Ten global challenges that technology could solve

Earlier this year, the MIT Technology Review website published an interesting list that may have slipped past your feed. “Ten big global challenges technology could solve” brings together ten potential technological solutions for the main problems we face in the world today, including ecological issues (and, in reality, primarily those). These are:

1. Carbon sequestration
Reducing gas emissions is not really a sufficient solution to the problem of pollution and global warming. In reality, it is necessary to remove the large amount of carbon dioxide already present in the atmosphere, which is a process that is not only expensive but also complicated in terms of what to do with that carbon dioxide afterward. However, several startups are working on converting or recycling the gas into products such as synthetic fuels, polymers, carbon fiber, and concrete. In China, in fact, they have even managed to turn pollution into diamonds.

2. Grid-scale energy storage
Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are becoming increasingly cheaper, but the problem is that there is no power generation when it is cloudy or when the wind isn't blowing. This makes it a bit harder to rely on these types of energy sources compared to coal and natural gas. On the other hand, building batteries that support entire grids is too expensive, but some scientists and startups are already working on developing other, cheaper, and more sustainable forms of grid-scale energy storage, including flow batteries or molten salt tanks. Furthermore, it has also been proven that the solar-generating roof tiles developed by Elon Musk are cheaper than conventional roofs, and more and more energy companies are thinking about how to work together with citizens who produce a surplus of energy in their homes to be distributed to others.

3. Universal flu vaccine
Pandemic flu outbreaks are rare, but they are also deadly. About 50 million people died in 1918 due to an H1N1 epidemic. More recently, between 1957 and 1958, about a million people died from the resurgence of the virus, while in 2009, that statistic reached half a million. One of the reasons for the decrease in these numbers is that the viruses were weaker, but if they return with more strength, it is necessary to create more efficient and universal vaccines to avoid another epidemic and a possible general public health crisis.

4. Dementia treatment
More than 1 in 10 Americans aged 65 and older have Alzheimer's, a statistic that rises to one-third for those over 85. As life expectancy increases, it is also possible that the number of people with this type of condition will increase as well. Alzheimer's remains a mystery to the scientific community: conclusive diagnoses are possibly only made after the individual's death, and even then, doctors debate the distinction between Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. Advances in neuroscience and gene therapy, however, are opening new paths to understand or even slow down and end the effects of these diseases.

5. Ocean cleanup
Billions of microplastics are floating through the oceans, and many of them come from bags or straws that have broken down over time. This waste is poisoning and killing birds, fish, and even humans. Researchers fear that the effects on both human health and the environment will be profound, and it may take centuries before we can clean up all this mess caused in recent years. And since the pollution is so diffuse, it is even harder to take action against it, but new technological methods are looking at tackling the open oceans, while coasts, seas, and streams still remain somewhat neglected.

6. Energy-efficient desalination
There is almost 50 times more saltwater on the planet than freshwater. As the world population grows and climate change intensifies droughts, we need accessible, potable water even more. Israel is home to one of the world's largest centers specializing in reverse osmosis desalination, but the method requires too much energy to be practiced globally. New types of membranes, however, could help solve this problem, while other electrochemical techniques could also be used to generate irrigation water.

7. Safe autonomous vehicles
More and more autonomous cars are being tested, even on public roads. In the suburbs of Phoenix, in the United States, there are already tests of autonomous cars being used for taxi and delivery services, but these vehicles are not yet safe enough to become a consumer product. After all, they still struggle to handle heavy traffic and weather conditions like snow and fog, but all of this could become a distant memory if we can truly overcome the safety barrier and plan cities that are adaptable to these new vehicles, so that problems like traffic or even parking space are eliminated from the equation. In fact, the site even considers the extinction of commercial parking lots and the use of that land for other purposes.

8. Embodied artificial intelligence
Boston Dynamics' videos always surprise with their hardware feats, but their robots cannot play Go or even beat the world's greatest champion, as was the case with AlphaGo. Now, imagine if the power of Boston Dynamics were combined with the AI of AlphaGo? Researchers believe that the emergence of true general artificial intelligence may depend on the ability to relate internal computational processes to real things in the physical world. This requires AI to have the ability to learn to interact with our world in the same way that people and animals do, which means the math is not just addition.

9. Earthquake prediction
Nearly 100,000 people died in the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. Six years earlier, a tsunami originating in the Indian Ocean caused one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, killing 140,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries in the region. While hurricanes can be predicted days or weeks in advance, earthquakes still come as something of a surprise. Predicting them would be a way to manage the consequences in the medium term and, in doing so, be able to plan lasting solutions. Even a few hours of warning could make a difference in helping people evacuate affected regions.

10. Brain decoding
Our brain is perhaps the ultimate mystery for scientists. Everything we think, remember, feel, and do passes through a coding of billions of neurons in our heads and bodies. But what is the source code for this? Solving this puzzle could help people with conditions like schizophrenia and autism, as well as create more precise brain-machine interfaces that could even help restore movement in people suffering from paralysis or degenerative diseases. This is work that has been carried out by Miguel Nicolelis in Rio Grande do Norte for at least ten years.