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Spending 2020 under the shadow of a pandemic has affected what we need and expect from technology. For many, COVID-19 accelerated the rate of digital transformation: as employees worked from home, companies needed AI systems that facilitated remote work and the computing power to support them.

The question is, how should companies focus their resources in 2021 to prepare for this changed reality and the new technologies on the horizon? Here are three trends that I predict will see massive attention in 2021 and beyond.

Progress in AI has already reached a point where it can add significant value to practically any business. COVID-19 triggered a massive sense of urgency around digital transformations with the need for remote solutions. According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, more than 80% of companies plan to accelerate their digital transformation, but only 30% of digital transformations have met or exceeded their target value.

Many AI projects are small scale less than a quarter of companies in McKinseys 2020 State of AI reported significant bottom-line impact. This is especially true in industries that have a physical-digital element. For example: There is a great need for remotely operated, autonomous manufacturing facilities, refineries, or even, in the days of COVID-19, office buildings. While the underlying technology is there, achieving scalability remains a concern and digital leaders will have to overcome that barrier in 2021. Scalability barriers include a lack of disciplined approach, enterprise-wide mindset, credible partners, data liquidity, and change management.

Part of the solution here is to create solutions that will be operated by someone who is not necessarily a data scientist, so more people who are domain experts can manage the programs they need. If Tesla invented an autonomous car that only data scientists can drive, whats the point?

Technology needs to empower the end user so they can interact with and manipulate models without having to trudge through the finer points of datasets or code in other words, the AI will do the heavy lifting on the back end, but a user-friendly explanation and UI empowers the end user. For instance, a facilities management executive can manage their global portfolio of buildings from a tablet sitting at a Starbucks. They can have full visibility into operations, occupant experience, and spend, with the ability to intervene in what otherwise would be an autonomous operation.

Deep learning pioneer Dr. Geoffrey Hinton recently told MIT Technology Review that deep learning will be able to do everything i.e. replicate all human intelligence. Deep neural networks have demonstrated extraordinary capabilities to approximate the most relevant subset of mathematical functions and promise to overcome reasoning challenges.

However, I believe there is a step to full autonomy that we must first conquer: what Dr. Manuela Veloso at Carnegie Mellon calls symbiotic autonomy. With symbiotic autonomy, feedback and correction mechanisms are incorporated into the AI such that humans and machines pass information to each other fluidly.

For example, instead of hard feedback (like thumbs up and thumbs down powering your Netflix queue), symbiotic autonomy could look like a discussion with your phones virtual assistant to determine the best route to a destination. Interactions with these forms of AI would be more natural and conversational, with the program able to explain why it recommended or performed certain actions.

With deep learning, neural networks approximate complex mathematical functions with simpler ones, and the ability to consider a growing number of factors and make smarter decisions with fewer computing resources gives them the ability to become autonomous. I anticipate heavy investment in research of these abilities of deep neural networks across the board, from startups to top tech companies to universities.

This step toward fully autonomous solutions will be a critical step towards implementing AI at scale. Imagine an enterprise performance management system that can give you a single pane of visibility and control across a global enterprise that is operating multiple facilities, workers, and supply chains autonomously. It runs and learns on its own but you can intervene and teach when it makes a mistake.

(The question of ethics in autonomous systems will come into play here, but that is a subject for another article.)

Quantum computers have the computational power to handle complex algorithms due to their abilities to process solutions in parallel, rather than sequentially. Lets think of how this could affect development and delivery of vaccines.

First, during drug discovery, researchers must simulate a new molecule. This is tremendously challenging to do with todays high-performance computers, but is a problem that lends itself to something at which quantum computers will eventually excel. The quantum computer could eventually be mapped to the quantum system that is the molecule, and simulate binding energies and chemical transition strengths before anyone ever even had to make a drug.

However, AI and quantum computing have even more to offer beyond creating the vaccine. The logistics of manufacturing and delivering the vaccine are massive computational challenges which of course makes them ripe for a solution that combines quantum computing and AI.

Quantum machine learning is an extremely new field with so much promise, but breakthroughs are needed to make it catch investors attention. Tech visionaries can already start to see how its going to impact our future, especially with respect to understanding nanoparticles, creating new materials through molecular and atomic maps, and glimpsing the deeper makeup of the human body.

The area of growth I am most excited about is the intersection of research in these systems, which I believe will start to combine and produce results more than the sum of their parts. While there have been some connections of AI and quantum computing, or 5G and AI, all of these technologies working together can produce exponential results.

Im particularly excited to see how AI, quantum, and other tech will influence biotechnology as that might be the secret to superhuman capabilities and what could be more exciting than that?

Usman Shuja is General Manager at Honeywell.

Link:
3 tech trends that COVID-19 will accelerate in 2021 - VentureBeat

This is the fifth in a multi-part series on cryptography and the Domain Name System (DNS).

In my last article, I described efforts underway to standardize new cryptographic algorithms that are designed to be less vulnerable to potential future advances in quantum computing. I also reviewed operational challenges to be considered when adding new algorithms to the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

In this post, I'll look at hash-based signatures, a family of post-quantum algorithms that could be a good match for DNSSEC from the perspective of infrastructure stability.

I'll also describe Verisign Labs research into a new concept called synthesized zone signing keys that could mitigate the impact of the large signature size for hash-based signatures, while still maintaining this family's protections against quantum computing.

(Caveat: The concepts reviewed in this post are part of Verisign's long-term research program and do not necessarily represent Verisign's plans or positions on new products or services. Concepts developed in our research program may be subject to U.S. and/or international patents and/or patent applications.)

The DNS community's root key signing key (KSK) rollover illustrates how complicated a change to DNSSEC infrastructure can be. Although successfully accomplished, this change was delayed by ICANN to ensure that enough resolvers had the public key required to validate signatures generated with the new root KSK private key.

Now imagine the complications if the DNS community also had to ensure that enough resolvers not only had a new key but also had a brand-new algorithm.

Imagine further what might happen if a weakness in this new algorithm were to be found after it was deployed. While there are procedures for emergency key rollovers, emergency algorithm rollovers would be more complicated, and perhaps controversial as well if a clear successor algorithm were not available.

I'm not suggesting that any of the post-quantum algorithms that might be standardized by NIST will be found to have a weakness. But confidence in cryptographic algorithms can be gained and lost over many years, sometimes decades.

