The UK’s Government Office for Science has published a series of bite-sized introductions to some of the most exciting emerging technologies of our time.
The guides detail emerging technologies as diverse as neurotechnology, metamaterials, the future of computing, carbon management technologies, fusion energy, robotics and humanoids.
They use the latest evidence and expert insight to set out recent technology developments, potential applications, and opportunities for government alongside challenges.
How will emerging technologies reshape industries?
The guides on emerging technologies can be used by policymakers to support strategic decision-making. They include:
Neurotechnology
This emerging technology is improving with better sensors, smaller and less invasive designs, and through the use of cutting-edge artificial intelligence.
Several small-scale but exciting demonstrations of neurotechnology are driving interest, from helping people walk and communicate again after injury to playing computer games with your brain.
However, taking neurotechnology from the laboratory to clinical or commercial use remains slow and difficult.
The future of neurotechnology development and use in medical and non-medical settings is highly uncertain. Although there is clear potential to help us understand and treat a wider range of illnesses, there are risks and challenges to expanding this technology into commercial products.
Metamaterials
Metamaterials are made up of repetitive sub-structures known as meta-atoms. These are designed, engineered and combined to produce advantageous properties.
Most are designed to interact differently with energy that travels in waves, e.g. electromagnetic. Others are designed for enhanced mechanical, structural or thermal properties.
Metamaterials are considered important emerging technologies for future networking, such as 6G. As the diversity of metamaterial technologies in development increases, so do the areas of potential application.
For example, managing high temperatures in space applications, compact augmented reality optics, biosensors, antimicrobial materials, or more efficient solar panels and wireless charging.
Future computing
To meet ever-increasing performance demands, scientists and engineers are innovating chip design and software and exploring new materials. Emerging technologies in computing, such as quantum and neuromorphic, offer potentially substantial performance and efficiency gains or solutions to currently intractable problems.
New computing paradigms are unlikely to wholly replace classical computing but will likely be increasingly integrated into hybrid systems to augment performance in specific applications.
For example, optical components can improve communication speed between chips, while neuromorphic chips can enable efficient processing of analogue signals.
Carbon management
Many different approaches are in development. They range from capturing carbon from industrial point sources, directly from the atmosphere or the sea, through to nature-based systems where features and management of the environment are used to capture and store CO2.
Research and Development (R&D) efforts are concentrated on enhancing the efficiency of these emerging technologies and demonstrating their effectiveness on a large scale.
This involves optimising the processes to capture more carbon dioxide with less energy and cost, as well as conducting extensive trials and pilot projects to validate the technology’s performance in real-world industrial settings.
Fusion energy
Fusion uses very high temperatures and densities to fuse hydrogen atoms together in a reaction that releases energy. This is captured as heat and used to create electricity.
There are multiple approaches that use strong magnetic fields, compression, or a combination to create the extreme conditions required.
Several private companies have set the 2030s for the delivery of pilot power plants, but there’s still a lot to explore. Some experts consider the 2040s a more likely timeline to reach national electricity grids, with the 2050s and beyond where fusion could contribute significantly to the energy mix.
Fusion research is tackling extreme challenges of physics and engineering and creating emerging technologies that can be used in other sectors.
Robotics
Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, sensors, materials, batteries and electronics have led to increasingly capable and versatile robotic designs being possible, supporting their use in a wider range of applications.
Advanced robots are increasingly able to function autonomously with precision, work together, and adapt quickly to new tasks or situations.
For the remainder of this decade, it is highly likely that robotics technologies will continue to expand into new sectors and applications, particularly if costs fall and advances continue in areas like dexterity and autonomy.
Artificial intelligence is highly likely to be key to unlocking new and improved robotics capabilities, such as autonomy in difficult environments.
Humanoids
Humanoid robots require an incredibly complex combination of technologies including high precision and resilient hardware, sensors, and software.
Since the 1980s, humanoid robots have developed substantially, becoming more mobile, dexterous, and better able to perceive and respond to their environment.
However, significant technical challenges remain in implementing a general-purpose humanoid robot for commercial use.
The most advanced humanoid robots are being trialled in highly structured environments such as factories or warehouses. In the future, highly capable, mobile, dexterous and autonomous humanoid robots have potential applications across most areas of the economy and society.
Rapid assessments for a technological future
The bite-sized guides on emerging technologies are part of a series of Rapid Technology Assessments (RTAs). They are an addition to the RTAs covering artificial intelligence, novel batteries, digital twins, 4D printing, nucleic acid technologies, and synthetic genomics.
Government Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Dame Angela McLean explained: “These bite-sized introductions can help get you up to speed with some of the most exciting emerging technologies of our time.”
She concluded: “We hope they will also spark a conversation about what we will need to do for the UK to get the most out of these technologies.”
