Timeline

When each technology first appeared

Every technology on Vrulum, placed at its earliest sourced milestone. Open a technology to see its tech tree: what it was built on and what it could lead to.

1 technologies have no dated milestone yet and are not shown.

Ancient world

  1. 3500 BCThe wheel and axle · Commercial · Experimental cross-disciplinary systems, Advanced manufacturing
    The Kraków museum dates the late Funnel Beaker pit at Bronocice, where the wagon-motif vessel was found, to about 3500 BC.

1700s

  1. 1712The steam engine · Commercial · Energy and storage, Advanced manufacturing
    Thomas Newcomen, with his assistant John Cawley or Calley, introduces an atmospheric engine, about 1712, according to the Science Museum Group record of a drawing made in 1897.

1750s

  1. 1750Springs and vehicle suspension · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing
    Around 1750, leaf springs were on the carriages of the wealthy in England, France and Germany, according to the Wikipedia leaf spring entry, which cites Sheldon Axle Company (1912).
  2. 1769The motor car · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing, Energy and storage
    Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot builds an experimental steam-powered road vehicle, funded by the French royal artillery.
  3. 1774Precision machine tools and interchangeable parts · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing
    John Wilkinson's boring machine bores the cylinder for Boulton and Watt's first commercial engine.
  4. 1794Rolling bearings · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Philip Vaughan patents a ball bearing design using hand-cast iron balls that had to be finished by hand.

1800s

  1. 25 May 1816Vehicle steering · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing
    A Bavarian privilege dated 25 May 1816 is cited for Georg Lankensperger's steering invention in Munich.
  2. 3 Sept 1821The electric motor · Commercial · Energy and storage, Advanced manufacturing
    Michael Faraday shows a wire carrying current circling the pole of a magnet at the Royal Institution, calling the effect 'electromagnetic rotation'.
  3. 1827Clutches, gearboxes and differentials · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing
    Onésiphore Pecqueur's patent for a steam wagon is credited with a differential on the driven rear axle. Wikipedia gives 1827; this date rests on that single encyclopaedia summary.
  4. 15 Jun 1844Vulcanised rubber and pneumatic tyres · Commercial · Advanced materials and metamaterials, Advanced manufacturing
    Charles Goodyear is granted US patent 3,633 for treating rubber with sulphur and heat, the process later called vulcanisation.

1850s

  1. 12 Feb 1856Industrial steelmaking · Commercial · Advanced materials and metamaterials, Advanced manufacturing
    Henry Bessemer is granted British patent number 356, dated 12 February 1856, for the process that blows air through molten pig iron to make steel.
  2. 1859Lead-acid batteries · Commercial · Energy and storage
    Gaston Planté produces the first practical rechargeable (secondary) battery, using lead and lead dioxide plates in sulphuric acid.
  3. 27 Aug 1859Petroleum refining · Commercial · Energy and storage, Advanced manufacturing
    Edwin Drake's well at Titusville, Pennsylvania, reaches 69½ feet and strikes oil.
  4. 1860The internal combustion engine · Commercial · Energy and storage, Advanced manufacturing
    Etienne Lenoir receives a patent for an air motor expanded by gas combustion, the spark-ignited gas engine that is an early internal combustion engine.

1900s

  1. 1901Assembly-line mass production · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing
    Wikipedia reports 425 cars built by Ransom E. Olds's factory in 1901, rising to 2,500 in 1902 after a new assembly approach.
  2. 1902Vehicle brakes · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing
    Renault's drum brake, with two hinged shoes resting on a cam, is credited by the Louwman Museum as the definitive drum brake design.

1930s

  1. 16 May 1931Aerogels · Commercial · Advanced materials and metamaterials
    S. S. Kistler publishes 'Coherent expanded aerogels and jellies' in Nature, the work credited with the discovery of aerogels.

1950s

  1. 30 Oct 1952Vehicle safety systems · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    German patent DE 854 157, filed by Béla Barényi for Daimler-Benz on 23 January 1951, is published. Its claims describe a passenger cell that is strongest in the passenger compartment and weaker towards both ends.
  2. 1955Nuclear space propulsion and power · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, Energy and storage
    Project Rover begins, the start of the US nuclear rocket reactor and engine work that later became NERVA.
  3. 17 Apr 1956Catalytic converters · Commercial · Climate and environment, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    US Patent 2,742,437, 'Catalytic structure and composition', granted to Eugene J. Houdry and assigned to Oxy-Catalyst, Inc.

1960s

  1. 1964Reusable launch vehicles · Pilot and early commercial · Space and aerospace
    R. W. Scarborough's SAE paper 'Recovery and Reuse of a Two Stage Launch Vehicle' sets out the reuse break-even analysis.
  2. 1964Satellite navigation (GNSS) · Commercial · Space and aerospace, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    The Transit satellite navigation system becomes operational, giving two-dimensional fixes that depend on the user knowing their altitude.
  3. 1967Car electronics and engine control · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    Bosch launches its electronically controlled petrol injection system (Jetronic), first on the U.S.-specification Volkswagen 1600 LE and TLE.

1970s

  1. 11 Jun 1976Lithium-ion batteries · Commercial · Energy and storage, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    M. S. Whittingham publishes 'Electrical Energy Storage and Intercalation Chemistry' in Science.
  2. 2 Aug 1979Ocean thermal energy conversion · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage, Climate and environment
    Mini-OTEC produces the first at-sea OTEC power, from a barge about 2.2 km off Keahole Point, Hawai'i.

