About two years ago, I was speculating about the never ending but rapidly progressing process of humanity gaining control (mastery) of information, light, energy, magnetism, and matter. (ILEMM control) I would also add another L for life referring to synthetic life, genomic, protenomics, epigenomics and control of stem cells and other cells. So ILLEMM control. Although life could be considered a mix of information, matter and energy. I believe that the advance in knowledge and the way that these gains are interacting is profound. It is the accelerating technology discussed by Kurzweil. However, I think it is possible to make projections as to where this progress will lead in a more detailed way.
I believe that superconductors and progress to room temperature superconductors is moving faster than I had believed. Having whole new families of superconducting material edges and having the tools to analyze effects at the nanoscale in size and at smaller slices of time [more powerful femtosecond lasers and optical clocks with accuracy to 10**-16 and 10*-17 seconds.. More on the improving accuracy of clocks.]
The improving tools for analysis and the increasing number of examples to be studied appears to be leading to an actual understanding of the true nature of the superconducting effect. There has also been the uncovering of an entirely new effect “superinsulation” which is the opposite of superconductance
There has been the resist confirmation and physical realization of a new basic circuit element, the memristor. This new element is added to the other three the resistor, capacitor and inductor as the fourth fundamental circuit element.
Radically new things are being done with sound to create hypersound and acoustic lasers.
I will be adding other highlights major highlights to this article.
FURTHER READING
Peizoresistance effect that is ten times larger than in the past at room temperature for better motion detectors.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.