The phrase “world changing” is overused. Yet how else do you capture the full world-historical influence of an invention like the transistor, or the World Wide Web, or the cellular phone? Some ideas really do bend history. It’s too early to know whether carbon-breathing batteries, ingestible robots, quantum satellites, and the seven other ideas described in these pages will have a similar effect. Most plans fail, and the biggest ideas tend to carry the greatest risk. But it doesn’t take long for an idea to go from laughable to inevitable. And a few of those, of course, go on to become transformative. 1 Batteries Could Pull Carbon from the Atmosphere 2 How to Make Novel Antibiotics from Scratch 3 Quantum Satellites Are a Big Step toward the Unhackable Internet 4 Ingestible Robots Perform Surgery from Inside the Body 5 Machine-Learning Software Scans Satellite Images to Find Hidden Poverty 6 Fabric Made from Battery Material Cools Its Wearers 7 A Rare Genetic Mutation Might Inspire the First Drug That Fights All Viruses 8 Computers Now Recognize Patterns Better Than Humans 9 Cheap Paper Diagnostics Would Save Lives in Remote, Impoverished Places 10 “Supermolecules” Could Yield Materials the Periodic Table Won’t Allow
1
Batteries Could Pull Carbon from the Atmosphere
2
How to Make Novel Antibiotics from Scratch
3
Quantum Satellites Are a Big Step toward the Unhackable Internet
4
Ingestible Robots Perform Surgery from Inside the Body
5
Machine-Learning Software Scans Satellite Images to Find Hidden Poverty
6
Fabric Made from Battery Material Cools Its Wearers
7
A Rare Genetic Mutation Might Inspire the First Drug That Fights All Viruses
8
Computers Now Recognize Patterns Better Than Humans
9
Cheap Paper Diagnostics Would Save Lives in Remote, Impoverished Places
10
“Supermolecules” Could Yield Materials the Periodic Table Won’t Allow