1980s

  1. 1 Feb 1985Organ and tissue cryopreservation · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Rall and Fahy report ice-free cryopreservation of mouse embryos at -196 °C by vitrification in Nature.
  2. 1987Mechanical metamaterials · Lab demonstration · Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Rod Lakes reports a foam with a negative Poisson's ratio in Science.

1990s

  1. 1990Neuromorphic computing chips · Research and prototypes · AI and autonomous agents
    Carver Mead sets out the concept of neuromorphic electronic systems in Proceedings of the IEEE.
  2. 1991Stratospheric aerosol injection · Theory · Climate and environment
    The eruption of Mount Pinatubo injects nearly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, and global temperatures drop temporarily by about 0.5°C over 1991 to 1993.
  3. 1 Oct 1995Quantum error correction · Lab demonstration · Quantum technologies
    Peter Shor publishes a scheme for reducing decoherence in quantum computer memory in Physical Review A, encoding one qubit across nine entangled qubits.
  4. 1997Two-photon lithography and nanoscale 3D printing · Research and prototypes · Advanced manufacturing, Photonics and optical computing
    Maruo, Nakamura and Kawata publish three-dimensional microfabrication by two-photon-absorbed photopolymerisation in Optics Letters.
  5. 16 Jul 1997Vagus nerve stimulation · Commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    FDA decision on the VNS Therapy System (PMA P970003). The PMA record gives the generic device name 'stimulator, autonomic nerve, implanted for epilepsy'.
  6. 1998Quantum annealing · Pilot and early commercial · Quantum technologies, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Kadowaki and Nishimori introduce quantum annealing by adding quantum fluctuations to simulated annealing for optimisation problems.
  7. 15 Oct 1998Adaptive deep brain stimulation · Commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Limousin and colleagues publish in the New England Journal of Medicine that subthalamic nucleus stimulation improved motor and daily-living scores in advanced Parkinson's disease.
  8. 24 Oct 1998Electric space propulsion · Commercial · Space and aerospace, Energy and storage
    Deep Space 1 launches from Cape Canaveral to test 12 advanced, high-risk technologies, including its xenon ion engine.

2000

  1. Jun 2000Magnetic levitation · Research and prototypes · Advanced materials and metamaterials, Energy and storage, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Post and Ryutov present the Inductrack passive levitation concept at the 16th International Conference on Magnetically Levitated Systems and Linear Drives in Rio de Janeiro.

2001

  1. Feb 2001Quantum gravimetry · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    Peters, Chung and Chu publish high-precision gravity measurements using atom interferometry in Metrologia.
  2. 15 Feb 2001Self-healing polymers · Research and prototypes · Advanced materials and metamaterials
    University of Illinois team reports a microcapsule-based epoxy that heals cracks autonomically, recovering up to 75% of fracture toughness.
  3. Nov 2001Quantum memories · Lab demonstration · Quantum technologies, Photonics and optical computing
    Duan, Lukin, Cirac and Zoller propose long-distance quantum communication using laser-manipulated atomic ensembles, beam splitters and single-photon detectors.

2004

  1. 2004Cochlear implants · Commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    McDermott's review in Trends in Amplification reports that implant users averaged about 19% correct in one melody recognition study, against about 83% for listeners with normal hearing.
  2. Jun 2004Electronic skin · Research and prototypes · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Organic transistor active-matrix pressure sensor sheet for artificial skin reported by University of Tokyo researchers.

2005

  1. Sept 2005Optogenetics · Research and prototypes · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Boyden and colleagues publish millisecond-timescale, genetically targeted optical control of neural activity in Nature Neuroscience.

2006

  1. 2006Sleep neurostimulation · Pilot and early commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Marshall and colleagues report that 0.75 Hz transcranial stimulation during early non-REM sleep potentiates memory.
  2. Mar 2006DNA nanotechnology and DNA origami · Research and prototypes · Experimental cross-disciplinary systems, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Rothemund reports folding DNA into nanoscale 2D shapes and patterns in Nature, using a long scaffold strand and staple strands.

2007

  1. 2007Bionic limbs with nerve and bone connection · Pilot and early commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics, Robotics and artificial muscles
    Kuiken and colleagues publish a Lancet case study of targeted reinnervation in a woman with a proximal arm amputation, using nerve transfers to control a prosthetic arm.
  2. 12 Oct 2007Superconducting quantum computers · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies
    Koch and colleagues publish the transmon design in Physical Review A, predicting much lower sensitivity to charge noise than the Cooper pair box.
  3. Nov 2007Autonomous underwater vehicles · Commercial · Robotics and artificial muscles, Climate and environment, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    The Argo programme reaches its original goal of 3,000 active floats.

2008

  1. 2008Event-based (neuromorphic) cameras · Commercial · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, AI and autonomous agents
    Lichtsteiner, Posch and Delbruck report a 128 by 128 asynchronous temporal contrast sensor with 120 dB dynamic range and 15 microsecond latency in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.
  2. 2008Thermoelectric generators · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Snyder and Toberer publish the review 'Complex thermoelectric materials' in Nature Materials (volume 7, pages 105 to 114).
  3. Jul 2008Plant microbial fuel cells · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Food and agriculture
    Strik and colleagues report electricity production from living plants and bacteria in a fuel cell in the International Journal of Energy Research.

2009

  1. 3 Feb 2009Hyperspectral imaging · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Food and agriculture
    Miura and Huete compare three reflectance calibration methods for airborne hyperspectral data and find that only the continuous reference panel method is unbiased at any time of day.
  2. 29 Sept 2009Quantum key distribution · Pilot and early commercial · Quantum technologies, Photonics and optical computing
    Scarani and colleagues publish a review of the security of practical QKD in Reviews of Modern Physics.
  3. 9 Oct 2009Lunar resource extraction · Lab demonstration · Space and aerospace, Advanced manufacturing
    The LCROSS mission sends a spent Centaur rocket stage into the permanently shadowed Cabeus crater. The ejecta plume is later analysed for water.

