1. Give consideration to saving the climate and maintaining prosperity.
Coping with climate change is a century project, which will fundamentally change our lives and promote innovation. In particular, green electricity will have a far-reaching impact on the next decade. Electric energy will replace gasoline, and electric vehicles will become the norm. Green electric energy can also create green hydrogen energy, so that steel or cement can be produced in a way that does not affect the climate.
What will be the biggest change brought about by clean energy supply? With green energy, plastics can even become a carbon sink-that is, absorb and store carbon dioxide, because carbon is needed to produce plastics.
Some start-ups want to collect carbon dioxide directly during power generation or cement production, while others intend to collect carbon dioxide from the air. Companies such as Siemens Energy are studying various processes and using carbon dioxide to make all possible products from insoles to mattresses.
2. Synthetic biology brings medical revolution.
For many years, doctors have dreamed of correctly predicting the structure of protein, because they are our life. For half a century, researchers have been trying to decipher this medical "holy grail", but without success.
But last year, the artificial intelligence program "Alpha Folding" developed by Alphabet made a breakthrough. At a professional meeting, its accuracy in predicting the structure of protein is obviously higher than that of other teams, about 100. This little revolution has opened up a new road for medicine.
The combination of informatics with biology and medicine makes it possible to create new methods and values. An expert said: "Just as mathematics is found to be the correct language of physics, biology may be the perfect field for applying artificial intelligence."
This is the era of the integration of biology, informatics and engineering. Controllable modification of biological source code is opening up a new way.
The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology is a good latest example. Baintec, Moderna and Healing Vaccine Company have developed other mRNA-based vaccines, such as vaccines against influenza or rabies. In addition, some companies are also testing a series of drugs for other diseases, especially cancer drugs.
The combination of biology and digital tools opens the way for new applications of drugs, foods or materials.
3. The arrival of the meta-universe
If you look for the metauniverse, you will find that it rarely appears in Facebook or video games of rock stars and fashion shows, but more in the economic field.
The measurement of the world is in full swing. Companies, research institutions or governments are building digital twins of factories, roads and traffic or the whole city. The European Space Agency is even studying the construction of a "digital twin earth" through satellite data to better predict climate change and weather.
The next revolutionary step is to connect these newly created digital "incarnations" to form an ecosystem, namely Universal Library.
In the future, people can simulate and test new drugs or interventions through digital twins of organs and human bodies, and make assessments more quickly. British startup CN Biotechnology Company recently launched an "organ chip". Because it can well reflect the biological response of human body, doctors at Johns Hopkins University are using it to study autoimmune diseases.