From the perspective of infrastructure stability, therefore, it may make sense for DNSSEC to have a backup post-quantum algorithm built in from the start one for which cryptographers already have significant confidence and experience. This algorithm might not be as efficient as other candidates, but there is less of a chance that it would ever need to be changed. This means that the more efficient candidates could be deployed in DNSSEC with the confidence that they have a stable fallback. It's also important to keep in mind that the prospect of quantum computing is not the only reason system developers need to be considering new algorithms from time to time. As public-key cryptography pioneer Martin Hellman wisely cautioned, new classical (non-quantum) attacks could also emerge, whether or not a quantum computer is realized.

The 1970s were a foundational time for public-key cryptography, producing not only the RSA algorithm and the Diffie-Hellman algorithm (which also provided the basic model for elliptic curve cryptography), but also hash-based signatures, invented in 1979 by another public-key cryptography founder, Ralph Merkle.

Hash-based signatures are interesting because their security depends only on the security of an underlying hash function.

It turns out that hash functions, as a concept, hold up very well against quantum computing advances much better than currently established public-key algorithms do.

This means that Merkle's hash-based signatures, now more than 40 years old, can rightly be considered the oldest post-quantum digital signature algorithm.

If it turns out that an individual hash function doesn't hold up whether against a quantum computer or a classical computer then the hash function itself can be replaced, as cryptographers have been doing for years. That will likely be easier than changing to an entirely different post-quantum algorithm, especially one that involves very different concepts.

The conceptual stability of hash-based signatures is a reason that interoperable specifications are already being developed for variants of Merkle's original algorithm. Two approaches are described in RFC 8391, "XMSS: eXtended Merkle Signature Scheme" and RFC 8554, "Leighton-Micali Hash-Based Signatures." Another approach, SPHINCS+, is an alternate in NIST's post-quantum project.

Figure 1. Conventional DNSSEC signatures. DNS records are signed with the ZSK private key, and are thereby "chained" to the ZSK public key. The digital signatures may be hash-based signatures.

Hash-based signatures can potentially be applied to any part of the DNSSEC trust chain. For example, in Figure 1, the DNS record sets can be signed with a zone signing key (ZSK) that employs a hash-based signature algorithm.

The main challenge with hash-based signatures is that the signature size is large, on the order of tens or even hundreds of thousands of bits. This is perhaps why they haven't seen significant adoption in security protocols over the past four decades.

Verisign Labs has been exploring how to mitigate the size impact of hash-based signatures on DNSSEC, while still basing security on hash functions only in the interest of stable post-quantum protections.

One of the ideas we've come up with uses another of Merkle's foundational contributions: Merkle trees.

Merkle trees authenticate multiple records by hashing them together in a tree structure. The records are the "leaves" of the tree. Pairs of leaves are hashed together to form a branch, then pairs of branches are hashed together to form a larger branch, and so on. The hash of the largest branches is the tree's "root." (This is a data-structure root, unrelated to the DNS root.)

Each individual leaf of a Merkle tree can be authenticated by retracing the "path" from the leaf to the root. The path consists of the hashes of each of the adjacent branches encountered along the way.

Authentication paths can be much shorter than typical hash-based signatures. For instance, with a tree depth of 20 and a 256-bit hash value, the authentication path for a leaf would only be 5,120 bits long, yet a single tree could authenticate more than a million leaves.

Figure 2. DNSSEC signatures following the synthesized ZSK approach proposed here. DNS records are hashed together into a Merkle tree. The root of the Merkle tree is published as the ZSK, and the authentication path through the Merkle tree is the record's signature.

Returning to the example above, suppose that instead of signing each DNS record set with a hash-based signature, each record set were considered a leaf of a Merkle tree. Suppose further that the root of this tree were to be published as the ZSK public key (see Figure 2). The authentication path to the leaf could then serve as the record set's signature.

The validation logic at a resolver would be the same as in ordinary DNSSEC:

The only difference on the resolver's side would be that signature validation would involve retracing the authentication path to the ZSK public key, rather than a conventional signature validation operation.

The ZSK public key produced by the Merkle tree approach would be a "synthesized" public key, in that it is obtained from the records being signed. This is noteworthy from a cryptographer's perspective, because the public key wouldn't have a corresponding private key, yet the DNS records would still, in effect, be "signed by the ZSK!"

In this type of DNSSEC implementation, the Merkle tree approach only applies to the ZSK level. Hash-based signatures would still be applied at the KSK level, although their overhead would now be "amortized" across all records in the zone.

In addition, each new ZSK would need to be signed "on demand," rather than in advance, as in current operational practice.

This leads to tradeoffs, such as how many changes to accumulate before constructing and publishing a new tree. Fewer changes and the tree will be available sooner. More changes and the tree will be larger, so the per-record overhead of the signatures at the KSK level will be lower.

My last few posts have discussed cryptographic techniques that could potentially be applied to the DNS in the long term or that might not even be applied at all. In my next post, I'll return to more conventional subjects, and explain how Verisign sees cryptography fitting into the DNS today, as well as some important non-cryptographic techniques that are part of our vision for a secure, stable and resilient DNS.

Read the previous posts in this six-part blog series:

See the original post here:
Securing the DNS in a Post-Quantum World: Hash-Based Signatures and Synthesized Zone Signing Keys - CircleID

Dublin, Jan. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "High Performance Computing Market by Component, Infrastructure, Services, Price Band, HPC Applications, Deployment Types, Industry Verticals, and Regions 2021 - 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The High Performance Computing market includes computation solutions provided either by supercomputers or via parallel processing techniques such as leveraging clusters of computers to aggregate computing power. HPC is well-suited for applications that require high performance data computation and analysis such as high frequency trading, autonomous vehicles, genomics-based personalized medicine, computer-aided design, deep learning, and more. Specific examples include computational fluid dynamics, simulation, modeling, and seismic tomography.

This report evaluates the HPC market including companies, solutions, use cases, and applications. Analysis includes HPC by organizational size, software and system type, server type, and price band, and industry verticals. The report also assesses the market for integration of various artificial intelligence technologies in HPC. It also evaluates the exascale-level HPC market including analysis by component, hardware type, service type, and industry vertical.

Select Report Findings:

The market is currently dominated on the demand side by large corporations, universities, and government institutions by way of capabilities that are often used to solve very specific problems for large institutions. Examples include financial services organizations, government R&D facilities, universities research, etc.