2010

  1. 2010Biochar · Commercial · Climate and environment, Food and agriculture
    Woolf and colleagues publish 'Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change' in Nature Communications, estimating the sustainable technical potential of soil storage of biochar to mitigate climate change.
  2. 2010Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography · Commercial · Photonics and optical computing, Advanced manufacturing
    ASML's NXE platform first shipped in 2010, according to ASML.
  3. May 2010Closed-loop brain stimulation for epilepsy · Commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Fisher and colleagues publish the SANTE trial of deep brain stimulation of the anterior thalamus for refractory epilepsy in Epilepsia, a comparator for closed-loop approaches.
  4. 21 May 2010Solar sails · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    JAXA launches IKAROS, a small solar power sail demonstrator with a sail about 14 metres square.
  5. Jun 2010Organ-on-a-chip · Pilot and early commercial · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Wyss Institute team publishes a breathing lung-on-a-chip in Science that reproduces inflammatory and nanoparticle responses.

2011

  1. 2011Photonic integrated circuits · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing, Advanced manufacturing
    First application-specific photonic integrated circuits from the EUROPIC generic indium phosphide multi-project wafer runs become available.
  2. 2011Retinal prostheses and vision restoration · Pilot and early commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    The Argus II is approved in Europe, as reported by the AAO EyeNet.
  3. 30 Jan 20112D semiconductor electronics · Lab demonstration · Advanced manufacturing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Single-layer MoS2 transistors with room-temperature on/off current ratios of about 10^8 are reported in Nature Nanotechnology (lab devices).
  4. 21 Oct 2011Metasurface optics and flat lenses · Research and prototypes · Photonics and optical computing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Yu and colleagues publish generalised laws of reflection and refraction for surfaces with engineered phase changes in Science.
  5. 4 Nov 2011Artificial photosynthesis · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage, Climate and environment, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Reece and colleagues report a wireless silicon-based device reaching 2.5% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency under one-sun AM1.5 simulated sunlight, and 4.7% in a wired configuration.

2012

  1. Aug 2012DNA data storage · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Church and colleagues encode a 5.27 megabit book in DNA and read it back by next-generation sequencing.
  2. Sept 2012Bioresorbable (transient) electronics · Research and prototypes · Medical technology and bioelectronics, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Science paper demonstrates physically transient silicon CMOS electronics, including a dissolving wireless heater tested in rodents.
  3. 1 Sept 2012Battery-free wireless implant sensors · Research and prototypes · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Hwang and colleagues report a physically transient form of silicon electronics that completely disappears via resorption by the body.
  4. Dec 2012Smart contact lenses · Pilot and early commercial · Medical technology and bioelectronics, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    A prospective trial reports 24-hour Triggerfish recordings in 40 glaucoma patients and suspects, with mostly mild adverse events and no serious ones.
  5. 1 Dec 2012Engineered living materials · Research and prototypes · Advanced materials and metamaterials, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Second edition of ISO 14855-1 published, setting out a laboratory method for the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastics under controlled composting conditions.

2013

  1. 3 May 2013Analogue quantum simulation · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Islam and colleagues report a trapped-ion simulator with up to 16 Yb+ ions, in which tuning the interaction range controls frustration of magnetic order.
  2. Jun 2013Breath diagnostics · Research and prototypes · Medical technology and bioelectronics, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    Modak's review in the Journal of Breath Research reports that only three breath tests had been approved by the FDA in the previous 15 years.
  3. 28 Aug 2013Brain organoids · Lab demonstration · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Lancaster and colleagues report cerebral organoids that form distinct brain regions and a patient-derived microcephaly model in Nature.

2014

  1. 2014Environmental DNA monitoring · Pilot and early commercial · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Climate and environment, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Great crested newt eDNA field and laboratory methods, set out in technical advice note WC1067 Appendix 5, come into use from the 2014 survey season.
  2. 2014Flow batteries · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage
    Huskinson and colleagues report a metal-free aqueous flow battery using an anthraquinone molecule and a bromine couple in Nature.
  3. 2014In-space manufacturing · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, Advanced manufacturing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Polymer printing is demonstrated in space, as noted in a 2023 review of in-space additive manufacturing.
  4. Feb 2014Artificial muscles (soft actuators) · Research and prototypes · Robotics and artificial muscles, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    UT Dallas-led team reports artificial muscles made from twisted and coiled fishing line and sewing thread in Science.
  5. Feb 2014Peripheral nerve interfaces · Research and prototypes · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Raspopovic and colleagues report intrafascicular electrodes giving one amputee sensory feedback during real-time grasp control of a hand prosthesis.
  6. 31 Mar 2014Nitrogen-fixing cereals · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Climate and environment
    Rogers and Oldroyd publish a review in the Journal of Experimental Botany that proposes an initial target of 25 to 50 kg fixed N/ha for engineered cereals, and state that current approaches are unlikely to reach fertiliser-equivalent levels in the short term.
  7. Apr 2014Li-Fi (light-based wireless networking) · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing
    Tsonev and colleagues report wireless transmission above 3 Gb/s from a single 50 µm gallium nitride LED in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.
  8. Apr 2014Soft robotic grippers · Research and prototypes · Robotics and artificial muscles
    Mosadegh and colleagues publish pneu-net soft actuators that bend rapidly and survive over a million lab cycles in Advanced Functional Materials.
  9. 30 Apr 2014Superconducting power cables · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Karlsruhe Institute of Technology announces the commissioning of the AmpaCity project in Essen, Germany: a one-kilometre, three-phase superconducting cable at 10 kV connecting two transformer stations.
  10. May 2014Self-monitoring infrastructure · Pilot and early commercial · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Advanced manufacturing
    FHWA reports on instrumentation of the I-35W St Anthony Falls Bridge substructure, including temperature, strain and camera systems and truck-load testing.
  11. 21 May 2014Acoustic levitation · Lab demonstration · Experimental cross-disciplinary systems, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Ochiai, Hoshi and Rekimoto publish three-dimensional mid-air acoustic manipulation with ultrasonic phased arrays in PLOS ONE.
  12. Jul 2014Quantum sensors · Pilot and early commercial · Quantum technologies, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    Ludlow and colleagues post a review of optical atomic clocks to arXiv.
  13. 14 Aug 2014Swarm robotics · Research and prototypes · Robotics and artificial muscles, AI and autonomous agents
    Harvard researchers report a swarm of 1,024 Kilobots that form two-dimensional shapes, including a five-pointed star and the letter K.
  14. 26 Nov 2014Passive daytime radiative cooling · Research and prototypes · Advanced materials and metamaterials, Climate and environment
    Researchers publish the first demonstration of radiative cooling below ambient air temperature under direct sunlight.
  15. 18 Dec 20144D printing · Research and prototypes · Advanced manufacturing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Raviv and colleagues publish active printed materials for complex self-evolving deformations in Scientific Reports, describing structures that change shape after printing in response to their environment.

