大。

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

精密農業提高產量：在作物生長過程中，通過傳感器與成像技術獲取實時數據分析，進而提高農業產量。

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格昂貴的鉑，阻礙了技術發展。但是通過努力，目前對這種稀有并且昂貴的鉑金屬的依賴已經降低。最新的進展包括一種不含鉑的催化劑，一些催化劑甚至不含有金屬。

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：與傳統的疫苗相比，以基因為基礎的疫苗除了生產更為迅速和便宜之外，還能快速適應病原體突變的情況，并幫助科學家辨識出哪些人群對于一種病原體有抵抗力，分離出能夠提供保護的抗體。

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：環保居所的設計不只是為一座房子裝上太陽能發電板，設計師們要將整個社區的房屋連接起來，打造能源循環、資源共享的可持續發展體系。將綠色建造一次應用于多種建筑中，有潛力為我們所消耗能源和水的數量帶來革命性的改變。

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.

量子計算漸入佳境：2016年，lBM為公眾提供渠道，接入第一臺提供云服務的量子計算機。這項行動讓20多篇使用量子計算云服務的論文得以誕生，目前還有50多家創業企業和全球大公司專注于讓量子計算機成為現實。