However, the cloud-computing based "as a Service" model allows HPC market offerings to be extended via HPC-as-a-Service (HPCaaS) to a much wider range of industry verticals and companies, thereby providing computational services to solve a much broader array of problems. Industry use cases are increasingly emerging that benefit from HPC-level computing, many of which benefit from split processing between localized devices/platforms and HPCaaS.

In fact, HPCaaS is poised to become much more commonly available, partially due to new on-demand supercomputer service offerings, and in part as a result of emerging AI-based tools for engineers. Accordingly, up to 52% of revenue will be directly attributable to the cloud-based business model via HPCaaS, which makes High-Performance Computing solutions available to a much wider range of industry verticals and companies, thereby providing computational services to solve a much broader array of problems.

In a 2020 study, we conducted interviews with major players in the market as well as smaller, lesser known companies that are believed to be influential in terms of innovative solutions that are likely to drive adoption and usage of both cluster-based HPC and supercomputing. In an effort to identify growth opportunities for the HPC market, we investigated market gaps including unserved and underserved markets and submarkets. The research and advisory firm uncovered a market situation in which HPC currently suffers from an accessibility problem as well as inefficiencies and supercomputer skill gaps.

Stated differently, the market for HPC as a Service (e.g. access to high-performance computing services) currently suffers from problems related to the utilization, scheduling, and set-up time to run jobs on a supercomputer. We identified start-ups and small companies working to solve these problems.

One of the challenge areas identified is low utilization but (ironically) also high wait times for most supercomputers. Scheduling can be a challenge in terms of workload time estimation. About 23% of jobs are computationally heavy and 37% of jobs cannot be defined very well in terms of how long jobs will take (within a 3-minute window at best). In many instances, users request substantive resources and don't actually use computing time.

In addition to the scheduling challenge, we also identified a company focused on solving additional problems such as computational planning and engineering. We spoke with the principal of a little-known company called Microsurgeonbot, Inc. (doing business as MSB.ai), which is developing a tool for setting up computing jobs for supercomputers.

The company is working to solve major obstacles in accessibility and usability for HPC resources. The company focuses on solving a very important problem in HPC: Supercomputer job set-up and skills gap. Their solution known as "Guru" is poised to make supercomputing much more accessible, especially to engineers in small to medium-sized businesses that do not have the same resources or expertise as large corporate entities.

Target Audience:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Executive Summary

2 Introduction2.1 Next Generation Computing2.2 High Performance Computing2.2.1 HPC Technology2.2.2 Exascale Computation2.2.3 High Performance Technical Computing2.2.4 Market Segmentation Considerations2.2.5 Regulatory Framework2.2.6 Value Chain Analysis2.2.7 AI to Drive HPC Performance and Adoption

3 High Performance Computing Market Dynamics3.1 HPC Market Drivers3.2 HPC Market Challenges

4 High Performance Computing Market Analysis and Forecasts4.1 Global High Performance Computing Market 2021 - 20264.1.1 Total High Performance Computing Market4.1.2 High Performance Computing Market by Component4.1.3 High Performance Computing Market by Deployment Type4.1.4 High Performance Computing Market by Organization Size4.1.5 High Performance Computing Market by Server Price Band4.1.6 High Performance Computing Market by Application Type4.1.7 High Performance Computing Deployment Options: Supercomputer vs. Clustering4.1.8 High Performance Computing as a Service (HPCaaS)4.1.9 AI Powered High Performance Computing Market4.2 Regional High Performance Computing Market 2021 - 20264.2.1 High Performance Computing Market by Region4.2.2 North America High Performance Computing Market by Component, Deployment, Organization, Server Price Band, Application, Industry Vertical, and Country4.2.3 Europe High Performance Computing Market by Component, Deployment, Organization, Server Price Band, Application, Industry Vertical, and Country4.2.4 APAC High Performance Computing Market by Component, Deployment, Organization, Server Price Band, Application, Industry Vertical, and Country4.2.5 MEA High Performance Computing Market by Component, Deployment, Organization, Server Price Band, Application, Industry Vertical, and Country4.2.6 Latin America High Performance Computing Market by Component, Deployment, Organization, Server Price Band, Application, Industry Vertical, and Country4.2.7 High Performance Computing Market by Top Ten Country4.3 Exascale Computing Market 2021 - 20264.3.1 Exascale Computing Driven HPC Market by Component4.3.2 Exascale Computing Driven HPC Market by Hardware Type4.3.3 Exascale Computing Driven HPC Market by Service Type4.3.4 Exascale Computing Driven HPC Market by Industry Vertical4.3.1 Exascale Computing as a Service

5 High Performance Computing Company Analysis5.1 HPC Vendor Ecosystem5.2 Leading HPC Companies5.2.1 Amazon Web Services Inc.5.2.2 Atos SE5.2.3 Advanced Micro Devices Inc.5.2.4 Cisco Systems5.2.5 DELL Technologies Inc.5.2.6 Fujitsu Ltd5.2.7 Hewlett Packard Enterprise5.2.8 IBM Corporation5.2.9 Intel Corporation5.2.10 Microsoft Corporation5.2.11 NEC Corporation5.2.12 Nvidia5.2.13 Rackspace Inc.

6 High Performance Computing Market Use Cases6.1 Fraud Detection in the Financial Industry6.2 Healthcare and Clinical Research6.3 Manufacturing6.4 Energy Exploration and Extraction6.5 Scientific Research6.6 Electronic Design Automation6.7 Government6.8 Computer Aided Engineering6.9 Education and Research6.10 Earth Science

7 Conclusions and Recommendations

8 Appendix: Future of Computing8.1 Quantum Computing8.1.1 Quantum Computing Technology8.1.2 Quantum Computing Considerations8.1.3 Market Challenges and Opportunities8.1.4 Recent Developments8.1.5 Quantum Computing Value Chain8.1.6 Quantum Computing Applications8.1.7 Competitive Landscape8.1.8 Government Investment in Quantum Computing8.1.9 Quantum Computing Stakeholders by Country8.1.10 Other Future Computing Technologies8.1.11 Market Drivers for Future Computing Technologies8.2 Future Computing Market Challenges8.2.1 Data Security Concerns in Virtualized and Distributed Cloud8.2.2 Funding Constrains R&D Activities8.2.3 Lack of Skilled Professionals across the Sector8.2.4 Absence of Uniformity among NGC Branches including Data Format

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1frr52

Original post:
Insights on the High Performance Computing Global Market to 2026 - Featuring Amazon Web Services, Atos and Advanced Micro Devices Among Others -...