2015

  1. Mar 2015Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage
    Researchers led from MIT report the first two-terminal perovskite/silicon tandem, reaching a stable 13.7% on 1 cm².
  2. Jun 2015Optical atomic clocks · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    Ludlow and colleagues publish the review 'Optical atomic clocks' in Reviews of Modern Physics, covering clocks based on single trapped ions and on many neutral atoms.
  3. 16 Jun 2015Vertical farming and controlled-environment agriculture · Commercial · Food and agriculture
    Barbosa and colleagues publish a comparison of land, water and energy needs for hydroponic and conventional lettuce, finding far higher energy use for hydroponics.
  4. Nov 2015Jet suits and jetpacks · Pilot and early commercial · Robotics and artificial muscles, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    IEEE Spectrum reports that the JB-9 jetpack from Jetpack Aviation can fly for at least 10 minutes on a 38-litre fuel tank, and that the JB-10 is in test flights.

2016

  1. 2016Recirculating aquaculture systems · Commercial · Food and agriculture
    Liu and colleagues publish a techno-economic and carbon footprint comparison of a 3,300 tonne land-based RAS salmon model and Norwegian open net pens in Aquacultural Engineering.
  2. Feb 2016Solid-state lidar · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    An ISSCC 2016 paper reports a chip-scale electro-optical 3D FMCW lidar with 8 micrometre ranging precision.
  3. 15 Feb 2016Laser-written glass data storage · Research and prototypes · Experimental cross-disciplinary systems, Photonics and optical computing
    University of Southampton reports five-dimensional femtosecond-laser storage in fused quartz, claiming 360 TB per disc.
  4. 4 Mar 2016Transparent wood · Research and prototypes · Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Li, Fu, Yu, Yan and Berglund publish optically transparent wood from a delignified nanoporous template filled with PMMA, reporting transmittance as high as 85% and haze of 71%.
  5. 20 Apr 2016Base and prime gene editing · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Komor and colleagues report programmable editing of a single target base in genomic DNA without double-stranded DNA cleavage.
  6. 18 Aug 2016Solid-state batteries · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    The University of Maryland announces a US Department of Energy award for work on solid electrolytes for lithium-metal anodes.
  7. 25 Aug 2016Direct air capture of CO2 · Pilot and early commercial · Climate and environment, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Sanz-Pérez and colleagues publish a review of direct capture of CO2 from ambient air in Chemical Reviews.
  8. Nov 2016Crops with boosted photosynthesis · Research and prototypes · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Kromdijk and colleagues report faster recovery from photoprotection in tobacco, with about 15% higher dry matter productivity in fluctuating light.

