From MIT’s Technology Review, this is a list of the “10 Emerging Technologies of 2008”:

  • Modeling Surprise Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help manage surprising events, says Eric Horvitz.
  • Probabilistic Chips Krishna Palem thinks a little uncertainty in chips could extend battery life in mobile devices–and maybe the duration of Moore’s Law, too.
  • NanoRadio Alex Zettl’s tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.
  • Wireless Power Physicist Marin Soljacic is working toward a world of wireless electricity.
  • Atomic Magnetometers John Kitching’s tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it’s never gone before.
  • Offline Web Applications Adobe’s Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.
  • Graphene Transistors A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.
  • Connectomics Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the web of neural circuits.
  • Reality Mining Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn about human behavior.
  • Cellulolytic Enzymes Frances Arnold is designing better enzymes for making biofuels from cellulose.
Tim BerryTim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com.