Express News Service

Back in the 1960s, the US Defence Department needed a technology to monitor seismic activities resulting from earthquake and nuclear activities. Researchers at California University developed ARPANET on a third-generation computer to help augment defence capabilities. Little did they know that they were changing history in their labs to transform the future forever. ARPANET were the building blocks of the internet of today. But it crashed at LO when researchers tried writing LOGIN.

Cut to 2021. Indias high-speed internet is probably the cheapest in the world. This year will be remarkable in terms of telecom companies finally introducing us to 5G network. There will be super-thin LED TVs, and wearables and personal assistants taking away monopoly of smartphones for every activity gradually. No, that wont deter the smartphone-makers who would keep bringing us newer products every month. But the fact is, technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) with predictive analysis have already begun to initiate a newer ecosystem, which will have all-new plug-and-play devices to take us away from the smartphone overdependence.

The year 2021 in tech will see wearables and Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA)-enabled speakers with enhanced analytics taking the centrestage along with smartphones, which would keep winning bigger wars and paving way for other technologies and gadgets. New improved technologies this year seem to be aimed at benefiting companies over customers on a macro scale. Many businesses have shut down or downsized during the pandemic. Massive job losses have bred economic crisis. AI is both upping its IQ and EQ. Artificial Intelligence: AI is moving up to the next level with edge AI or AI on the edge. Data needs to be no longer sent for cloud processing.

Bandwidth will be preserved while cloud services will be cheaper. In a country like India where communication disruption is the normal in rural areas, industries can make real-time decisions. A vital AI leap is in sidestepping expertise so that employees with no tech expertise can identify threats using pre-programed software. AI apps and ML have taken healthcare by storm enabling commonplace diagnosis to complicated surgeries. Conversely, AI is a threat to privacy by moulding better with the Internet of Things (IoT) that collects and transfers data wirelessly through interrelated, internet devices without human control.

Mystery Devices: Data is king. Telematics is the use of wireless devices and black boxes to view inputs and outputs but without transparencyto transmit real-time data to a business.Talent Identification: We live in the digital age where there is premium on talent. Companies are adopting a Darwinian solution in hiring. AI-based applications are already helping companies identify the right hires. The parameters are experience, technical expertise, intellectual skills, soft skills and cultural consonance.

Sustainable Conscience: With sustainability entering business in a big way, renting over selling will be the new standardrecycle, share and warehousing. Quantum Leap: Quantum Computing to make high-speed intervention in healthcare, banking and finance by assessing credit risk and fraud detection.Robot Invasion: There is a darker side to the future. Robots will play a larger role in industry, threatening jobs. McKinsey estimates that less than 5 percent of jobs can be totally automated, and about 60 percent partially.

Reality Bytes: Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Extended Reality (ER), which are hitherto popular in gaming, will be used more for military training exercises. It will soon interface with AI in areas of entertainment, education, marketing and health; 14 million AR and VR devices were sold in 2019. Third Party Out: Blockchain makes data secure because it can only add data and not remove it, obviating fraud in third-party transactions. Ringing In: Smartphones evolved as ultimate learning tools during the lockdown, and later when schools shutand teachers met students virtually.

Ithas entered the world of finance and healthcare. Doing Homework: Technology has enabled us to work remotely with high-level efficiency. Organisations such as Microsoft, Tata Steel, Google, CISCO, Siemens among the big league, and plenty of others from the mid and small ones have joined the work-from-home bandwagon indefinitely. This will reshape commercial and retail real estate, transportation, and economies of Indian cities. This comes with privacy compromise: employee-monitoring and mobile-tethering are used to monitor work efficiency qualitatively and quantitatively.

But there are fun things too like hydrogen planes, Cadillac air taxis and driverless cars to make life easier. WIRED predicts LG will launch a rollable phone. So could TCL. Coronavirus-killing ultraviolet gizmos for cars. Water-powered Bluetooth speakers in the shower for bathroom singers. Headphones and ear pods are getting unimaginable upgrades in design and clarity. Exercise watches are in constant feature competition mode. GG has gone gaga over workouts: a digital post-exercise muscle soother, a smart skipping rope, a Peloton bike for home cycling, smart insoles for running shoes and smart dumbbells that can change weight at the press of a button are part of the future.

APPS YOU NEED

Use and ReturnWe have seen fashion influencers renting out their apparels and accessories. Why cant anybody else do it? It takes a simple interface where you can rent out your shoes, books, clothes and even crockeries at a hyper-local level at a very nominal cost. This will help keep the buying habits of millennials in control as well as put your things to use.

Medical Remedy at HomeAt a time when telemedicine is taking shape in India, its time to bring in a medical remedy app. Searching Google or going to WebMD doesnt really help every time. In many cases these are US-based sites, and symptoms do vary along with medicines. An app can be in place where you can tell your symptoms, and it can suggest if OTC can cure, else it can connect to a doctor over chat for better diagnosis.

AR for Virtual LearningLittle kids have been learning online since the lockdown began. We often hear kids dozing off and teachers having a tough time. Someone has to develop an Augmented Reality (AR)-enabled tool where kids can interact with teachers in a way they are at classrooms. Also, they can watch shows, read books wearing AR Glasses for better engagement.

TECHNOLOGIES THAT POWER

Smartphones

Smartphone will get pricier this year because they will become 5G-ready, which requires manufacturers to put in expensive processors. According to an IT Home report, Qualcomms Snapdragon 888 chipset costs more than its predecessor 865 chip. The report shows a Chinese phone maker has paid $250 for the Snapdragon 888 platform almost $100 higher than last year. Qualcomms monopoly in the market will get a worthy rival from Samsung whose mobile application processor (AP) Exynos will be far better equipped than its predecessors.

Developed as Olympus, Samsung Exynos will be priced competitively. While Snapdragon will equip the flagship devices, Exynos might see takers from the budget device-makers. There will be upgradation in Wi-Fi power as well. While Wi-Fi 6 has already been equipped in a few high-end handsets, Wi-Fi 6E will soon enter the fray. However, it wont improve speed but should help in easing congestion and minimising delays between a users action and an apps response. You will see a lot of changes this year at the superficial level.

Wouldnt it be nice to have a phone that changes colours with a pat on the back? An electrochromic technology will enable smartphone rear panels to change the voltage of electrochromic glass (electronically tintable) and switch to the colour of choice. And yes, better cameras and rise in foldable phones will also define tech trends in 2021. A foldable phone from Apple is in the works but its hush-hush. Phone-makers have been experimenting with front cameras. From pop-up cameras, rotating to notch in the screenthey have been there done that. However, 2021 might see under-display selfie camerasthe camera is invisible with the selfie sensor sitting under the display. Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo could take the lead.