2017

  1. 2017Accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation · Commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Wang and colleagues report a 12-month randomised trial of clustered rTMS for preventing depressive relapse in people who had reached remission.
  2. 2017Drought-tolerant crops · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Climate and environment
    Lunduka and colleagues publish a household survey in Zimbabwe reporting higher average maize yields for growers of drought-tolerant varieties (680.5 kg per hectare compared with 436.5 kg per hectare).
  3. 2017Insect protein farming · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture
    Insect-derived processed animal protein is permitted in aquaculture feed in the EU.
  4. Mar 2017Autonomous surgical robots · Lab demonstration · Robotics and artificial muscles, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Yang and colleagues review regulatory, ethical and legal considerations for increasing levels of autonomy in medical robots in Science Robotics.
  5. Mar 2017Perennial grains · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Climate and environment
    Sprunger and colleagues report no early soil carbon gain under intermediate wheatgrass compared with annual winter wheat, four years after planting.
  6. 12 Apr 2017Seaweed farming at scale · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Climate and environment
    Duarte and colleagues publish a Perspective in Frontiers in Marine Science on whether seaweed farming can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
  7. 13 Apr 2017Atmospheric water harvesting (MOF/sorbent based) · Research and prototypes · Climate and environment, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    MIT and UC Berkeley team reports a MOF-801 water harvester powered by natural sunlight at humidity as low as 20%.
  8. 28 Apr 2017Robotic fruit and vegetable harvesting · Pilot and early commercial · Robotics and artificial muscles, Food and agriculture
    Silwal and colleagues publish a field evaluation of a robotic apple harvester that picked 127 of 150 attempted apples in a commercial Washington orchard.
  9. 31 May 2017Vehicle-to-grid · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage
    Charged EVs reports a University of Hawaii lab study in which daily V2G cycling of commercial cells sped capacity loss by 33%, and twice-daily cycling by 75%.
  10. Jun 2017Sodium-ion batteries · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage
    A major Chemical Society Reviews article surveys sodium-ion electrode materials and makes the case for sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to lithium-ion for energy storage.
  11. 12 Jun 2017Photonic computing for AI · Research and prototypes · Photonics and optical computing, AI and autonomous agents
    Shen and colleagues report deep learning implemented on a coherent nanophotonic circuit in Nature Photonics.
  12. 1 Jul 2017Soft exosuits · Pilot and early commercial · Robotics and artificial muscles, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Awad and colleagues publish in Science Translational Medicine a study reporting that a soft exosuit improved walking in patients after stroke in lab tests.
  13. 20 Jul 2017Asteroid mining · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, Advanced manufacturing
    Luxembourg's law on the exploration and use of space resources is dated 20 July 2017. It states that space resources can be owned and that a written mission authorisation is required.
  14. Aug 2017Gene-edited crops · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Li and colleagues report multiplexed CRISPR/Cas9 editing in tomato raising GABA 19-fold in leaves of quadruple mutants.
  15. 1 Nov 2017High-density neural probes · Research and prototypes · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Jun and colleagues report Neuropixels in Nature: 384 recording channels addressing 960 sites, hundreds of neurons per probe in mice and rats, and more than 700 single neurons from two probes in an awake mouse.

2018

  1. 2018Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft · Pilot and early commercial · Space and aerospace, Energy and storage
    Fredericks and colleagues publish battery performance metrics needed to electrify VTOL aircraft in ACS Energy Letters.
  2. Jan 2018Quantum random number generators · Commercial · Quantum technologies, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    NIST publishes SP 800-90B, which sets out requirements and validation tests for entropy sources used in random bit generation.
  3. 19 Feb 2018Enhanced rock weathering · Pilot and early commercial · Climate and environment, Food and agriculture
    Beerling and colleagues publish 'Farming with crops and rocks to address global climate, food and soil security' in Nature Plants (vol. 4, pp. 138-147).
  4. 28 Mar 2018Topological qubits · Lab demonstration · Quantum technologies, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Nature publishes 'Quantized Majorana conductance' by a TU Delft-affiliated team, which claimed evidence for Majorana zero modes.
  5. 3 Aug 2018Distributed fibre-optic sensing · Pilot and early commercial · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Photonics and optical computing
    Marra and colleagues report earthquake detection with terrestrial and submarine cables using ultrastable laser interferometry in Science.
  6. 24 Sept 2018Gene drive mosquitoes · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Climate and environment
    Imperial College London announces that a CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive collapsed caged Anopheles gambiae populations within 7 to 11 generations, with Professor Andrea Crisanti saying wild testing is at least 5 to 10 years away.
  7. Oct 2018Thin-film lithium niobate photonics · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Wang and colleagues publish monolithic lithium niobate modulators with a CMOS-compatible drive voltage, data rates up to 210 Gb/s and on-chip loss below 0.5 dB in Nature.
  8. 4 Oct 2018Metal additive manufacturing · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    GE Aviation's Auburn, Alabama plant produces its 30,000th additively manufactured LEAP fuel nozzle tip, a company-reported milestone.
  9. 31 Oct 2018Spinal cord stimulation for paralysis · Pilot and early commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Wagner and colleagues report in Nature that stimulation timed to intended movement restores walking in people with chronic spinal cord injury.
  10. Nov 2018Cryonics · Not assessed · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics, Neurotechnology and human augmentation
    The Society for Cryobiology publishes its position distinguishing human cryonics from demonstrated revival capability.
  11. 4 Dec 2018Mycelium composites · Research and prototypes · Advanced materials and metamaterials, Advanced manufacturing, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Jones and colleagues publish fire-property measurements of pure mycelium and mycelium-biomass composites in Scientific Reports.

2019

  1. 13 Jan 2019Optical interconnects and co-packaged optics · Research and prototypes · Photonics and optical computing, AI and autonomous agents
    A review of silicon photonic switches reports a 32 by 32 switch fabric at about 0.8 pJ/bit for a 100 Gb/s light path, under the conditions stated by its authors.
  2. 16 Jan 2019Legged robots · Commercial · Robotics and artificial muscles
    Hwangbo and colleagues publish a method for training a neural network locomotion policy and running it on the ANYmal quadruped in Science Robotics.
  3. 16 Jan 2019Warehouse picking robots · Pilot and early commercial · Robotics and artificial muscles, AI and autonomous agents
    Mahler and colleagues publish the Dex-Net 4.0 ambidextrous grasping policy in Science Robotics, combining suction and parallel-jaw grippers.
  4. 1 Feb 2019Autonomous road vehicles · Pilot and early commercial · AI and autonomous agents, Robotics and artificial muscles
    SAE International publishes an article on its updated J3016 automated-driving graphic, describing the scale from Level 0 (no automation) to Level 5 (full vehicle autonomy).
  5. Jun 2019Trapped-ion quantum computers · Pilot and early commercial · Quantum technologies
    Bruzewicz and colleagues publish a review of trapped-ion quantum computing that sets out the platform's progress and the challenges of scaling it while managing decoherence and control errors.
  6. 28 Jul 2019Gene-edited livestock · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    bioRxiv preprint by Norris and colleagues reports unintended plasmid integration at the target site in polled cattle.
  7. 10 Dec 2019Brain-computer interfaces · Pilot and early commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    eLife publishes Stavisky and colleagues' study showing that motor cortex 'hand knob' neurons are active during speech and that words and syllables can be decoded from single trials.

2020

  1. 2020Hydrogen aircraft · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage, Climate and environment
    Airbus launches its ZEROe project to compare hydrogen propulsion options.
  2. 2020Satellite broadband constellations · Commercial · Space and aerospace, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Hainaut and Williams publish an ESO-focused estimate of satellite constellation effects on visible and infrared observations in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  3. 2020Smart textiles · Research and prototypes · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Gaubert and colleagues test silver-plated textile electrodes through up to 30 domestic wash cycles and recommend liquid over powder detergent.
  4. Feb 2020Small modular nuclear reactors · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage
    Mignacca and Locatelli publish a systematic review of SMR economics and finance in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
  5. Mar 20203D-printed buildings · Pilot and early commercial · Advanced manufacturing, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    The NFPA Journal (March-April 2020) reports that UL has published UL 3401, an outline of investigation for 3D printed building construction. The article gives no edition number or exact publication date.
  6. 25 Mar 2020Precision fermentation · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    The FDA sends a response letter on GRN 000863, Perfect Day's beta-lactoglobulin from Trichoderma reesei for use as a source of protein in food at levels up to 35%, stating that it has no questions at this time about the notifier's GRAS conclusion.
  7. Apr 2020Atmospheric water generators · Pilot and early commercial · Climate and environment, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Patel and colleagues publish an experimental study of an atmospheric water extraction device under different climatic conditions.
  8. Apr 2020Thin-film flexible robots · Research and prototypes · Robotics and artificial muscles, Advanced manufacturing
    A comprehensive review of electroadhesion technologies for robotics is published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (volume 36, issue 2). Electroadhesion is the adhesion principle the robot's feet rely on.
  9. 15 Apr 2020Silicon spin qubits · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies
    Two-qubit silicon unit cell operated at about 1.5 kelvin with 98.6 per cent single-qubit gate fidelity, published in Nature.
  10. 20 May 2020Consumer brain-sensing wearables · Pilot and early commercial · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    Arnal and colleagues publish a study in the journal Sleep comparing the Dreem headband with polysomnography in 25 adults.
  11. 10 Jun 2020Electric aircraft · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    EASA announces the type certification of the Pipistrel Velis Electro, a two-seat electric trainer that EASA describes as the first type certification of a fully electric aircraft worldwide.
  12. 31 Jul 2020Chiplets and advanced chip packaging · Commercial · Advanced manufacturing, Photonics and optical computing
    A thermal study of a 3D-stacked commercial microprocessor reports up to 12 °C higher peak die temperature for naive stacking, roughly halved by logic-over-memory partitioning.
  13. 1 Sept 2020Sprayable RNA biopesticides · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    Kadoić Balaško and colleagues publish a review of Colorado potato beetle control and resistance management, arguing that spray-induced gene silencing is a more realistic option than transgenic plants.
  14. 26 Nov 2020Space debris removal · Pilot and early commercial · Space and aerospace
    ESA announces an €86 million contract with ClearSpace SA leading a team for ClearSpace-1, which it describes as the first active debris removal mission.

2021

  1. 2021Commercial space stations · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace
    NASA signs 2021 Space Act Agreements with Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and Starlab, according to NASA's programme page.
  2. 2021Focused ultrasound for the brain · Research and prototypes · Neurotechnology and human augmentation, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Practical Neurology reports that Exablate Neuro was previously approved for drug-refractory Parkinson disease.
  3. 16 Apr 2021Quantum repeaters and quantum networks · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies, Photonics and optical computing
    Delft/QuTech reports a three-node network of remote solid-state qubits that distributes genuine multipartite entanglement and performs entanglement swapping without postselection, published in Science.
  4. 9 Jun 2021AI-assisted chip design · Pilot and early commercial · AI and autonomous agents, Advanced manufacturing
    Mirhoseini and colleagues publish 'A graph placement methodology for fast chip design' in Nature, volume 594, pages 207-212.
  5. Jul 2021Protein made from air and electricity · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Climate and environment
    Jarvio and colleagues publish an attributional life-cycle assessment of hydrogen-oxidising bacteria protein, using empirical data from a small-scale producer.
  6. 15 Jul 2021AI protein structure prediction · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, AI and autonomous agents
    Jumper and colleagues publish AlphaFold2 in Nature, reporting accuracy competitive with experimental structures in a majority of cases.
  7. 16 Jul 2021Wearable ultrasound patches · Research and prototypes · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Xu group reports a stretchable phased-array ultrasound patch that monitors deep-tissue haemodynamics to 14 cm in healthy volunteers in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
  8. Sept 2021Electrochemical CO2 conversion · Research and prototypes · Climate and environment, Energy and storage
    Li and colleagues report a Sn-Bi/SnO2 catalyst that keeps formate production stable for 2,400 hours at 100 mA per cm² in Nature Communications.
  9. Sept 2021Gene-edited pig organ xenotransplantation · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Surgeons at NYU Langone Health transplant a gene-edited pig kidney into a brain-dead person; the case is later reported as lasting 54 hours.
  10. 10 Sept 2021Lab-grown red blood cells · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    Lim and colleagues publish a review of iPSC-derived red cells that cites 2 × 10^12 enucleated red cells in a single unit of blood and cost estimates of US$15,000 or more per manufactured unit.
  11. 19 Nov 2021Precision livestock farming · Commercial · Food and agriculture, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    EFSA Journal publishes its scientific opinion finding Bovaer 10 safe for dairy cows at the maximum recommended level.
  12. Dec 2021Making oxygen and fuel on Mars · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, Energy and storage
    MOXIE completes seven experimental runs under varied atmospheric conditions, each meeting a target of six grams of oxygen per hour.
  13. 7 Dec 2021Laser communication links · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing, Space and aerospace
    NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) launches to geosynchronous orbit, forming NASA's first two-way, end-to-end optical relay.