The New Menu

SamsungThe South Korean tech giants line-up for the year looks promising with another Galaxy S series entering the fray. And this time its S21. Leaked by tech tipster Evan Blass, it could come in three variationsS21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra. Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus will get versions in Black, Pink, Violet and Phantom White colours. While the ergonomics and design look similar with centred punch hole displays and triple rear cameras, the sizes could differ.

Another distinct difference will be the back panel. While S21 will have a polycarbonate-made back, S21 Plus might get a glass back. The hero is slated to be the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which will come only in Phantom Silver and Phantom Black. A 6.8-inch Infinity-O AMOLED screen, with a camera discreetly positioned to reduce onscreen interruptions, is the buzz. It will be the first Galaxy S series handset to get the signature S Pen for the Galaxy Note series. In the camera department, S21 Ultra will get a 10x super-telephoto zoom lens, a 108MP main sensor, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and a 10MP 3x telephoto camera. Rumoured to be launched towards the last week of January, S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra should be priced around Rs 76,000, Rs 94,500 and Rs 1,26,000 respectively for the 128 GB storage variants.OnePlusOnePlus 8 was a good phone but certainly not a great one with lots of room for improvement. OnePlus Nord did disappoint many with most complaints coming in about performance, battery and camera. This is set to change. Come March, OnePlus 9 may make an entry, going by the online leaks. Like its predecessors, this version has two variants9 and 9 Pro. However, there might be a cheaper 9E variant too. According to rumours, the prices could range between Rs 45,000 and Rs 60,000. OnePlus is known for its camera prowess.

Again, from the leaks, OnePlus 9 will get a 48MP main camera and a 48MP Ultra-Wide camera. There will be a third camera with tele-zoom feature or a macro-depth sensing lens. However, whats exciting is OnePlus may have partnered with Leica to improve photography. Snapdragon 888 5G SoC is expected to power the devices. There will be a punch-hole design and a camera hump to lodge the rear lenses. The screen should measure 6.7-inch with 400x1080 panel with 144Hz refresh rate.

5GNo, 5G wont bump up your mobile data speed. Rather, it will provide an opportunity for telcos to provide seamless connectivity, develop rich solutions and services for individuals and industries alike. In simpler words, build a new infrastructure. With Indias tech-ambition graph increasing by leaps and bounds, it is imperative for both the government and telcos to adopt 5G technology at the earliest. It needs deep densification of network with addition of cell towers, which could only happen with more fibre connectivity.

While most of the country is dependent on the radio network, 5Gs fibre-enabled data transfer would help India leverage the technology to build a better internet infrastructure. While radio-waves arent dependable, fibre bandwidth will aid in seamless connectivity. We have seen how 4G made our lives convenient with ride-sharing, food deliveries and digital payments. 5G might bring in new promises to existing businesses or even pave way for entirely new industries. Right from robotics surgery to driver-less cars, 5G will enable innovations to take a new dimension.

ROBOTS REDEFINED

Covid-19 has redefined the way we work. As more people work remotely and will be doing so probably for the rest of this year, robots will soon be part of everyday life.

The House Help

Home robots have been in the market for decades now, but 2021 promises to be better for our metallic pals. No longer is Roomba just a floor-mopping machine. The newer edition gets Wi-Fi control and is enabled by Alexa. You can simply command the Roomba to begin work. It is AI-enabled to remind it of corners that need extra cleaning. And when low on energy, it can find itself a charging point and to charge itself automatically. When Anker launched Eufy, another Robovac in 2019, there werent many takers. They sold 50-100 units each quarter. Post the pandemic, they are reporting 20 times more sales every quarter. With the shortage of domestic helps due to reverse migration, many people in the cities switched to technologies that help them in their daily chores.

Being Your Proxy

As we keep maintaining social distance and connecting virtually, there is definitely a gap in social intimacy. If you are an exhibitor at an expo, there are chances your customer needs to see you. GoBe Robots are ready to do it for them. This telepresence machine is a remote-controlled mobile robot that allows communication through a 21.5-inch screen that reproduces the users face in natural size. A zoomable 4K camera and a wide-angle front camera give the robot pilot a clear overview of the location. The new generation of GoBe Robots awaiting launch stands out with an open system that creates even more applications and allows users to maximise the potential of the technology. Users get a distinct feeling of being where the robot is as they receive live video streams of the location as the machine moves around it. This enables active collaboration and interaction between people, no matter how far they are from each other.

An Emotional Companion

Many of us have been looking for a companion to bond emotionally. Humans come with problems! Thats why Asus had launched Zenbo a few years ago. But sources report Zenbo might be getting a remake soon. This cute-looking humanoid has learnt to share your emotions. So, imagine yourself looking at firecrackers in the sky, and this robot will follow your eyes and react. When you arent home, its AI-enabled system will keep scanning your rooms and report to you about anything suspicious.

Their Dream Gadgets

I feel like my dream gadget would be something Id point at people and it would help me know whats going on in their mind. Priyanka Chopra Jonas

It has to be my home theatre system. Its the next best thing to watching a movie in an actual movie theatre. Its also the ultimate video-gaming experience. Ranveer Singh

My portable charger is the most essential gadget. Anushka Sharma

Apple

The year gone by has been an exciting one for Apple. From 5G-enabled iPhone 12 to its own chipset-powered MacBook, innovation is the American techs oxygen. What could be changing in 2021? Theres a lot. The iMac to begin with. Apple is planning to launch a 23-inch iMac, which could be similar to its 21.5-inch model but with reduced bezels. The same could happen to the 27.5-inch model being increased to 30-inch screen. In March, Apple might launch AirPods X for sports, AirPods Pro Lite for budget options and third generation AirPods.

A new product from Apple stable is predicted to be AirTag. This has been long overdue. Primarily meant to track important items such as wallets, bags, bicycles and even reading glasses on your iPhone via Find My App, this will be an added offering from Apple. The most exciting product would be the updated iPad mini, which is awaiting a new avatar for the last three years.

A bigger screen, no home button and some more redesigned elements would be the highlights. There is also a chance the company could launch a thinner and lighter iPad. September 2021 will have a new iPhone. It should technically be iPhone 13, but numerologists are predicting Apple will name it 14. As per MacRumours, the next iPhone will get a 120Hz refresh rate (up from 60Hz), a reduced notch, and a 10x optical zoom.