2022

  1. 2022Fusion energy · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage
    The National Ignition Facility reports ignition in a 2022 experiment, published in Physical Review Letters.
  2. 2022Hollow-core optical fibre · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing
    Microsoft acquires Lumenisity, which further developed hollow-core fibre first developed at the University of Southampton.
  3. 2022Planetary defence · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace
    NASA's DART spacecraft strikes Dimorphos, the small moon of the Didymos binary asteroid system.
  4. 2022Thermal energy storage · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage, Climate and environment
    Polar Night Energy launches the Kankaanpää sand battery in Finland, the smaller unit that the 2025 Pornainen system is about ten times larger than.
  5. 8 Feb 2022Space weather forecasting · Commercial · Space and aerospace, Sensors, imaging and electronic skin
    SpaceX says up to 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites launched on 3 February 2022 will reenter or have reentered, attributing the loss to a geomagnetic storm that raised drag.
  6. 23 Feb 2022Enhanced geothermal systems · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage, Climate and environment
    Kelly and McDermott publish finite element modelling of the Eavor-Loop closed-loop geothermal design in AIMS Geosciences.
  7. 4 May 2022Post-quantum cryptography · Commercial · Quantum technologies, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    US National Security Memorandum 10 (NSM-10) sets the goal of mitigating as much of the quantum risk as is feasible by 2035.
  8. 21 Jul 2022Orbital data centres · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, AI and autonomous agents
    AWS publishes an account of a Snowcone edge device running an image-analysis model aboard the International Space Station.
  9. Nov 2022Direct-to-phone satellite messaging · Pilot and early commercial · Space and aerospace, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite becomes available on iPhone 14 models in the US and Canada, using Globalstar satellites.
  10. 14 Nov 2022MicroLED displays · Pilot and early commercial · Photonics and optical computing
    Chen and colleagues publish a topical review of mass transfer for large-scale, high-density microLED arrays, reporting contact transfer yields above 99.99% and a low transfer rate as the bottleneck.
  11. 16 Nov 2022Cultivated meat · Research and prototypes · Food and agriculture, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    FDA completes its first voluntary pre-market consultation for a human food made from cultured animal cells, a cultivated chicken product from UPSIDE Foods.
  12. 30 Nov 2022Seawater electrolysis · Lab demonstration · Energy and storage, Climate and environment
    Xie and colleagues publish a membrane-based seawater electrolyser for hydrogen generation in Nature.