Laptops

Intel has started feeling the heat as the market is witnessing a high demand for ARM processor-powered laptops. Apple has already made the shift from Intel to Arm Processor. Arm is a RISC (reduced instruction set computing) architecture developed by the British tech company Arm Ltd. It is efficient in the power department and generates less heat. The laptop design is sleeker that of its predecessor. However, Windows 10 is still fumbling to fix technical compatibility. Once that gets resolved, Samsung and Lenovo will join the bandwagon.

2021 will see a meteoric rise in the demand for gaming laptops. AMD and Nvidia will bring in GPU variants of the Big Navi and Ampere graphics cards to change gaming forever. This would support 4K and ultra-high frame rates. Another good hand the pandemic has dealt is to force laptop manufacturers to put in better webcams. The importance of Zoom Calls, MS Teams and Google Meet has made this a necessity. Laptop makers like Dell are working to make the bezels disappear. Going by the smartphone design evolution, we might see more laptops without bezel and a notch for webcams.

The New Menu

Intel

Seeing the laptop makers moving to Arm Processors, Intel is planning to launch its own laptop. Yes, no longer they would undermine their game with just a sticker beside the trackpad. Reports by The Verge confirm that Intel laptop might be called NUC M15. Pitted against the premium Dell XPS 13 and ASUS ZenBook 14, this laptop will have a 15.6-inch 1080P IPS, which provides wider viewing angles and higher quality colour reproduction. Powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 quad-core processorbetter than the former for multitasking, media-editing and media-creation tasks, high-end gaming, etcthis will be coupled with an Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM. Intel Iris Xe is a budget graphics that offers richer gaming experiences and greater speed for designers and creators. To add up the spice levels, M15 should come with Windows Hello and respond to presence detection. It is expected to be priced Rs 74,000 onwards.

Microsoft Surface Pro 8

Microsoft Surface range has got quite a few takers, but keeps missing out on oomph. Surface Pro 7 batterys staying power has been a disappointment. In the post-pandemic era, everyone expects Microsoft Surface Pro 8 to be a deal-breaker. To be priced above `1 lakh, it will run the Intel 11th Gen processors and 32 GB RAM with Iris Xe integrated graphics. Renowned influencer WinFutures Roland Quandt claims that the machine will get LTE for its Core i5 variants. LTE lets you connect to a mobile network to use data when you place a SIM card into the laptop.

Gaming in 2021

Global streaming giant Netflix had predicted that the future threat to their business would not be from a rival streaming platform like HBO or Disney but from mobile gaming; something like a Fortnite.People locked down in their homes during the pandemic have definitely boosted the gaming industry for good. While the demand for gaming laptops saw a linear growth graph, mobile gaming is the future. Smartphones are the new consoles. This is proven by the fact that smartphone makers are increasingly making their handsets robust.

On the other hand, game developers are prioritising content that fits smartphones. eSports has now developed into a new sector. No longer do gamers work for free. With huge investments coming in from Amazon, Sequoia and Tencent, performers are getting handsomely paid by the e-sports brands. With the launch of PS 5 by Sony last year, there isnt any new big-ticket launch of consoles happening in 2021 except for Playdate by Panic. However, the line-up for new games looks thrilling.

Launchpad: Top 3 Games

Hitman 3

Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC

Release: January 20

Developed by IO Interactive, this game will be the 8th instalment from Hitman Series and the final of the World of Assassination Trilogy. Played from a third-person perspective, this stealth game will travel to multiple locations, including Dubai. The main agenda is to carry out contracted assassinations of criminal targets across the globe.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Release: March 18

Ubisoft is bringing back its most glorious title with a little twist. While the theme has been kept the same to give the gamers a recap, the makeover lies in modern graphics and gameplay. Drawn to the dark powers of a magic dagger, a young Prince is led to unleash a deadly evil upon a beautiful kingdom. Played from a third-person perspective, this is just another remake of the legendary 2003 game.

The Callisto Protocol

Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Release: 2021 Fall

Again, a third-person perspective game in the horror genre. Developed by the studio Striking Distance, it is set as in the lines of Player Unknowns Battlegrounds (PUBG), an online multiplayer battle royale game. Discarding its ancient-style background, the current one sports a futuristic perspective. The icing on the cake is that the action takes place in the PUBG universe.

The Year of TVs

Some of the most exciting inventions in TV will be in 2021. LG has hinted at ditching the E-Series OLED and bringing in Gallery Series. On the other hand, Samsung might unveil a rotating Sero TV. This year will be bigger and mightier with TV screens measuring above 75-inch becoming mainstream. Not just that. There will be a new 48-inch OLED size and a 32-inch Samsung The Frame as well. The Frame isnt just a TV. With ease of use, it also promises to make your room dcor look unique and appealing with its sleek design.

PREDICTION

EducationSince the pandemic, most schools and colleges are still shut. Thanks to e-learning, students can attend virtual classes. However, the challenge for most educational institutions in India is to expertly shift to Google Meet or other free apps where teachers can conduct classes seamlessly and students can learn. Not just regular classes, 2021 could witness learning going online on a large scale. It would also be a year which will see the gig economy (a labour market with the prevalence of short-term contracts) catch up even further in India.

Acquisition of new and complementary skills via Online Executive Education or Online Degrees will strengthen the gig economy in India where professionals will continue to work on multiple assignments remotely, which has already started to happen, says Aditya Malik, CEO and MD, Talentedge, an e-learning platform. He says with improved data quality and technology, personalised learning will start impacting far more lives than it has done so far and EdTech will begin to drive inclusivity in higher education.

Schools should steadily adopt online learning solutions to supplement the traditional classroom approach. A few more innovations that will reshape the education sector are a Computer Based Test mode for examinations, AI-enabled remote proctoring, ML-powered exams and more, says Beas Dev Ralhan, Co-founder & CEO, Next Education India Pvt Ltd, a technology-driven education company.Finance

Last month, RBI had penalised HDFC Bank for some financial irregularities and mishaps that happened over the past two years. Time and again, banks and NBFCs have been subjected to security scrutiny in India. That might change in 2021 with more technology adoption in this industry. Technology evolution in fintech and payments platforms will provide end-consumers a superior payment experience, improved ease, speed and reliability of transactions, better-personalised product offerings and advanced security measures.

In 2021, AI and ML will continue to play a key role in cybersecurity to identify threats, enable fraud preventive measures, and just in time risk mitigation, says Shantanu Preetam, Chief Technology Officer, PayU India, a payment gateway. In 2021, AI, Blockchain, and Quantum Computing are expected to make changes in the finance sector. After the success with cryptocurrencies, Blockchain is expected to improve the security and reliability of financial transactions, says Neeraj Singh, Co-founder and CTO, Groww, an online investment platform targeted at themillennials.

While security is one way to address the impact of technology in banking and finance, loans get a fresh outlook. With the government planning to launch Account Aggregator in 2021, the lending space in India is up for a massive shift. Account Aggregator will be instrumental in setting up a new benchmark in the Fintech industry by bridging the gap between a loan request and the lenders access to the clients relevant financial information before okaying the loan. This will dramatically reduce the lead times for loan approvals as well as strengthen underwriting processes across India. Everything will be powered by data science, says Sanket Shendure, Co-founder & CEO, MinksPay, an all-inclusive ecosystem of services for retailers.

Remote Working

The pandemic has reshaped the tech needs of businesses globally. There will be more demand for cloud services, workplace automation, collaborative workplace technologies, mobility, and cybersecurity verticals. One of the critical demands of the tech industry was to enable smooth transition to work-from-home (WFH) operations. The biggest challenge for companies is to get the necessary visibility of employee activities in their operations during the day and manage the workforce productivity. Our internal research and analysis of data across various enterprises have indicated significant increase in logged hours being put in by the workforce, says Kishore Reddy, VP Technology, ProHance, an omnichannel operations management platform. During the WFH period there has been an increased demand for better visibility into workforce engagement and tools like ProHance have helped enterprises meet this requirement, he adds.

Healthcare

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in a tremendous surge in adaptation and implementation of telemedicine, which doctors and entrepreneurs couldnt achieve since years. Doctors agree that there has been a sudden increase in consultation due to convenience in certain pockets of diseases, including STDs, contraception, mental health, diabetes and cholesterol.

Security

With everything taking place right in your smartphone, its scary to even think what happens if your phone or system gets compromised. While communicating via the internet makes things easier and more immediate, there is also the terrifying possibility of losing control over personal data. Last year saw many UPI-related frauds and several banks have issued advisories. As more options for digital payments are introduced, we can expect more similar cases in the future. Good digital hygiene is indispensable. Having strong and unique passwords, regular software updates, installing reliable security solutions and an awareness about the importance of online privacy are some of the pillars of having a good internet security hygiene. Also the basic knowledge of how to safeguard yourself could stop you and your data from becoming compromised, says Dipesh Kaura, General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia).

APPS THAT ROCKED IN 2020

Google Currents

With remote working in place, we do find it a little bit of task to check on productivity. You can now build a productive community where everyone stays on the same page. Share ideas with employees and gather inputs through meaningful, focused discussions on topics that matter to your organisationall through one.

GameOn

If you are a gamer, you need this. Its like TikTok but for gaming. A social network that lets you upload screengrab videos from your games. It integrates over a thousand games on Android.

Tripoto

Unlike TripAdvisor, Tripoto is a well-knit community of passionate travellers. You can find destinations, reviews of places, hotels and even packages. The best thing is you can read peoples real-life experience and search for road trip guides. Just the way you create shopping wish list, you can add trips to your wish list.

Espresso by Sharekhan

CDSL, one of the countrys leading securities depositories, has witnessed a 20 percent rise in new accounts (demats). Majority of these new openers being in the age group of 25-35 years, the market looks shiny. Espresso is a zero-brokerage stock trading platform, where you need to pay just an annual fee. The best part is eKYC makes opening an account really easy. Whats better is the ease of trading where a right swipe can change your fortune.

Read more:
Could 2021 be the year for technology? Here are some trends to watch out for - The New Indian Express

At the turn of the millennium, when scientists sequenced the human genome, its full implications escaped popular imagination. Amid debates over its possible benefits and risks, genome science gave an unprecedented push to advances in biology, never as evident as now, two decades later, as the world battles a pandemic.

No one, after the coronavirus pandemic, can deny the capacity of science to surpass human imagination. Never before in the history ofsciencehave multiple vaccines emerged within months after the discovery of a newvirus.Production and even immunisation started even before 2020 ended. What the past year has shown us is what science can do if research advances, political will and coordinated global efforts merge.

With this backdrop in mind,we do some crystal gazing to explore what might become the reality in the next 10 yearsin select scientific areas. All may not fructify, but many could, particularly if science is backed by society.

SPACE: Are we alone in this universe?

This is a query that has enamoured scientists for decades. It received a boost half-a-century ago when Cornell University physicist Frank Drake, in a famous formula, demonstrated the theoretical possibility of having millions of such advanced civilisations just in the Milky Way galaxy alone. Soon the search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) began and till date, there is no dearth of excitement. The cigar-shaped Oumuamua that zipped through the solar system two years ago has added more fuel to the interest.

The next decade is likely to provide several crucial clues to answer this long-standing query. Astrophysicists are of the opinion that it would be an epoch-breaking decade in human understanding of the cosmos, because of the 6-meter class James Webb Space Telescope that will bethree times more powerful than the Hubble space telescope and would probe deep space as never before. The James Webb Space Telescope is expected to provide unprecedented information about atmospheres of extrasolar planets and perhaps help identify the molecular building blocks necessary for life there.

The grandiose space telescope would receive able support from three giant ground-based telescopes European Extra Large Telescope, Thirty Meter Telescope and the Giant Magellanic Telescope that will allow astronomers to penetrate the farthest part of the visible universe and probe the faintest objects in our own galaxy. The next generation radio telescope Square Kilometre Array will add heft to the quest by unveiling the most enigmatic, yet to be discovered radio signals from the universe.

Some discoveries that are likely include bio-signatures in the atmosphere of Earth-like exo-planets, implying the presence of life, discovery of the elusive ninth solar planet, exo-moons, first generation stars and better understanding of dark matter and dark energy that comprises the bulk of the universe.

But a human landing on Mars or colonisation of the moon are unlikely. More travel to the moon is possible, but is there a chance of settling there? Certainly notin the coming decade.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: 'Plenty of room at the bottom'

The late AmericanNobel laureate Richard Feynmanhadobservedin a 1959 lecture that there is plenty of room at the bottom, spawning the genesis of nanotechnologyor the science of the ultra small, but the beauty of Feynmans staggeringly small worldhas become evident only overthe last two decadeswith the realisation of the tools to see, measure and manipulate matter at the nanoscale.And to give you an idea about the scale that we are talking about, a single strand of human hair measures 50,000 nanometres across.