2023

  1. 2023Wireless charging roads · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Swedish Smartroad Gotland demonstration, with 1.6 km of electrified road on a 4.1 km route, tested with an electric truck, runs through 2023.
  2. 3 Jan 2023Space-based solar power · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, Energy and storage
    Caltech's Space Solar Power Demonstrator 1 (SSPD-1) launches as a hosted experiment carrying the DOLCE, ALBA and MAPLE payloads.
  3. 20 Jan 2023Agricultural spray drones · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Robotics and artificial muscles
    DroneDJ reports a UK CAA operational authorisation for XAG P40 and V40 spraying drones, based on the company's account.
  4. Feb 2023Computer-use AI agents · Pilot and early commercial · AI and autonomous agents
    Greshake and colleagues publish their study of indirect prompt injection against LLM-integrated applications.
  5. 24 Feb 2023Asteroid sample return missions · Pilot and early commercial · Space and aerospace
    Science publishes peer-reviewed analyses of Ryugu samples, including a report that they resemble CI (Ivuna-type) carbonaceous chondrites.
  6. 6 Mar 2023Humanoid robots · Research and prototypes · Robotics and artificial muscles, AI and autonomous agents
    The arXiv preprint of Radosavovic and colleagues' learned humanoid walking controller is first submitted.
  7. 14 Mar 2023Autonomous laboratories · Research and prototypes · AI and autonomous agents, Advanced manufacturing, Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    AlphaFlow reported reinforcement-learning guided multi-step chemistry in a self-driven fluidic lab, applied to core-shell semiconductor nanoparticles.
  8. 25 May 2023Engineered living therapeutics · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    A phase 1 trial of ILP100-Topical is published in eClinicalMedicine, reporting 240 induced wounds in 36 healthy volunteers. The authors report a safe and well-tolerated profile with no systemic exposure.
  9. Jul 2023Electrolysers for low-carbon hydrogen · Pilot and early commercial · Energy and storage, Climate and environment
    Kumar and Lim publish a review of recent advances in PEM water electrolysis in Sustainable Energy and Fuels.
  10. 5 Jul 2023AI weather forecasting · Pilot and early commercial · Experimental cross-disciplinary systems, Climate and environment, AI and autonomous agents
    Pangu-Weather is published in Nature, reporting stronger deterministic results than ECMWF's operational IFS on reanalysis data for all tested variables.
  11. 24 Jul 2023Iron-air batteries · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage
    Power Engineering reports that Form Energy had signed deals with utilities and broken ground on a commercial-scale plant in West Virginia, but that its CEO said the company 'has yet to put steel in the ground'. The article also reports that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel Energy's planned 10 MW, 1,000 MWh demonstration, and that the company's cost claims are its own.
  12. Sept 2023Carbon-storing building materials · Pilot and early commercial · Advanced materials and metamaterials, Climate and environment, Advanced manufacturing
    Laboratory study on spent coffee grounds as a concrete ingredient, reporting enhanced concrete strength, is published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
  13. Sept 2023Satellite methane detection · Pilot and early commercial · Sensors, imaging and electronic skin, Climate and environment, Space and aerospace
    Schuit and colleagues publish a machine learning pipeline for TROPOMI methane plumes, reporting 2,974 confirmed plumes in 2021.
  14. 18 Sept 2023Delivery drones · Pilot and early commercial · Robotics and artificial muscles, AI and autonomous agents
    The FAA announces an exemption for Zipline to carry out commercial package delivery beyond visual line of sight, covering Salt Lake City and Bentonville, Arkansas.
  15. Oct 2023AI coding agents · Commercial · AI and autonomous agents
    The SWE-bench preprint introduces 2,294 problems from real GitHub issues; the best model reported, Claude 2, resolves 1.96% of them.
  16. Oct 2023In-space servicing and assembly · Research and prototypes · Space and aerospace, Robotics and artificial muscles, Advanced manufacturing
    A paper on autonomous assembly of scaled TriTruss modules is published through NASA's Technical Reports Server, describing a test on a ground test stand.
  17. Oct 2023Neutral-atom quantum computers · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies
    Ma and colleagues report ytterbium-171 nuclear-spin qubits with 0.980(1) two-qubit gate fidelity and mid-circuit erasure conversion in Nature.
  18. 5 Oct 2023Multi-cancer early detection blood tests · Pilot and early commercial · Medical technology and bioelectronics, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    GRAIL reports final PATHFINDER results in The Lancet: 6,662 adults screened, refined test PPV 43.1%, and 48% of confirmed cancers at stage I or II.
  19. Nov 2023Ocean alkalinity enhancement · Pilot and early commercial · Climate and environment
    Ebb Carbon deploys an electrochemical ocean CO2 removal system at the PNNL Sequim facility in Washington State; the design target of 100 tons of CO2 a year is described as a design goal, not an achieved result.
  20. 2 Dec 2023Elastocaloric cooling · Research and prototypes · Energy and storage, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    A coil-bending NiTi prototype demonstrates continuous cold air, reporting a 10.6 K outlet-air temperature drop and a system COP of 3.7 based on rotational mechanical power.
  21. 14 Dec 2023AI mathematical reasoning and theorem proving · Research and prototypes · AI and autonomous agents
    Romera-Paredes, Fawzi and colleagues publish FunSearch in Nature, reporting new large cap set constructions found by program search with language models.

2024

  1. 2024Laser and robotic weeding · Pilot and early commercial · Food and agriculture, Robotics and artificial muscles
    Cornell AgriTech and Rutgers run field trials of a Carbon Robotics laser weeder on peas, spinach and beet in New York and New Jersey.
  2. 8 Jan 2024Commercial lunar landers · Pilot and early commercial · Space and aerospace
    Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One launches on the first flight of ULA's Vulcan rocket. A propulsion anomaly follows, and no landing takes place; the lander burned up on re-entry over the South Pacific on 18 January 2024.
  3. 24 Jan 2024Gene therapy for inherited deafness · Pilot and early commercial · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    The Lancet publishes Lv and colleagues' single-arm trial of AAV1-hOTOF in children with autosomal recessive deafness 9, with five of six children recovering hearing.
  4. 18 Mar 2024Digital twins of the Earth · Pilot and early commercial · Climate and environment, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    NVIDIA announces Earth-2 as a climate digital twin cloud platform, with cloud APIs on DGX Cloud, at its GTC conference.
  5. 27 Jun 2024Low-boom supersonic aircraft · Research and prototypes · Experimental cross-disciplinary systems, Energy and storage
    Boom announces Symphony combustor rig testing, using a one-eighth section of the combustor module at Florida Turbine Technologies' facility in Jupiter, Florida.
  6. 29 Aug 2024AI tutors · Pilot and early commercial · AI and autonomous agents, Experimental cross-disciplinary systems
    Lehmann, Cornelius and Sting post 'AI Meets the Classroom' to arXiv, reporting lab experiments in which overall learning was unchanged but the way students used LLMs mattered.
  7. 10 Sept 2024Structural batteries · Lab demonstration · Energy and storage, Advanced materials and metamaterials
    Advanced Materials publishes the all-carbon-fibre LFP structural battery paper reporting 30 Wh/kg and a modulus above 76 GPa along the fibre direction.
  8. 9 Oct 2024Photonic quantum computers · Research and prototypes · Quantum technologies, Photonics and optical computing
    Dessertaine and colleagues submit a preprint comparing the honeycomb Floquet code and the surface code on a photonic architecture, reporting a 6.3 per cent photon loss threshold for the honeycomb code.

2025

  1. 12 Jun 2025In vivo gene editing · Research and prototypes · Biotechnology and synthetic biology, Medical technology and bioelectronics
    NEJM publishes a brief report, 'Patient-Specific In Vivo Gene Editing to Treat a Rare Genetic Disease' (volume 392, issue 22).
  2. 7 Nov 2025Space biomanufacturing · Lab demonstration · Space and aerospace, Biotechnology and synthetic biology
    The COSPAR Bureau approves its current Policy on Planetary Protection, a voluntary and non-legally binding standard.