Research in nanotechnology has diversified enormously, fuelled by massive improvement inelectron microscopy, physical and chemical synthesis routes, emergence of the new class of materials (starting from graphene in 2004), and device technology to translate nano materials to product.Thegeneral physical properties of matter at nano-scale are relatively well-understood now, and there is a global efforttoexploit these properties to achieve unique therapeutic methodologies, as well as materials and devices that can impact life directly.

Medicine is one area where the technology holds enormous promises.Breakthroughs are likely in areas ranging from wearable fitness technology that would monitor our health daily to electronic tattoos to sense vital signs.There could even be sensors inside the body and multi-billion pharmaceutical firm GSK is alreadypursuing researchon electroceuticals. Also, scientists envision havingnano-robots inside the blood. Such nanobots will swim in the bloodstream to deliver cancer drugs to the targeted cellswithout damaging others. This, however, is unlikely to be realised in the next 10 years as scientists have to overcome the challenge ofunderstanding the toxic effects ofsuchswarms of nanobots inside the blood and how to mitigate them.

More realistic possibilities areadvancementsindeviceminiaturisation andimprovement in their performance. Its entirely possible to have computers with storage capacity 10 times more or completely foldable laptops and mobile screens as well as foldable electronic newspapers.There could be nano-sensors on aircraft, bridges or nuclear power plants to monitor health so that minor problems dont turn into a major operational issues.Paint industry is also an area that may be transformedas there would bepaintswith nanomaterials to keep your walls dry even in rain,resist scratches andmake a tankvanish before the eyes of the enemy.

WATER:The hunt to harvest

Nanotechnologywillplay a crucial role in improving peoples access to water. Although oceans fill uptwo-thirdsof the planet, scarcity of fresh water is severely threatening both agriculture and the availability of drinking water for regular household usage.Thesolutions that may be realised in the next decadewill depend largely on nanotechnology and nanomaterials.Technological breakthroughs are expected to lower the energy requirement of the desalination process so that they become commercially viable. Removal of arsenic and fluoride using new materials and technology is entirely doable. Scientists have made progress in harvesting water from natural sources like humidity and fog, which may come closer to reality in the next 10 years.

With the advancementof artificial intelligence and better solutions to big data problems, what is likely to be realised is a Google Earth kind of platform on water resources, mapping the water usageof everyhouseholdin the world and the nature of spending. Scientists believe this wouldnot onlyautomaticallylead to enormous savings in water use, but alsoconvert everycivil infrastructure intoa placeto harvest and conserve water.

COMPUTATION: The big wave is coming

There are several low-hanging fruits to be realised within the next 10 years, but it would take decades to witness the full potential of quantum computing the holy grail of computing. A foundation of the quantum computings backbone may be laid in the next 10 years.

Artificial intelligence, big data processing and IoT are beginning to change urban lives, even though their potential is far more. AI is the next big thing, which would result in self-driving vehicles, swarms of drones and rockets, robotic manufacturing, managing complex logistics and vertical farming. From stock markets to healthcare, AI will rule everywhere.

Riding on a 5G backbone, Internet of Things will make smart homes and offices a reality with remote and intelligent operations. In such homes and offices, every home appliance is connected and can be operated remotely. By 2025, it is projected that nearly 100 trillion devices will be connected through smart interfaces with an economic impact between $2.7 to $6.2 trillion annually and IoT will change the fundamental nature of business. But all of them will pale before quantum communication technologies.

A future quantum computer could, for example, crack any of the modern common security systems such as 128-bit AES encryption, the best one in the market in seconds. Even the best supercomputer would take millions of years to do the same job. However, it would not be easy to get there, even though the US National Institute of Standards and Technology has predicted that quantum computers will be able to crack the 128-bit AES encryption by 2029. Scientists hope, in the next 10 years, a backbone for a global secure quantum communication network would be in place, but problems like what materials are to be used in quantum computers, what architecture is to follow and what types of protocols are needed in quantum communication may take a far longer time to resolve. A better understanding of the quantum world would also equip the scientists with weapons to cross the final frontier the brain.

BRAIN: Cracking the cerebral codes

Every advancement in biology in the last century was aimed at the ultimate goal of treating diseases of the body.Theongoing centurywill see an equal,if not more,thrust on treating diseases of the mind aswell, withan increasing pool oftop-classbiologists, physicists and computer scientistsjoininghandstounravel the mysteries of the brain.

Dementia is one such area that would progress enormouslyin the next 10 yearsas thedisease now gets worldwide attentiondue to itshuge economicconsequence. Thegoal isnowtoidentifyearlybiomarkersthat get activatedtwo to three decades before the disease sets in.Earlydetectionwould lead toearlyintervention and better management ofmany such neurological illnesses.

As scientists try to crack the cerebralcodes,they often face a handicap due to theabsence of relevant disease models tocome out withnewdrugs and diagnostics.Advancement in stem cell technologyand creationof organoids provided good leadsso far, but the next decade will witnessrapidprogress leading to an accelerated pace of drug development.An increasingly more number of scientists wouldalso explorethe brain as an integrated system along with thebody'simmune system or microbiome.The aim, once again, would be tofind out thecurefordiseases of the mind.

Morefundamentalquestions likewhatdefinescognition orwhether there is free will, would have to wait longer for an answer.

GENETIC ENGINEERING: Look before you leap

Now, this one is aminefield. No doubt engineered microbes would bring revolutions in chemical and industrial processes, while advancements in RNA technology (as seen in Covid-19 vaccines) will overhaul vaccine development with its potential to create life-saving shots within weeks. But the big fear is whether technological progress would usher in an era of eugenics 2.0.

At the core lies CRISPR gene-editing technology a tool so powerful that humans can even think of playing God. Chinese scientist He Jiankuis feat of producing designer babies exacerbated such fears. There are two ways to use gene-alterations. It can be done through somatic editing to cure a particular disease or disorder caused by defective genes. This, in all probability, would emerge as a therapy. But, more dangerous would be germline editing, which would allow genetic changes to transmit to the next generation. Just think what would happen if traits like good looks, athleticism and intelligence become modifiable and hereditary. It's a complete no-no at the global scale and there are really tough scientific challenges to overcome, but scientists do fear the creation of a grey market for such designer babies somewhere in the world.

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The science of looking ahead - Deccan Herald